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Service Is Its Own Reward

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Service Is Its Own Reward

 

A true

World Server strives to have a mind that is balanced at all times. This

requires keen enthusiasm for disinterested, selfless service: Be kind to all. Love all. Serve all. Be generous and tolerant towards all. This is the way

to purify both heart and mind, and to help forge the path to world

enlightenment.

By performing

acts of service, the heart is purified. Egoism, hatred, jealousy, the

idea of

superiority, and all similar qualities become purged and disappear; humility,

pure love, sympathy, tolerance and mercy are developed in their place. The

server comes to feel oneness and unity, in touch with all life.

The person

who serves the world also serves the self. Only by first reforming oneself can

the whole world become reformed. The greatest service that can be rendered is

to

impart knowledge of truth, as the basic cause of all human suffering is

unconsciousness.

True

service also purifies the mind, and can be a tool for self knowledge. This

practice requires non-attachment to outcome and that all actions be dedicated

to the highest good, with the awareness that all of life is good.

There may

be a divine call for a certain kind of work, and if that happens, one can learn

to recognize it in the moment. Though people are generally elated by success

and depressed by failure, there must not be any attachment to outcome or even

to a particular form of work.

Many people

have core pictures giving them polarized attitudes about their work; they are

attracted to some kinds of work, and dislike others. It is not a person’s true

calling to seek success or failure, but rather to focus attention on completing

the immediate task at hand to the best of one’s ability. Work itself cannot

bring misery, but having attachment or identification to work brings in all

sorts of worries, troubles, and unhappiness.

If we work

for the fulfillment of divine purposes and do not expect any fruit ... if we

do everything as worship of the divine ... if we work in unison with Divine Will

for the welfare of the world ... then the moment egoism comes in, the free

flow of energy will be noticeably blocked. Being neutral in the way we approach

and do our work, as our work becomes

worship, we will become as free as a bird.

When we

give up ego and work merely for the sake of humanity, then even eating,

walking, talking, sleeping, breathing and answering calls of nature become

joyous activities. Great joy exists in approaching work this way because there

is no personal investment in it.

How is this

freedom accomplished? When we perform any action, it's important to go inside

and become centered. In this space of equanimity of mind, it is possible

to understand

the fundamental principles that govern all we do, and many of the outside

forces become clearer and more manageable.

There is

certainty in the practice of right work. Even a small amount of service to the

community or to the poor brings forth its own rewards and advantages. Then,

we will again be propelled to do some more good actions by the forces of our

impressions of the original action. This is a key detail of the way that service

evolves.

While the unconscious

cannot conceive of doing work without some personal gain, the World Server

attains inner spiritual strength and power by performing selfless

motives and practices. Gradually, as we serve society, the glory and splendor

of unselfish work is understood. This practice requires great patience as the

old ways of selfishness must be destroyed.

Non-attachment

is dispassion or indifference to the sensual enjoyments. This occurs in the

mind. The “I†and “mine†are " poisonous

fangs of the mind serpent " which must be removed in order to tame it.

There cannot be bondage to material things like the body or possessions.

The binding

link ~ the mind ~ can and must be mastered and controlled.

As we works,

the mind will grow to see things in more creative, abstract ways. This

nurtures detachment as humanity is lifted by the higher energies,

and

in the process of doing the work, we will come to no longer pay attention

to old worries and difficulties. Self-knowledge evolves as one becomes less

self-centered.

When we realize

that in our work we do not answer to the boss outside but rather to the

God who has ordained us, there can be no more bondage to office

mates and employer. The external work may still appear to be the same,

yet ...

We Are Free!

 

At

the time of the Goodwill Festival,

there is an inflowing

opportunity to discover new aspects of world service.

  Synthesis is

from

Science of Yoga, Volume 1: Karma Yoga

by

Swami Sivananda, Sivananda Press, Durban, South Africa

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