The Ideal of Service and Its RelevanceSwami SatyapriyanandaService normally means that we accept service under some boss for a consideration, meaning a salary or some other benefit which we seek. But in this article we mean by the term service something entirely different. It is to serve others as far as it lies in our power without seeking any benefit. The question will normally appear in the mind of the common runs of men and women, as to why we should serve someone without getting a reward? Suppose we insist on some reward for whatever we do to another, what is the harm in that? Is it not logical that when we serve someone, the person served should pay some remuneration for that? Are we to be so dumb as to do something and let others become selfish? Suppose we do not accept the ideal of service, what would it result in?

Gross minds see only gross things. So, such people expect some reward for what they do. They also set some standards for the extent of benefit that should accrue to them for the quantum and nature of work they do. The work may involve risks; it may be a menial work; it may be professional or highly technical; it may be physically or mentally tiring; it may involve intent brain power or excessive muscle power. So the nature of work becomes important. Further the question also crops up whether there are many to compete to do that work, in which case it is possible someone may settle for less remuneration and we are forced to accept the prevailing market rate. The quantum of work is easier to understand. Simply stated it may mean the duration of work. It is possible that one has to be in a place for a certain duration whether there be work to do or not. If there is not much work to do, the boss may expect that some other works also be done so that man-power is utilized. In such cases, the alternate work may not be satisfying to the worker. The calculating mind always looks for greener pastures. So, such a mind is restless and ever seeking for better and secure opportunities. There is never satisfaction and this results in jealousy of others who are better off, aspiration to get more and more with the result that there is frustration and fatigue. That is the scenario we find in todays world.On the other hand if we do some work and do not expect any reward for what we do, people will consider us to be mad. There are not many who will do something simply for the joy of doing. Why should I do something good to others? They would answer, because I am good and it is good to be good to others. Some would approach the subject very logically by saying that from when we are born as babies, grow up as children, pass through the pink of youth, become old, and finally pass away, we have to depend on others. A baby depends totally on its mother; as a child, it gets emotional support from the mother and physical support from the father and other elders. As a youth one craves for friends, company, physical pleasures. Almost always we wish that we are wanted by others. If we are not wanted by anyone, life would be empty and purposeless. When we are sick we need someone to care for us. And when we are hospitalized we fervently hope there will be someone near the bed with the get well soon message. One always feels that one was remembered so much that others thought it fit and a matter of joy to bring some gift when they come to meet. So, it is but natural that we should care for others as we expect them to care for us.But for this close-knit state of affairs, human beings would live like brutes. That is not desirable. The human being is sociable and so lives in a society going around meeting new people and making new friends. This mixing with others has the salient effect of rounding off the rough edges in us. Perhaps there are some sharp corners in our make up and living with others will just polish off those rough edges. And we become better individuals.

Consider the western society where the young one is taken care of until he or she becomes a youth. Then as the bird pecks away its little ones and makes them look for food on their own, the parents ask their issues to fend for themselves. And when the parents get old, the grown up children ask them to go to the old-age home. We, in India, cannot dream of such a relationship in a family setup.

Philosophically, there is great meaning in living unselfishly for others. It is well known to the Indian mind that the entire world process is one of Maya. It is just an unreal superimposition on the Real Substratum. The purpose of human birth is to find out this Substratum and identify ourselves with it. There is the great factor of death. Kings die, beggars die, saints die, sinners die. Death is the end of everything in this world. Even a child can see that the bud blooms into a flower only to wither away with the passage of time. Men erect huge monuments and an earthquake or a Tsunami or a volcano is sufficient to bring it down as a mass of ruins. The question greatly troubled everyone who was perceptive to this fact of death and the sincere question dawned, is death the end of everything? Does anything survive death? It is this quest which occupied the human mind in India for several thousand years. And a voice came out bold with the statement, Hear ye! Children of Immortal Bliss! Even those who live in higher spheres! I have known that Ancient One, Luminous and Resplendent like the Sun, beyond all darkness. Knowing That alone one can go beyond death, There is no other way. There is no other way indeed.Sri Ramakrishna stated that the goal of human life is God-realization. The Vedic scriptures that one born a human being if he or she leaves the body without knowing the Real Man behind the Apparent Man, is indeed an object of pity. Our scriptures emphatically state that the gift of a human birth, the desire for liberation from the meshes of Maya, and the association with the Great Ones who have gone beyond the ocean of repeated births and deaths are true signs of the Grace of God.

