Seva Means Service To The One

Usually seva or selfless service is defined as you as an individual helping another person. This is a very limiting view as then you may be doing it for the sake of your ego and not out of the love of the One Self. When you know your true Self as that light of awareness that exists in all beings then you only help your own Self alone everywhere. Then even if you don't physically help anyone by giving them food or shelter you are helping all being through emanating love of all!

Transcript

Satsang podcast with Sri Seva means service to the One.

No matter how difficult the situations in your life might be,

No matter how challenging you may find,

It becomes to live a happy,

Peaceful,

Satisfied life filled with love and awareness.

You can always observe that there are many people less fortunate than you are and be thankful for the things that you do have.

Fresh air to breathe,

Good food to eat,

Good company to share with,

Those are some of the things that we all have.

Once you become aware of that,

Then you may begin to think of how you can help the less fortunate people than yourself.

You might already be doing this in some way,

Giving to charities or volunteering,

Or you may be teaching meditation to those that are in need.

There are many ways that you can do what is called Seva,

Which is often translated as service without any attachment to the rewards of your efforts.

In the Gita it's called Nishkam Karma Yoga,

Giving without attachment to the results.

Because for most people,

There's always some result that's needed when you're giving,

Either to your family members,

You want to make them happy and healthy because it's easier for you,

To your community so you can live in a nice environment,

To those that are less fortunate because it makes you feel good that you're more fortunate and you're giving to those that are less fortunate.

These methods of service have been going on for thousands of years,

But they haven't worked in terms of people being able to tune into the space of consciousness that's forever peaceful and forever easy,

Regardless of what your life situation may be.

Coming to India is a very powerful way of observing this because oftentimes people come to India and say they can't stand to see all the poverty that's around them and it makes them really sad.

And certainly that's understandable.

However,

We can also begin to realize when we see some of the,

What would be called slum areas,

Or worse than slums in the US or Canada or Europe,

Where people are living barely with a roof over their head and maybe a little bit of wood for heat or coals to make a fire and no proper plumbing or running water.

But you see,

They have a community life.

They're laughing,

They're joyful.

The children are finding anything around them,

An old tire tube to roll on the ground or anything to play with,

To have fun with each other.

So although they might seem to be living in poverty,

To those of us who have so much,

There's a level of happiness there that many people who are millionaires or even billionaires don't have.

So we come to see that the true happiness really resides within.

And then to really do seva,

Which the meaning of seva is sahiv,

Only to the one,

Only one.

So to really give to anyone else,

The first thing is you have to know is that it's only one being and there's really no one else.

Because if you see yourself as separate from that child that's living in poverty,

What we call poverty,

Then you'll think that giving them clothes and food and a nice house with amenities will save them from poverty.

But we come to see that there's a poverty consciousness even in those that have so much.

They're lacking in the true prosperity,

Which is that knowledge of the self.

So the greatest service or seva that you can do is to first come to know who you are as that pure one self that alone is everywhere.

Now from that awareness of your own true self and seeing that there's no other,

That it's all you alone everywhere,

Then the inspiration comes to live that awareness and then it's naturally shared with everyone around you in any way that your talents allow you to share it.

Because otherwise if you live as a human being limited,

Then you'll only sit at the dinner table with others if there's food to share.

You'll only do that which is satisfying your body,

Your mind and your ego.

And to truly be selfless,

To truly be egoless is to live the vision of oneness.

Because as soon as there's other,

As soon as you're living in duality,

Me and you,

I can help you and you are different than me,

Then that help will not be the most effective.

The most effective seva is to know it's all one being,

All one self and surrender any sense of duality,

Of division.

Surrender the sense that you're a limited human being with a form and a body and a personality with needs and wants and desires.

You can't get out of that because that's the human existence,

But you can use your human existence for its highest purpose which it's meant to be used for,

Which is to realize your own true self.

The mind can't come to know this so it can become a frustration because you're trying to get your mind around the fact that it's all one being,

It's all oneness.

And the mind can't know oneness because the very nature of the mind or as soon as you become a mind you've already divided.

There's a you that's a mind,

Not that there's one being.

There's one mind,

There's one awareness.

