Cultivating Seva: Selfless Service as Devotion

Seva is the spiritual practice of selfless service. Seva, a Sanskrit word, springs from two forms of yoga, Karma Yoga which is yoga of action and Bhakti Yoga, the yoga of worship inspired by divine love. Seva is one of the simplest and yet most profound and life changing ways that we can put our spiritual knowledge into action. Seva is asking “How may I serve you?” Or ask “Can I help you?” Another way of doing service is to roll up your sleeves and help where you notice that you are needed. We can share our resources and energy with those in need and respond positively when a person asks for help. "Being there as the need arises” is a simple definition of Seva by Sri Ravi Shankar of the Art of Living Foundation. When you consider work as divine service, you can do it anywhere, at any time. Doing Seva is uplifting your own self, your own people and your world. Offering our Seva is a way to make a significant contribution to the spiritual community of fellow beings on earth. It is a practice that feeds us spiritually and a spiritual discipline that awakens us to the greater truth of our own being.

We are one big family; we depend on each other for our existence and we cannot exist alone. Therefore, we should work for the good of all. I am reminded to how Native Americans say “All my relations” as a blessing to all beings and an acknowledgement of connectedness with all life. In our interconnected existence, we are called to treat each person as a sister or a brother and to remember ahimsa, the yogic precept of non-harming. Performing Seva helps us live in a way that is non-harming to others and to live up to that ideal.

All people have a human need for contribution. Everyone wants to help people and have their efforts make a difference in the world. What is your path? What is your contribution? The question in thinking of Seva, is less what you do and more how you do it. When we practice selfless service, we imbue our actions with intention, and we do so without expectation of reward.
 
We experience our interdependence when each of us fulfills our duties as a family member, friend, and as a part of society. When we perform duties with the attitude of not thinking of any selfish rewards, but as a contribution to life, that spirit will develop an inner detachment. From this perspective, Seva is an attitude and consciousness we bring to what we do.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna explained that when we think only about ourselves, we become bound to things, and as a result of that attachment all kinds of obstacles come into our life. This makes it more difficult to find peace and happiness. The Bhagavad Gita teaches tells us that a good way to find happiness is through detachment, because whenever there is attachment there is suffering and attachment is a major cause of suffering. And where there is detachment there is peace and harmony.  This is because with the spirit of sacrifice comes non-attachment. Sacrifice is giving up doing acts that only serve ourselves and making our life become one that serves others.

In thinking of the non-attachment, I am reminded of the importance of evenness of mind emphasized by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras. The evenness we cultivate in our practice relates to this idea of non-judgmental observation of the world. In other words that is seeing the events that happen around us with detachment. Cultivating non-attachment develops the equanimity for which yoga practitioners strive. Learning and practicing giving without expectation of reward is what Seva is all about.

And where there is sacrifice to our actions, everyone gains. Sacrifice in this context means thinking of the needs of others and acting on helping them instead of just thinking of ourselves. The Gita says that there is no place for people who do not make sacrifices in this world, let alone a place in the next world. Therefore, always perform your actions with the spirit of non-attachment.

As someone said, selfless service is like a tree. We nurture and water it, and when the tree grows we will enjoy it because we have seen the tree from the beginning. We have cared for it, and when it blossoms we feel happy.

There are two main benefits in practicing Seva; the healing impact it has on other people and the environment in which we are offering our service and the transformation that takes place within us as we come to new spiritual understanding. Doing service as a devotional act can bring us to an elevated state of being. It can connect us with our ability to love. Seva is an ideal way to both give and receive simultaneously. We are giving the very best of ourselves to the people and the activities we are engaged with and by the nature of spiritual law we cannot help but receive in return the inner inspiration, revelation and fulfillment.

Rishis were sages who lived as dedicated vedic yogins in Indian spiritual history prior to yoga during the time in which the Vedas were written. Vedas are the first spiritual scriptures that have existed in written form. Yoga evolved from the wisdom of the Rishis. They taught aspirants how to live in divine harmony. Through intensive spiritual practice, Rishis were often gifted with a vision of the ultimate reality. Rishis incorporated these laws in spiritual living for us to practice from our free will. By nature, voluntarily, we will do the right thing; that is what dharma is about. That is what dharma essentially is, to perform our duties for the good of all.

Rabindranath Tagore, the esteemed poet from India said “I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was duty (also called dharma). I acted, and behold, duty was joy!”

The essential teaching of the Bhagavad Gita is to do Seva. Through that spirit of selfless activities, when we have nothing to gain and nothing to lose by not doing, performing Seva all the time to our family, and our activities, we attain that height of realization whereby our mind becomes absorbed in God. The practice of Seva becomes a path to self-realization which is the essence of yoga.

"When you surrender completely to God, as the only truth worth having, you  find yourself in service of all that exists. It becomes your joy and  recreation. You never tire of serving others."
      Mahatma Gandhi

So how do we perform selfless service in our own lives? The practice of Seva is not something we do in addition to everything else that we are doing in our lives; it is something that we do while we are going about the normal business of every day living.

To begin to put this practice into action for yourself, all that you need do is mentally pause before you an activity or interact with someone. Establish the intention to offer your Seva to the activity. This can be as simple as taking a moment before you go into your place of work. Prepare yourself to see divinity in all the people with whom you come in contact today. Offer your work by means of your thoughts, words and actions today.

Or you can take a moment before you begin to prepare a meal for yourself or your family or friends and create intention to prepare this meal with a Seva consciousness. Everyone enjoys food made with love, and doing so is simple. Food imbued with the intention of love nourishes our beings, and making food as Seva gives back to us.

Seva should be done with no expectation of reward or even acknowledgement of the work that is done. Make yourself invisible and do acts of kindness without expectation of return, coming from a place of love. Sri Swami Satchidananda had teachings on doing Seva and Karma Yoga, the yoga of action. He said to perform actions that benefit of another. A metric to tell if it was doing this was to question whether what one was doing is good for someone and causes harm to no one. In order to accrue as little bad karma as possible, put another’s interest ahead of your own. Think of another person. What are they thinking? What do they need? As how you can act in order to be of most benefit? Are you harming anyone by this possible action? Can you deal with everyone in this way by serving them? Live your life making good choices moment to moment.

In its purest form, Karma Yoga, the yoga of selfless action combines with pure love and
you become a channel for cosmic love.  You are egoless, and not doing the act for yourself.  You are channeling actions of Seva through yourself as hands of the divine.  This experience is an ecstatic state and rare in everyday experience.

An everyday experience of Seva may not take you to a transcendent state, yet it does have positive effect on you and your world.

I was inspired by an explanation by Ram Dass, in his book Compassion to Action about the power of doing acts of compassion. As we are a part of interconnected family, acts of caring are part of a vast network of compassionate acts occurring throughout the universe all the time. Though small and seemingly insignificant, they somehow balance out the billions of tiny acts of ignorance, greed, violence and exploitation that are creating suffering. Tiny acts of compassion bring healing to our world.

Truly there is no relationship or activity that will not be tremendously uplifted and affected for the better by our intention to bring our spirituality to the forefront of our attention. After all, what good is our spiritual knowledge if it does not change the way we live and interact with others on a daily basis?

Thanks to Ganesh MacIsaac who lives and serves at Integral Yoga in Virginia. He spoke of his personal experience and provided insights into the teachings of Swami Satchidananda whom he studied with for many years.

Copyright 2004
Yoga People LLC
All rights reserved