What is that which prevents one from knowing ones real nature? The Katha Upanishad says, that God created human beings with the mind and the senses going outward and as a result we are not able to see within ourselves. Having projected the world out of Himself, God mischievously entered into His projected world. Seated in the heart of all beings He become difficult to perceive because of this outgoing nature of the mind and the senses. Only a rare one desiring to know ones own real nature dives into the inner recesses of ones being and discovers God seated in His majesty. Then he recognizes his real nature and the world around him gets a new meaning. Stated in the negative language, the world vanishes even as one recognizes that the rope alone is real and not the superimposed snake which we see in ignorance. Stated positively, one sees that the snake is non-different from the rope even as the snake illusion rests on the foundation of the rope. The rope is the substratum even for the illusion that is called the snake. We cannot have the snake in one place and the illusory snake elsewhere. The name-form-purpose of every object rests on the true essence of the object. Just as the name pot, the form of pot and the purpose that it can provide cool water to refresh our parched lips, has the clay as its very basis, the basis of this world phenomena which is an imagination of the mind has Consciousness as its foundational basis. When I dream that I am a cow and am eating grass and providing milk, others do not see me to be cow engaged in such activity: it is my personal delusion. But, we all refer to the same substance as milk: this is a cosmic delusion. When I wake up I no longer try to substantiate that I had become a cow and acted like a cow; I call it a bad dream and brush it aside. Even so, when we wake up the Reality that we are, we negate this world experience as a delusion and assert our eternal nature. The analogy seems simple enough. Then our prajna is established in Brahman. We may see a mirage but never run towards it because we know that it is a mirage and will not give us water to quench our thirst. Will the water of a mirage wet the desert sands, is the question posed in Vivekachudamani.

Why is it that we are not able to experience our real nature? It is because of the me and mine. This is the ignorance which does not allow us to have the higher understanding. The way to get rid of this excessive clinging to me and mine is to give it a blow strong enough. And this is done by self-denial or self-abnegation. And here is where unselfish service comes to our aid. Such a service attitude is unselfish and yet is the most rewarding since it effaces our ego which Edges God Out and God in His majesty shines forth. So, the discerning mind understands that unselfishness is far more paying, only people do not have the patience to practise it. By performing work in an unselfish manner we reap a dividend far more than through the performance of selfish works.

Better than leading of lazy life without performing any work, it is better to perform work even for selfish purpose. Far greater is it to perform unselfish work. As human beings cannot remain even for a moment without work, as even supporting oneself requires that we do some work, it is better to know the secret of work. The secret of work is that what binds us is our desire for the fruits of work and not the work itself. To the unselfish man every work is capable of taking him to that high pedestal of existence where he is able to see his Transcendental majesty. He does nor frown on account of the nature of the work that accrues to him, because very work is equally well suited to take us beyond our mortal world to that regime where there is neither death nor birth.

Vedantin talks about avidya kama karma. It is our ignorance of real nature as the great Emperor that makes us beg like beggars. We seek things to give us fulfilment. That is desire. We have to work to fulfil our desires. And work begets its results, good or bad, depending on the work we do. Usually it is a mixture of good and bad; no work is entirely good or entirely bad. It is like the bright flame with which is associated the dark smoke. How then are we to work, there being no escape from work, and yet be not caught in the fruits of work?

The Gita gives us several solutions: The Great Sri Krishna has nothing that is not His already nor anything that He ought to get which is not His, and yet He is ever engaged in action. This example will make us also begin life as an imitation of this great example. Todays imagination is tomorrows realisation. We will then become as detached as Sri Krishna seeing in Him a living example of nishkama karma.

The second way is to do what is kartavya karma because it just has to be done. When there is a work mixed with the sense of ought to be done, we just have to do it.

The third way is do what is essential for the maintenance of the world-order (loka sangraha). Janaka and others are examples. The Epics present many examples. In recent times, Narendranath was faced with the dilemma of whether he should take care of his family or renounce the world and embrace monasticism to spread the message of Sri Ramakrishna which will do good to the entire humanity. He chose to renounce and said that no good thing can be done without a sacrifice: the bleeding heart should be plucked and placed at the altar of humanity.The fourth is recognize a grand yajna (sacrifice) in progress. Whatever is offered to another has a strong resemblance to yajna. There is the giver, there is the thing offered, and there is that to which the offering is made. The thing to which the offering is made is the fire; what is offered is the oblation; and we are the ones who make the offering. Recall verse 4.24 of the Gita: he who sees Brahman in all actions attains to Brahman or Brahma-atma-aikya-anubhuti. Though the Gita mentions eleven examples, and the Upanishads speak of five fires, in a large context when someone gives advice to someone else there also is yajna. Cultivate this yajna consciousness in every act of giving (not only material gifts). See, when the clouds pour forth rain on the earth, that also is a yajna: cloud-rain-earth!

The next method is to perform actions depending on ones station in life. The Varna or caste in the past may be replaced by the aptitude-attitude related work that is ones lot. The Gita states that by performance of this work as worship of God who is abiding in all of existence on attains perfection.

Thus service is a wonderful tool to reach our lifes ultimate goal. We may place smaller goals but eventually the highest goal can neither be evaded nor avoided. Like the foot prints of all animals are enclosed by the footprints of the mighty elephant, even so in the fulfilment of that one Ultimate Goal all other goals are included. The joy of brahma-jnana is far higher than all the other limited joys put together.

However, when we perform work with self-seeking, we ourselves shut the doors to this immense possibility of understanding our real nature and solving the puzzle placed before humanity: projecting a world with the mind and senses turned outwards, with the Ultimate Truth lodged in the heart of all existence, with a brain capable of solving this grand puzzle of finding that Truth, and alas of not being to do so just because we are unable to see within ourselves because of this strong and vicious me and mine.