Service Knows No Rest
By: Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Service is a lifetime program. It knows no rest or respite. This body has been given to you so that you may devote its strength and skills to the service of Brother man. Serve man, until you see God in all men. Then, what you do will be elevated as worship.
Serve others, not with the feeling that they are others, but with the attitude of worship that you reserve for God. One single act of Service offered to the God you visualize in another is worth all the years of yearning for God.
There are many ways to serve the world. You can serve, if not actively, at least by your serenity. Everyone need not do all things. Your Western heritage reveres active work. If your being tends toward serenity and solitude, take it as the best. Do not be sorry for it. Only a small minority can delight in serenity and remain still. God has willed it so. Otherwise how could the world function. If stillness is your destiny, dare to be so. If you are a recluse, be a recluse: but be a recluse with Me. You may not be a Saint, but you can peacefully be nothing. Let each be as he is, remembering his Author, his Source, and his goal (God realization). None is as he is. but for Me.
When you have achieved the consciousness that God is in you, with you, for you, that awareness must reshape every thought, word and deed and make you wish good, speak good, and do good.
No service is too low or mean. Service is the highest spiritual path.
Doing work and putting in the necessary efforts are not the first essential things. The more essential thing is with what attitude, and with what ideas the work is being done.
If you sincerely, unhesitatingly, constantly, gladly, lovingly, offer all your skill and strength to the service of others, God will melt and move and manifest Himself in you, before you, with spontaneous Grace.
Be a servant, a servant of God, then all strength and joy will be added unto you... Feel that you are an instrument in His hand. Let him shape you and use you as He knows best.
I assure you, that funds will come provided you sincerely pray for every worthy cause. Have that faith and watch funds flow in.
Do not judge others to decide whether they deserve your service. Find out whether they are distressed. That is enough credential. Do not examine how they behave toward others; they can be certainly transformed by love. Service is for you as sacred as a vow, a spiritual path. It is the very breath, it can end only when breath takes leave of you.
Revere the divinity in everyone. It is the God residing in each. Your duty is to serve, not search for faults. Serve with all your heart.
In doing service, we should see that all the attractions, likes and dislikes are removed from our minds, and the ego is completely removed. Any selfishness that may be there should be completely removed before we enter society for doing service.
Service must be directed towards the removal of physical distress, alleviation of mental agony and fulfillment of spiritual yearning.
Serving others is serving oneself.
For the diseases of doubt, despair and hesitation, which are the occupational diseases of spiritual aspirants, the most effective remedy is service.
The process Godward called self-sacrifice is in its innermost essence, Love. For God is love and love alone leads to Him. Love must be completely, selflessly Godward to be Divine. Its criterion must be Beloved first. Its technique must be Your Happiness, not mine. The way to happiness is the forgetting of oneself and the remembering of God.
Feel that you are serving yourself, that you are curbing your own ego, otherwise service heightens your self-esteem and develops a sense of superiority, which are both harmful spiritually.
Wastage in any form causes hurt to a society. Avoiding wastage and consuming the minimum of the earth's natural resources is a service to society. Whether it is food, clothing, water, electricity or petrol, in essence it is all God and so it has to be used carefully. Wasting anything in society is equivalent to wasting God.
The fulfillment of man's life on earth consists in filling oneself with love of God and transmuting that love into acts of Service - service of man who is the embodiment of God.
Service is worship, each act of service is a flower placed at the feet of the Lord. If the act is tainted by ego, it is as if the flower is infested with insects.
Be a servant; a servant of God - then all strength and joy will be added unto you.

From: 'Pathways to GOD' - by Jonathan Roof.

1. A Meaningful Contribution
   Charitable service is a component of all major religions. Even people who have no religious affiliation often feel the call to serve others. There is, in most of us, an innate recognition that we are part of society and that we are dependent on and obligated to society. We also have a fundamental urge to find meaning in life. This urge translates into our desire to contribute to our community. We feel that we should leave the Earth a better place than when we arrived. It is our duty to repay our debt to society and to improve the situation of others. If we will not serve God in the forms of our unfortunate brothers and sisters, how can we seek to realize a formless God?

