"Tulanam naiti tapasah suvarnam raya meva va
"Visesa daivilila sambhavaye | samanya sastrena nate prasastya
A true Sevak (person doing Seva) is one who offers service to servants, servants of the servant, the members of the troupe accompanying Swamiji and to their families, other fellow sevaks and to the assistants of these other sevaks. A true seva is one, which is done without any selfish motive, with a pure heart and mind. A seva done with an attitude that “I will serve only the Lord but not his assistants” is not a true seva.
Suppose you are doing seva to a great person or a rich person or a famous personality. You may think that since I’m offering my services to such a great person. I am also very important or in future I may become very famous. Then, this cannot be called true seva as it is filled with selfishness.
On the other hand, a seva done with a pure mind and heart full of love and compassion, irrespective of whether the person is great or not, is called true seva. It is called “Svayam Seva”
There are 3 types of Svayam sevaks. The first type of Svayam sevak does not wait for some one else to give him directions or allot him his duties. Such persons will always be on the look out for any opportunities for seva. They do not wait for people to come to them and seek their help. They are the highest type of Svayam sevaks.
In many of our branches such Svayam sevaks are operating. When there are natural calamities in their areas like floods, cyclones etc; they rush and do various kinds of seva without expecting any recognition. They do not seek any publicity for their actions. They do not wait for Swamiji to give them directions. Swamiji greatly appreciates this type of seva.
The second type of sevaks does seva as soon as they are informed about the work. That means, when someone approaches them and seeks their help, they immediately help without any selfish motives. They are the medium category of Svayam sevaks.
The third type will not move even if someone approaches them and asks for their help. They wish to serve only the great persons. They are the real enemies of our society. Even in the ashram, there are some persons who say that they will only serve Swamiji. They want to always be near Swamiji. They are not bothered about others. They think that by being near Swamiji they will get special blessings from Sri Swamiji. But Swamiji looks upon such people as His enemies. Remember this.
There are some others who say that they will complete any job only if they receive personal instructions from Swamiji. They refuse to listen to instructions from His troupe or assistants. This is also wrong. If you wish to become a true Svayam sevak as described above, then first learn to obey and do seva to Swamiji’s assistants. Not only this, learn to do seva to the devotees who come here for Swamiji’s darshan. Didn’t we say that those who do seva to the servants of the servant are true Svayam sevaks!
A true example of seva bhakti is Hanuman. When he was entrusted with the job of finding Sita, he didn’t ask, “How can I find her? How does she look?” He had never seen Sita before. But still using his intellect and strength, he managed to complete the job.
Take the example of Vanaras (monkeys). Except a few important ones like Hanuman, Sugriva, the others had not seen Rama. But just by listening to Rama’s glory from Sugriva, Hanuman and others, they were ready to give up their life fighting for Sri Rama. They didn’t say “Who is this Rama? We have never seen him. We can’t believe you.”
Similarly, in Shiva Purana, in the context of Sati dahana (Sati’s destruction), Shiva wanted to destroy Daksha’s yagna. Understanding his feelings, Nandi immediately approached the pramatha ganas (Shiva’s assistants) to fight. They didn’t say, “Shiva has to come and tell us directly.” They considered Nandi’s message as an order from Shiva Himself.
Take the story of Garuda. He wanted to go to heaven and get nectar, as it would release his mother from slavery. At that time, he was not Vishnu’s vehicle. He was going on his personal mission. However, many maharishis, knowing that in future he would be Vishnu’s vehicle, out of love for Vishnu, secretly transferred their tapas shakti (spiritual energy) to him so that he could complete his mission quickly. As a result, Garuda quickly completed his mission and went on to become Vishnu’s vehicle. These Maharishis could get Vishnu’s darshan after many more yugas. It was the result of their selfless service.
Thus there are many stories in our Puranas depicting true seva. You also should aim to do such seva.
Each one of you should learn to look for opportunities to do seva. No one will direct you, while you are doing such work, if someone approaches you and corrects you or directs you to do the work in a different way, you should be humble and accept it. That is the seva method.
It is not so easy to reach the level of true seva. You can only go one step at a time. First begin by doing seva to servants. This is the first step.
Every one comes to the ashram only to learn Guru Tattva (essence of Guru). But there is only one way to learn Guru Tattva. That is Seva. Without seva, Guru Tattva cannot be learnt. “O God, if there are so many conditions, then it is better not be a Svayam sevak.” If anyone thinks like this, then you may stay here or go away. Do as you please, but remember, you can never ever learn Guru Tattva. So it is important that every one who comes here to the ashram should be a Svayam sevak. You should learn to climb one step at a time starting from the first step.
Swamiji wishes that all of you should reach the level of true Svayam sevak and that you understand Guru Tattva.