So the mind,

As soon as we separate ourselves as a mind,

As a human being,

Then we're very limited in the help or the service that we can give because we see other.

And as long as you see other there has to be you and another.

And as soon as there's you and another the tendency has to be for you to do that which is going to be pleasing or useful for yourself.

Nothing wrong because as a body we each need to take care of our own body,

Feed it,

Clothe it,

Give it good food,

Give it good shelter.

This human sense keeps going on,

But to really give to others,

The best that we can give to others is to come to know our true nature,

Pure,

Free,

Forever.

Because when you're knowing you're pure,

Free,

Forever,

You're not imposing your needs on others.

So the happiness that we see in the villages of India,

Certainly it'd be nice for them to get water and we hope that the services will be provided for them so that they can live a long,

Healthy life.

But first,

Are you living a long,

Healthy life?

Because if you're not living a long,

Healthy life,

Then how can you think that by just giving those services that they will live a long,

Healthy life?

Because you have those services.

You may not know if your life will be long,

But you know right now if it's healthy.

You won't know right now if you're peaceful.

You know right now if you live your life from the perspective of pure,

Free,

Forever,

Or if you live it from the perspective of getting your desires fulfilled and making yourself happy,

As the human being will continue to do that.

So first things first,

Amaram ham madhuram ham,

I am immortal,

I am blissful.

What does this mean?

Ham really means we,

But to personalize it we say I,

I am immortal.

We are immortal,

We are blissful.

So first is to know that immortal and blissful space that we are,

That all is,

Because that is the oneness.

And by knowing amaram ham madhuram ham,

Amaram ham madhuram ham,

Your own system gets transformed into that bliss of the self.

And then from that direct guidance you know what is best service to give to your own self alone everywhere.

It can't be for any personal gain any longer,

Because there's no person to gain and no person to lose.

It's one space,

It's one self.

So knowing that one self,

Giving to that self which you know yourself to be,

Starting from where you are as an individual mind and body,

That's where you have to start because that's who you believe yourself to be.

So first things first is to meditate on amaram ham madhuram ham,

That I which alone is everywhere pure free forever.

Unless this is the practice,

Any service will just be temporary,

Will make temporary changes as we've seen in the world,

Trying to have peace,

Trying to have food and good water to all the inhabitants of the planet earth.

These are all wonderful practices,

But they haven't worked because each individual first has to know their vastness,

That they're not an individual,

That they're actually one with the life that's on the whole planet,

That's alone everywhere.

And when that life is known,

When that true I pure free forever is known,

Then the guidance comes from within.

Everyone is your own self,

So there's nothing else that you can do but to help your own self everywhere,

Whether you're guided to teach meditation,

Which is the highest work,

To bring about that oneness,

To bring about that true seva,

So that everyone can know their true nature.

And then from that the guidance will come as to what to give and when and how and how much.

So this work of meditation,

Taking the time every day to know your own true self and become egoless,

Meaning that you're knowing yourself,

Not limited to an individual I that has its own personal needs and desires and tries to keep fulfilling them,

Keep working on seeing everything outside as separate and getting as much for yourself or maybe extended to your family or your community as you possibly can and thinking that you're a good person because you're doing that or that you're not a good person because you're not doing that.

This is limited.

It might be higher work than someone who engages in criminal activity and hurts others,

But it's not the highest work.

The highest work is to first work on yourself.

Selfless means not that you don't think about yourself and you don't care about yourself.

It means that there's one self alone everywhere.

Egoless doesn't mean that you renounce your ego and now you're nothing and everyone else is more important than you.

No,

It means there's one self alone everywhere and there's no individual I getting in the way that will either sacrifice him or herself for others or will not do anything for others because his ego or her ego is more important than others.

So that approach,

Either side of it,

Is not the ultimate approach.

The ultimate approach is knowledge of the self.

Now,

As I was saying before,

The mind will resist this because it's not within the mind's functioning to know its true self.

So then how can you know your true self when the mind can't reach there,

The mind can't go there,

And you notice when you start,

Even waking up in the morning,

The mind is there,

The nervous system is reacting,

Coming out of the sleep state into the waking state with all the concerns and worries and doubts and fears that you might have had in the past,

The day before,

The week before,

The month before,

The year before.

