The word 'service' has of late assumed several meanings. Broadly, we see two kinds of service. Those which are rendered for a fee and those which are rendered without expecting anything in return. In the contemporary financial world, service is, like manufacturing, considered as a 'sector'. No one seems to think that the actions done for a fee should be called as business and not as service.

Let us assume that a particular person started thinking as to how something which carries a fee be called as service. He approaches his intelligent friend, whose clarification was something like this. Even after taking money, if what is promised is not offered, it is business. On the other hand, if one delivers what one has promised to deliver, it becomes service even though there a fee charged for it.

If we accept his definition of service, what should we call what a mother does to her new born child? What should we call the duty performed by the disciple with respect to his Guru? What should we call the yeoman works that volunteers undertake at the time of natural calamities like earthquake, floods etc.?

If we think that helping others without taking money is service, then the small favours people do to please the rowdy of their own locality should also be considered as 'seva'. There are people who undertake charitable acts just to earn fame. Just because they do not expect financial returns for their acts, can the acts be called as 'seva'? No.

Therefore it would be proper to consider such acts as 'Seva' which are undertaken out of love for fellow beings without expecting financial rewards. Such acts which are performed grudgingly or under the influence of fear.
We observe that normally for a person to undertake Seva, he should have love for the person who is receiving the Seva. We develop special liking for some people. We do not like everyone. Not only that, we may even hate some people although there may be no reason.
Why is it so?

We have just now said that there may be no reason at all! Then why this question?
It is not that there is no reason. The reason is not known to us. That's all. Let us try to analyze the reason.

There are three things which can cause liking. 1) that which comes by natural attachment, 2) selfishness and 3) knowledge. The mother loves her newborn child. This is something which comes naturally. There is no selfishness in this. When the child becomes an adult, the mother loves him because he is the bread winner or because he takes care of her in her old age. So, there is an element of selfishness here.

Let us consider another example. A beggar is standing in front of a house. The housewife is annoyed because he has come at an unearthly hour. The husband takes a closer look at the beggar. He immediately recognizes that it is his Guru who has disguised himself as a beggar to test him. He immediately welcomes him and serves him food. Here, the affection shown by this person is because of his proper understanding of the disguised person.

The love which comes because of natural attachment remains quite strong for some time. But it will start diminishing if it starts coming in the way of our own interests. For example, the mother's love for his son will not remain the same if the son starts tormenting her when he grows up.

Love that develops because of selfishness and love of convenience is always transitory. It is wavering in nature.
Love which develops due to knowledge has the tendency to grow as the knowledge increases.

Let us consider the example of a social worker. If his love for the society is because of his knowledge of the society and the requirements of its people, it will go on increasing as his knowledge increases.

What is the knowledge that he should acquire about the society?

To understand this, we should look from a different angle.
Why will anyone love somebody? If we look at the world, we see that people naturally develop love for their family members, friends, relatives and those who help them. There will not be any affinity towards others. Not only this, some people will be unduly averse towards some people. There are also instances when one starts liking another person because of some attraction, but in due course of time, if one feels that the affinity is not in tune with one's preferences or interests, one starts disliking the same person after sometime. It is therefore difficult to think that a person can love another person without reason or unconditionally. Even if it happens, it will not remain so for long.

What does this mean? Does it mean that in this world there are no persons who have unconditional love for others? Of course, there are such men. We do not deny it. We are only trying to analyze the reason behind such unconditional love.
Man loves to satisfy his own interests. At the same time he will also have love for the Almighty who is in fact fulfilling his desires. Although man doesn't really know the real nature of the Almighty, this love will continue. In the beginning, this love will have fulfillment of man's desires as its basis. Gradually, as man's understanding of the Almighty improves, he will learn to love the Almighty regardless of whether his desires are being fulfilled or not. This is strange, but true.

When man reaches this stage, and when this attitude becomes mature enough, man will realize that it is the Almighty who is very dear to him who is the Creator of the universe and that the same God dwells in the hearts of all beings. This understanding comes to him naturally. When such an attitude develops in him, he will no longer hate any being. Not only that, he will start loving everyone. Because his love for the Almighty is real and strong, he will display true and sustained love towards all beings.

This is how he becomes capable of developing true and permanent love. As long as he is alive, he serves his fellow beings with true love. He does not expect anything in turn. He does not charge for his services. If need be, he will spend his own resources. He does not even expect gratitude from those who have received his services. Nothing can prevent him from serving the society. Even if people display ego, selfishness or meanness, he will not deviate from his path.
Very well. Not only such people are hard to come by, the society brands such people as mad.

In reality, it is not madness. It would have been madness if such acts of social service did not yield any benefits. But the fact remains that selfless service always yields benefits. Let us see how.

We have seen that the person who sees the Almighty in the hearts of all beings and therefore starts developing true love towards all will eventually concentrate only on the indwelling Almighty. For someone who does not attach much importance to external appearances and the external world, it becomes easy to have the total experience of the Almighty. If, because of old age, the person dies before this experience, he will be born as a Maharshi in the subsequent birth and will straight-away start treading the path of Yoga. Selfless service yields such rich dividends. How can it be called madness?

In this way, the ordinary man who, in the beginning restricts his love to his family members, will gradually learn to love his fellow beings in the society without expecting anything in return. From this stage, achieving the state of having the total experience of the Almighty is a very long journey. Really, one birth is not enough for this. One may have to take millions of births. Our mythology is abundant with such examples.

Is there no way to reach the goal faster? Let us assume that we are somewhere in the middle in this long journey. Is there any way we can move faster so that we can reach the goal quickly? The following Sookti is like a wonder pill for the seekers who are restlessly looking for faster methods -

Aatma sangrahanechchaa chet
maitreem sarvatrikeem kuru
Maitreechchaa chet harim pashya
kuru sevaam cha sarvatah

If at all you wish to see the Atman (=Paramatma, the Almighty), then develop unconditional friendship towards all beings. If you want to cultivate such unselfish friendship, learn to see Sri Hari (the Almighty) everywhere and in everything. Render service to one and all. This is the purport of this Sookti.

We have acquainted ourselves with the theoretical part. The above Sookti shows us the steps to put it to practice. The first step is to develop friendship with all beings. By nature, we love some people. We do not need to put in any special effort for it. One should learn to extend this love to the entire mankind. There are several attitudes which help us to develop such friendship. Here are some of them:
'All are God's children. It would therefore be wrong to consider some as our friends and some as our enemies'.

'It is because of the magnanimity of great scientists that we are today able to enjoy the benefits of scientific breakthroughs. Therefore, we should emulate their example and see that the fruits of our efforts are enjoyed by the entire mankind'.
Thinking on these lines, we should device a path for ourselves to share our love with all the beings equally. The above Sookti declares that if such unconditional love and friendship have to stay for ever, it is imperative that we realize that the Almighty is always dwelling in the hearts of all beings.

After realizing this, there should be manifold increase in our service activities. By relentlessly doing such acts of service, we will reach the ultimate state -being able to actually see the Almighty. This is the ultimate step.
By the grace of Lord Dattatreya, may you all become eligible to ascend this ultimate step.

Jaya Guru Datta.

Sri Swamiji