WHAT BHAGAWAN SRI SATHYA SAI BABA SAYS ABOUT SERVICE

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 WHAT BHAGAWAN SRI SATHYA SAI BABA SAYS ABOUT SERVICE

[Quotations from Discourses of Swami]

Service expresses the divinity hidden in man. It broadens one's heart, it

destroys narrow-mindedness, and it gives delight. The evil qualities and

tendencies in us can be driven away through service.

To remove the evil of egoism, service is the most efficient instrument.

Service is the highest spiritual discipline. Prayer and meditation, or knowledge

of scripture and Vedanta (Holy Scriptures of India), cannot help you reach the

goal as quickly as service can. Service has a double effect: it extinguishes

the ego and gives bliss.

The joy one gets while promoting another's joy is incomparable.

Service is the first step along the spiritual path.

If you lift the hand to serve, to help, to console, to encourage another man,

you are lifting it for God, for God is in every man.

How can anyone contemplate on God - who loves the poor and the grief-stricken -

and yet be cold-hearted when the poor and the grief-stricken are around them?

Hands that serve are holier than lips that pray.

You have no reason to feel proud when you are able to help another, for your

skill or wealth or strength or courage or official position that gave you the

chance to serve was the gift of God, whether you recognize it or not. You are

only offering this God's gift to another God's gift, namely the poor, the

illiterate, the weak, the diseased, the grieving, the broken-hearted, who seek

your help.

Man has become so selfish that he does not care for others, or anything other

than his own welfare . . . One who constantly thinks of his own body, his own

family, his own wealth and his own comfort is truly a selfish man. The only way

to cleanse such a hard-hearted man is through service to humanity.

God is the embodiment of compassion. He watches for a grain of goodness or

humility so that He can reward it with tons of grace. Deserve the grace of God

by helping the weak and the poor, the diseased and the downtrodden.

Constant work in loving service to others covers the seeds of past sinful and

harmful actions, so that they die away and do not grow into a new round of

misery.

Service without ideal of self . . . trains you to transcend all the artificial

distinctions imposed by history and geography, and to realize that the human

community is one and indivisible.

A wave of service, if it sweeps over the land catching everyone in its

enthusiasm, will be able to wipe off the mounds of hatred, malice and greed

that infest the world.

Do not believe that you can by means of service reform or reshape the world. You

may or may not; that does not matter. The real value of service, its most

visible result, is that it reforms you, reshapes you. Do service as a spiritual

discipline; then you will be humble and happy.

Through service rendered without any desire to placate one's ego, with only the

well-being of others in view, it is possible to cleanse the consciousness and

have the Atma (true inner self that is divine) revealed.

"Engage yourselves in service activity. Consider social service as service to

God. This is the best way to earn God's Love. Love all and serve all. Your

entire life will be sanctified thereby"

A person should strive to use every talent and skill they have, not only for

their own benefit, but for the benefit of the whole world. Understand that

society is the source of whatever pleasure one derives and whatever wealth one

achieves in life. We owe everything to society and should be grateful to

society for all that we receive from it. We have to repay this debt by helping

at least as many people as we can. With a genuine keenness or readiness to

serve others, one can attain happiness in any group or community, and the very

eagerness to serve others will endow you with the power and skill necessary for

the required service. Nowadays, we tend to regard it as derogatory to serve, but

there is great worth in service. People have become so selfish that they no

longer care for others, or anything other than their own welfare. When one

constantly thinks only of one's own body, one's own

family and one's own comfort, one is a truly selfish person. The only way to

cleanse such hard-heartedness is through service to humanity.

Only selfless service can encourage a person to reach the higher state of

humanity. Selfless service alone gives the needed strength and courage to

awaken the sleeping humanity in one's heart. All service should be regarded as

an offering to God, and every opportunity to serve should be welcomed as a gift

from God. When service is done in this spirit, it will lead to self-

realization.