   If you cannot pray for the total welfare of the community around you in whom God lives, how is it possible for you to worship an invisible God? The first thing you have to do is to look after the welfare of the living community around you. (Summer Showers 1974, p. 218)

2. Service to Self
   If we serve, thinking that our action is primarily for the benefit of others, we are incorrect. Service holds the greatest benefit for the one who serves. Others are assisted, but we derive the joy and spiritual lessons from the act. We come to recognize ourselves in others, which widens our compassion and broadens our vision. Service expands our vision beyond our own small ego boundaries. How can we be joyful when those beside us suffer? How can we see their pain and not respond? As we grow spiritually, we recognize that brotherhood is a reality, not simply a pious-sounding theory of churchgoers.

   If the individual is deluded into believing that he is saving others, then woe be to him, for there is no other at all. All are One; one man 's sorrow is everyone 's sorrow. The fundamental flaw is the ignorance of man. If only he was wise, he would have known that all individuals are waves on the surface of the selfsame ocean. (Sathya Sai Speaks 3, p. 68)

3. Service as a Spiritual Discipline
   When we call to mind various spiritual disciplines, service is usually riot the first one we think of. We commonly cite meditation, devotional singing, or study of holy books. Selfless service is a path to God-realization. When service is performed from compassion, without desire for reward or recognition, it can be a source of unlimited joy. That joy is found in the happiness of another, in the recognition that we are all manifestations of God. When we practice that discipline, we come to see that God is everywhere. The world is the body of God. All beings and all objects are manifestations of His will. When we find the Lord everywhere, we know that we too are God.

   You should believe that service is a path to God-realization. Service activities are to be undertaken not for the sake of the Sathya Sai Organization nor for the sake of society. They are purely and essentially for your own sake - to transform your own lives and redeem yourselves. (Sanathana Sarathi, Sept. 84, p. 232)

   With time and practice, service becomes an indispensable part of spiritual life. Through service, we learn to see God in all people and all things. Whatever our creed, service opens our hearts and lets our divinity emerge. We can forget our own needs and open up to the needs of others. How better can we serve God than to alleviate the suffering of His children -and to protect the well-being of Earth and all its creatures?

   Service to man will help your divinity to blossom, for it will gladden your heart and make you feel that life has been worthwhile. Service to man is service to God, for God is in every man and every living being and in every stone and stump. (Sathya Sai Speaks 4, p. 178)

   Service is an excellent arena for the reduction of ego. In service, we must consider the needs of others. We must learn to accept criticism and to persevere despite all obstacles. This spiritual proving ground enables us to see if we have been successful in reducing our anger, impatience, and greed. It allows us to gauge the depths of our compassion, and understanding. Spirituality should not exist only in our minds: spiritual principles must be practiced and made strong by the courage of our convictions and self-sacrifice. This type of service reforms us into images of divinity.

   But do not believe that you can by means of service reform or reshape the world You may or you may not. That does not matter. The real value of service, its most visible result, is that it reforms you, reshapes you. (Sathya Sai Speaks 5, p. 327)

   The task of eliminating the self-serving ego is not quick or easy. But through service, we learn to negate the pull of the senses toward the objects of wrong desire. Attachment to material pleasures inflates the ego and makes it difficult for us to experience the soul. As a cure to this tendency, service is ideal. It reduces attachment and keeps us mindful of the needs of others and all the kingdoms of nature.

   Service is the best sadhana for eliminating the nefarious pull of the mind towards desire. (Sathya Sai Speaks 7, p. 272)

   Eliminating the mind's pull towards desire is a major aspect of spiritual endeavor. The benefit of service is that it directs us away from too much self-concern. It is one of the few practices which allows us to escape from the cycle of concentrating on our own needs. When we work for the benefit of others, the Lord looks after our needs.

