All Our Sevas to God Are But Trivial
One evening Sri Swamiji was walking up the street in the holy village of Govindapuram, along with a few devotees. An elderly lady was drawing a kolam (rangoli) on the street, in front of her home. The moment she spotted Sri Swamiji, she got up and disappeared from sight! It seemed as if she had hidden herself out of shyness. When Sri Swamiji came near the place where she had been drawing the kolam, he stopped.
The way in which Sri Swamiji responds to people’s work is beautiful. If the prime intent is to ‘show off’ one’s ability or resources, Sri Swamiji would just ignore it. For example, he may walk past an ostentatiously decorated chair and sit on a simple plastic chair. Sometimes he might even make the person who decorated the chair sit on it instead! On the other hand, when something is done with a truly selfless intent, truly for God, with no attention sought from others, Sri Swamiji would always take notice, appreciate, and accept it.
Here, this elderly lady did not appear to have drawn her kolam for people to appreciate her service. Sri Swamiji stopped right in front of the kolam, and so did the devotees accompanying him. It was a very plain, ordinary kolam and not very perfectly drawn either. Yet Sri Swamiji stood there admiring it, as if it was an exquisite piece of art!
The lady must have felt embarrassed, knowing that it was not a great kolam, and hence hidden herself. Sri Swamiji turned to the devotees with him and said, “She has drawn this kolam so beautifully, has she not?” Then he said aloud, “I wonder who has drawn this kolam!”
On hearing this, the lady came out of hiding. She was trembling and said hesitatingly, “You must please pardon me. I draw a kolam here to the extent of my knowledge and ability. I am not at all capable, yet due to desire to draw for Bhagavan here, I do it. I know that it is not at all good.” And then she added beautifully, “I am capable of only this much. I am doing this with the little ability I have.” And then she pointed to all the devotees who stood around Sri Swamiji and said, “All of them do great service to Bhagavan. Compared to their service this is nothing. It is in fact really bad. If you want me to stop, I will truly stop it from tomorrow.”
On hearing her, Sri Swamiji looked around at everyone standing by him and then turned to her and said very beautifully, “Don’t stop. In fact, mother, the service that you are doing is the greatest. Do not think it is a small act that you are doing. It is the greatest. It is the most beautiful. God loves it. Do you know why?”
Sri Swamiji ran his glance over all his devotees and then said, “Any seva that you do is trivial when it comes to God. What can you do for God? You may think that you have managed to donate all that you have, in order to build something grand for Bhagavan. But who gave you that money? It is His money! Say you managed to collect the most expensive fruits and place them on a gold plate and offer it to Bhagavan. You deem that as a great service. But whose fruits are those? And whose gold is it? It is His! Out of whose flowers have you strung the garlands that you offer to Bhagavan? Is it not verily His?
“Everything that you do for Him does not matter to Him at all. When you serve, it is for your own good. One must get this right. Try to understand that. You are not doing any favor for Bhagavan by your service. On the other hand, whatever service you do leads only to your own good because every such act of offering or service leads to association with Him. All your sins are annihilated. Your karmas are wiped off. You attain chittashuddhi (purity of mind). Devotion arises in you and it is you who will finally attain God!
“It is not as if God is dying to have a house built by you for Him to rest. You are in His house, my dear! You are under His roof!”
Sri Swamiji spoke beautifully in his fashion. He would often say, “As far as Bhagavan is concerned, no seva matters to Him, right? I may proudly claim ‘I have renovated the temple!’ or ‘I have built a temple!’ but how does it matter to God? It only does well for me. What does God gain from it? God may acknowledge it; but what is in it for Him? Nothing!”
Here Sri Swamiji then said, “In fact, mother, you are the most blessed because you know that your service is the most insignificant. You are serving with the knowledge that your service is insignificant; therefore, you are truly blessed; stick to that. Don’t ever think on any day that you are doing something for God. Remember that God has given you an opportunity to serve Him and that you stand to gain if you participate in it. That attitude is important.”
Service always starts with the point where one craves for this opportunity to do something for God or Guru. But astonishingly after a point of time, for some inexplicable reason, one may begin to behave as if the Guru is indebted to them for the service they have offered! Somehow this feeling does arise in man! If one thinks ‘I have done this for you’, then at least some kind of acknowledgement is expected. That is not true service.
So, when Sri Swamiji said that it was for our own good that we serve Bhagavan, he gave us a wonderful teaching.
Excerpted from Dr. Bhagyanathan ji’s Madhurasmaranam talks
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