Engage yourselves in service activity. Consider social service as service to

God. This is the best way to earn God's Love. Love all and serve all. Your

entire life will be sanctified thereby. The ideal of service has the ability to

remove the ego; it promotes love and affection; it takes one away from worldly

attachments and puts one on the path of the Divine. It can give widespread

pleasure and happiness for all mankind. In fact, service is the first step

along the spiritual path, for "service to man is service to God."

Great importance is given to service in the Sai Organization. All office-bearers

and active workers pledge themselves to show their love for God by serving their

fellow-man, for at least 4 hours a week. Some of this time may be allotted to

performing the many duties required for the efficient working of the Sai Centre

itself, but some of it should also be for service to the society at large. Both

aspects are important.

Service has been defined as "Love made manifest". Baba repeatedly asks us to

expand our hearts to include all humanity. He tells us that to care only for

our own interests and those of our families is a constriction of our heart.

Such constriction eventually results in loneliness and unhappiness -- as indeed

we can see all around us, for it is the malady of the present age.

The cure that Baba has given us for this malady is service. Service slowly and

steadily broadens one's heart, bringing with it an unexpected feeling of

happiness, and it begins to transform the community around us as well. The

service activity which one may, at first, have started with a certain

reluctance, soon becomes a labour of love: one's heart has broadened to include

others; and the more people one loves, the happier one becomes. This is a

spiritual truth that we need to re-discover. Our service will have benefited

others, but it will have benefited us also.

Baba tells us that when we serve another, we should remind ourselves that we are

serving the Divinity within that other. This is something that we frequently

forget, for it needs a very big mental re-adjustment. Don't worry about it --

just serve! But the very least that is demanded of us in this context is to

RESPECT the person we are serving. That includes respecting their beliefs; in

fact, it means reaching their spiritual Self through their beliefs, not ours.

It means putting oneself in their shoes; cheering them up if possible, but

seeing things from their point of view. You are merely God's instrument and you

are NOT an emissary of Sathya Sai Baba.

ETERNAL JOY THROUGH SERVICE

…If you lift the hand to serve, to help, to console, to encourage another man

you are lifting it for God, because in every man is God.

Be of service to others, for that is giving yourself to Me. For whatever you

give, I will repay you thrice; nay I shall repay you ten-fold. Try Me and you

will see. I say to those who know the joy of giving, look back! Yes, look back

and see how each time you felt that nothing but a miracle could save you, keep

you alive, fill your larder, save your son, stop a disaster - has not that

miracle happened? Divine guidance is always at the side of the giver. Yes, I

will give to those who give of themselves, untold Joy and Bliss; and what is

more, I will lead them by the hand along those petal strewn paths of Eternal

Joy.

Every deed performed, do it in My Name. Every person who passes near your path

give them the sweetness of your smile. Give freely of the nectar of your cup of

happiness, of kindness, of Blissfulness. Give the warmth of your love. Extend

your hand as I extend Mine to you.

You are not doing service for others. You are doing it always for yourselves, to

the God in you, the God who is equally present in others.

For the progress of humanity, work alone is not adequate, but the work should be

associated with love, compassion, right conduct, truthfulness and sympathy.

Without the above qualities, selfless service cannot be performed.

Of the twenty-four hours a day Use six for earning and spending, six for

contemplation of God, six of sleep and six for service to others.

Service broadens your vision, widens your awareness. Deepens your compassion.

Service is divine- It makes life worthwhile Service is greater than meditation

Sacrifice is sweeter than engagement... e good, be serviceable; Be useful, be

kind and Be God-fearing.

Service is worship. Each act of service is a flower placed at the feet of God.

Service to humanity is service to divinity.

Share your joy, your wealth and your knowledge with others less fortunate. That

is the surest means of winning divine grace.

Sent with Sai love

''

Sources: http://members.aol.com/introsai/works/service.htm

http://www.sathyasai.org.nz/SERVICE.html 

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