Sadhan February 2022
Param Pujya Gurumaharaj
5/22/22

If we want to please someone, if we want to make a place for ourselves in someone’s heart, and if we want to get in someone’s good books so that they will help us out, then the best way is to win them over by our service. God showers his blessings on those who serve him and Gurus elevate the ones who win them over by their service.

If we dwell in to the subject of spiritualism and analyze the characters of various saints we will find that anyone who achieved anything in the spiritual realm , did so only because of their service along with strict adherence to the rules and guidelines laid down.

To perform effective service is far from easy, and therefore only a few succeed in doing it the right way. To completely commit to someone without worrying about the hardships one may face, to perform service with both the body and the mind without expecting anything in return, is true service and is not commonly encountered.

A service performed without a vested interest, a service only driven by a true love for the one being served, a service performed with a pure heart, and considered and performed as one’s duty , is the service that gets us to our goal. On the other hand, a service rooted in deception and performed only to show off, leads us nowhere. Truly accomplished saints can see through it all, and can easily figure out a person’s motives. They cannot be bluffed. They never share their precious knowledge with pretenders who try to deceive them. While these accomplished souls are too nice to say anything directly, at the same time, they do not do anything to help people who are not genuine. A person who approaches them with a pure heart, who comes to them without pride and deception, and who respectfully seeks their help, is the one they will shower their blessings on. They do not look at anyone’s physical appearance or material assets. What lies in one’s heart is the only thing that matters to them. They will give everyone what they deserve solely based on the internal motives of one’s heart. However, they are not just satisfied with figuring out what lies in the seeker’s heart. They also test them practically. The door to all the blessings and well-being swings open for those who dutifully comply with what is asked of them while those who are careless, non-compliant, indifferent, lazy or given to inactivity, remain empty-handed. This is the rule for everyone who seeks to advance spiritually. Only those who can ignore the distracting influence of their mind, and focus on their Guru’s instructions, are the ones who succeed; otherwise, one’s mind prevents one from progressing.

There are 4 types of service one can perform:

physical service
Material service
service of the mind
service of the soul

Each one of these is sequentially more difficult than the preceding kind. Physically helping someone is the easiest. Helping someone with money is more difficult. Even more challenging is a service that meaningfully benefits the other person’s mind, while the service that uplifts the other person’s soul is the most difficult. The first two types of service pertain to the practitioner or seeker, while the fourth pertains only to the Guru. The third type, the service benefiting the other person’s mind, pertains both to the seeker and the Guru, because both in the material and the spiritual realms, nothing can be accomplished without the cooperation of one’s mind. The mind forms a link that interfaces with the physical body on one side and the higher consciousness on the other. When it functions well, we do well in our physical and spiritual pursuits, and when the mind falters, our physical body, and the matters related to our soul, both suffer. The relationship of a Guru and a seeker or practitioner is such that the Guru imparts what they have to the seeker while the seeker offers whatever they can to the Guru. This constant interaction and exchange between the seeker and Guru is the rule, in this path where one pursues spiritual progress. What the Guru has to offer in this exchange is eternal enlightenment, which is priceless. Therefore, Gurus’s first put the seekers or the practitioners to the test by asking them to follow certain rules, and test their commitment by seeking some form of service. Those who successfully pass this test get rewarded with everything, while those who fail remain empty-handed.

Effective service is a powerful tool that captures HIS attention like nothing else. Just like humans can be pleased by service, so can God, because the characteristics of higher consciousness are identical, both in its universal and miniature forms.

When asked about the most straightforward way to please God, an accomplished person had responded by saying, ” penance, worship etc are all means that can get one there, but in my experience, the easiest, shortest and simplest path to getting there is the path of service”. Nothing gets you there quicker than service. Many in the present world misinterpret the meaning of service by thinking that servicing religious societies and temples etc is all that there is to service. But this is not the service that effectively attracts HIM. To help the needy and those besieged with difficulty in society is what constitutes real service. Even while performing service in a temple or religious society, if one remains indifferent to the people in need around them, one does not reap much benefit from the service. Therefore both traditional service and the service of people around us should go hand in hand.

Spiritual service is the highest form of service there is. The reason for that is that all other types of service yield benefits for a finite period after which the persons served return to their original state. For example, if we give food to a hungry person they feel satisfied for some time, before hunger strikes back. If we provide material help to someone, they are comfortable till the time the materials last and then revert to their original state. Similarly helping someone out of mental misery might not last forever as the anomaly can re-emerge in the future. Nonetheless less these forms of service are helpful and should be rendered.

It is only spiritual service that confers an everlasting benefit on those served. It transports a person to a state of everlasting unlimited joy, from where they never regress. Once spiritually elevated, they never reencounter sorrow. That is the reason such service is the best form of service. However, to be able to render such spiritual service to someone, one has to first elevate oneself and get to a state where one can perform such a service.