Tuesday 11 August 2015

What is Seva?

|| योग: कर्मसु कौशलम् ||

Mananeeya Eknathji asks really, what should be the attitude behind service to make it SERVICE- SEVA?
He says :

On a consideration of such points, we come to know that there are services which are ignoble and noble. What are they? What is the urge behind them? Is this urge desirable? What is the attitude behind a service, which makes it sacred or secular? What should be the prime mover in service? These considerations will ultimately lead us to THE SERVICE that is expected of us in this Service Mission.


Eknathji answers these questions one by one. He says : Some gain, some self interest behind every motive of service thus man cannot work in freedom as he is slave of expectation
We say that the real and primary beneficiary in an act of giving is the giver himself. Every act has an urge behind it and it is the urge of self-interest. Whenever we work with expectation of some return, we work in slavery and not in freedom. It is the benefit to be gained which goads us to the action. Had it not been for the benefit, we would not have worked. It means that we have lost our freedom and have become the slaves of that desire for gain. Our energy, urge, desire and direction of work is for something which is outside our own self; some extraneous gain is expected and thus we enter activity. Thus desire makes a man slave.


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