They're all still there when you wake up because you're in the waking state.

When you were sleeping,

When you were in deep sleep,

It was all gone.

So why do you now say that the waking state is real and that deep sleep where you were free and blessed is no longer real?

Just like when you were in the dream state and that appeared to be real and then you came out of it and you said you cancelled it and it's not real any longer,

Now you're in the waking state and you're saying that that's real and you've cancelled the deep sleep state.

So instead we want to evolve into the fourth state.

Siddhant Yoga takes us even beyond the fourth state to that principle of highest,

Ever pure,

Ever present awareness that we forever are.

So the practice is not complicated.

It takes time and practice,

Yes,

But it's not complicated because as soon as you close your eyes you are that space which is unborn,

Undying,

Immortal and blissful.

So rather than cancelling that and saying the waking state is the reality,

We cancel the waking state now and say,

Just like the dream,

We cancelled it and we're in the waking state.

Now in the same way we cancel the waking state which is division,

Which sees others,

Which sees separation,

Which uses the mind as a limited instrument to perceive the world and to gain satisfaction.

And as we've all noticed,

It sometimes is satisfied and sometimes is not,

Sometimes gains and sometimes loses.

So now we cancel the mind or the waking state as the only reality and we start to rest in our ever present reality,

Pure,

Free,

Forever.

And there's no separation there.

It's all you.

Everyone is you.

The mind,

The body,

The environment,

The people,

It's all that same sky.

Just like the sky,

Anything can come into it and go from it,

But the sky remains sky.

In the same way,

You remain pure,

Free,

Forever.

You don't have to negate anything.

You don't have to cancel anything.

It's just the thinking mind now that you know is not the truth.

The thoughts may still come,

The ideas,

The desires,

The fears,

The worries,

But they're not you.

You are the whole.

So rather than constricting yourself,

You're expanding yourself out to know the vast sky,

The vast you that's greater than the sky.

And then the life becomes the flow of awareness from that one self,

From that sky,

Rather than the human flow which comes from the mind,

Which binds you,

That keeps you caught in a cage.

As soon as you're born,

It's as if you're in a cage and you can't get out.

The human cage,

The human condition,

The human sense of joy and suffering,

Pain and pleasure,

Fulfillment of desire and frustration of desire,

That's the cage that all human beings find themselves in.

And we want to be free from that cage.

We want to live the free state of consciousness regardless of whether you're living in the village of poverty or you're living in a great mansion and have everything,

Because that which is external to you is not providing your permanent happiness and satisfaction.

It's nice to have the things that you need to allow you the time so that you can meditate.

But after that,

Meditation is the only solution to live that happy,

Peaceful life and to do the true seva,

Which is service to one alone everywhere and not seeing others.

Because as soon as you see others,

You're dividing.

And then what you're thinking you're giving to them may only be temporary.

And it may also be a selfless or a selfful or egoful way of giving.

Instead,

You know as a human being,

There's no real giving.

You have to know your divinity,

Your divine nature,

Which is egoless.

So you surrender any sense of I as separate from that whole and any ignorance of your true self.

That is the true surrender,

The true way to come to know the peace and bliss,

Not only that you are,

That everyone is.

So there's no judgment now because everyone is that and everyone is perfect in terms of their own evolution.

And as soon as they're guided towards knowing pure,

Free forever,

Then the chance,

The possibility is there to live in peace and joy and freedom in that amaram,

Hum,

State,

Immortality and blissfulness because you know the space before you were born and the space after the body goes.

So you are still that space in between.

You are always that unborn,

Immortal,

Pure,

Free,

Forever being.

Om shanti,

Om peace.

We meditate by just closing the eyes and knowing space I am,

Not the mind and its thoughts which keep reeling,

Coming and going.

And by meditating on pure,

Free,

Forever,

That space,

That sham akash,

That blue-black space,

Which is taking on any color,

Any form,

Any wave of existence,

But it remains that calm,

Peaceful being that you are,

That I am.

And then everyone is seen as that one being alone everywhere.

Om shanti,

Om peace.

Reviews

Seva .. to serve The One. I wish my ego would drop off. It is going to take a lot of practice in this life and the next and the next. So I walk the walk and listen to the talk like yours