   Selfless service is a more exalted means of spiritual progress than such other ways as meditation, devotional singing, and yoga. This is so because when we undertake meditation, repetition of the name of God, or yoga, we do so for our own benefit and not for the good of others. These are aimed at subjugating one's individual desires and securing happiness for oneself What we should aspire for is the attainment of the good of others without any desire for personal gain. (Summer Showers 1979, pp. 5-6)

4. Motivation for Service
   

   God will not ask you, 'When and where did you do service?' He will ask, 'With what motive did you do it? What was the intention that prompted you?' You may weigh the service and boast of its quality. But God seeks quality, the quality of the heart, the purity of the mind, the holiness of the motive. (Sathya Sai Speaks 11, p. 195)

   Love is the best motivation for service. Love for others and love for God inspire us to true service. Through selfless work for others, we broaden our love and direct it to the God in others. There is no way to serve God except to serve His creation. For what can we give to God? We can offer only our love, intelligence, and labor to those in need.

   Service is the very essence of devotion to God, the very breath of a devotee, his very nature. It springs from the actual experience of the devotee. An experience that convinces him that all beings are God's children, that all bodies are altars where God is installed, that all places are His residences. (Sathya Sai Speaks 5, p. 237)

   We endlessly pray to the Lord for His grace. But how can we expect to receive grace if we will not lift our hands to help others? We earn God's love by our selfless actions. To progress on the spiritual path, it is more important for God to love us than for us to love God. We earn His love and grace through selfless service. Sai Baba sets an example of endless giving, never expecting anything in return. We must graduate from spiritual grade school and follow the example. How better can we repay our debt for the blessings we receive than by giving in turn to others? The stream only remains fresh when it gives away the water that it receives.

   The Lord is pleased only when you do things the Lord desires! How else can you win His grace? How else than by nursing and nourishing, … and saving His children? (Sathya Sai Speaks 7, p. 196)

   When we start, it is difficult for us to know how to serve. We must carefully appraise our abilities and choose an appropriate field of service. We must learn to be selfless and caring, but just as important, we must be effective and truly helpful. Our service should match our skills and training.

   You must have not merely enthusiasm to serve, but the intelligence and the skill; then only can you be efficient and useful. Enthusiasm without efficiency is often a source of loss and grief. (Sathya Sai Speaks 5, p. 125)

   The quantity of work done is not important. What is important is that service is motivated by pure ideals. We should serve others as we would serve God Himself. The one who serves must act without selfishness, anger, or greed. The servant must act without desire of reward or recognition.

   When judging the service done, by a member... it is not the quality or the number of individual instances that matter; they do not count at all. Judge rather the motive that led him to serve, the genuineness of the love and compassion with which the service was saturated 71w explanation that appeals to Swami is that you did the service with no taint of ego, and that you derive unsurpassed joy, as a result. (Sathya Sai Speaks 10, p. 220)

   There are many tests for practitioners of service. As in the other spiritual disciplines, the Lord tests us to see that our selflessness is strong and genuine. We must learn to serve despite criticism and obstacles. Our wills must be strong enough to overcome ego and inertia. Obstacles appear to test and strengthen our resolve.

   The Lord, too, will provide many tests to ensure that your faith is firm, that your spirit of service is full and universal. The weaker practitioners of this selfless service will soon be shaken by these tests and stray away from the right path. (Sathya Sai Speaks 10, p. 219)

5. Crossing the Ocean
   The joy of service grows and blossoms into detachment. When we serve God in others, we find that the Lord is resident in our own hearts also. Desire for personal gain vanishes and we experience lasting happiness. If the essential step of service is not practiced, then how can we know the joy?

   One cannot cross the ocean of this cycle of births and deaths by visiting many sacred places, nor can one do it by performing japa and studying holy books. It is only possible to do so by performing service. (Summer Showers 1973, p. 75)

   The spiritual fact is that we can grow only by expressing love in action. The inspiring truth is that we should be grateful to those who allow us to serve them - who have given us an opportunity to approach closer to God. It is most humbling and most exalting - because all exists in Oneness the fact is that when we serve others, we are actually only serving ourselves!