The path of selfless service

Recently, Ayya, one of the first disciples of Swamiji was in Singapore and shared some beautiful truths about how working for the mission makes us grow in our own path. The previous post spoke about how when we set unreasonable targets and work, our mind-body entity has to drop. As Paramahamsa Nithyananda says "Don't think that depending on your energy you should take up responsibilities. I tell you, just take up more and more responsibilities; the energy to carry them forward will just gush through you".

This post throws light further about how seva or selfless service towards the master/mission is only for us to evolve spiritually. The Master understands the modern human mind only too well. In olden days, simple techniques like watching the breath or just witnessing thoughts could lead one to enlightenment. Today, life is so fast paced and filled with activity. A whole new layer has formed in the brain called the 'cerebral layer' to cope up with this fast lifestyle. The thousands of ad hoardings, TV commercials, magazines, newspapers etc are filled with junk information that the brain cannot even handle.

By and by, our whole mental set up has become that of 'restlessness'. Swamiji quotes Ramakrishna's simile about modern human mind as a drunk monkey which has been bitten by a thousand scorpions. This was hundred years ago that Ramakrishna uttered those words, you can imagine now! We need to add more qualifiers to that simile :)

Now for such a mental setup filled with 'rajas' (restlessness), if one prescribes meditation alone, then the restlessness takes over after some time. Or once the meditation is done, we revert to our usual stressful lifestyle. The same goes with Yoga or devotion or any other traditional path of silence/going inward. Working for the mission is a means to channelise that energy that is otherwise getting dissipated.

By working for the mission, there is an undercurrent intention of working towards enlightenment. Any action done with a strong intention only strengthens that intention further, there by adding intensity to the whole process. The best part is that with Paramahamsa Nithyananda, there are infinite options to choose from so that we do what we love doing and still can get the satisfaction of working for Him. Starting from transcribing, editing and writing books to organising/managing events to volunteering to composing/singing songs or painting to teaching...

When we do mission work with a deep feeling of connection with the Master, then that work is not work anymore. It's just a blissful expression from within. It becomes a celebration!

What a beautiful opportunity the Master is giving all of us to connect to Him even when His form is absent and to intensity our penance in a fun-way by doing what we love doing. That is the specialty about doing mission work - the master doesn't need us, we do not help anybody but ourselves in the process. His energy will do it's work anyway, with or without us being involved. It is for us to understand that when we immerse ourselves in seva or selfless service towards the master/mission, only we expand and connect more and more deeply to our core.

Inner Transformation - the Greatest Service

Last night one of our friends beaming with a grin was sharing with us about his parents' first meeting with Paramahamsa Nithyananda. They had just visited Bidadi to receive healing and blessings directly from Swamiji. He was telling us how touched they were by the healing presence of the Master. Now (during the month of March 2008), the Master Himself is giving free healing to thousands of people who are coming to the ashram. He is giving free discourses in the evening every day. Throughout this month, everyone morning, He sits there patiently, listening to the problems of people. He sits there without a break as long as there are people.

We keep hearing about social services by various NGOs etc. They might be doing great work but the compassion of an enlightened master cannot be matched by any person or any organization. I have heard people ask, 'all meditation programs are ok but what social service does the organization do?'

I feel compelled to tell about the social service part of the Paramahamsa Nithyananda's movement because these details never come out in the open. In the website, we see a tab 'Social Service' with one page write up but if we go slightly deeper, we see theres so much that is being done and Swamiji does not even mention about it. The fortnightly free health check up camps, free eye check up camps and free meditation programs to thousands (literally) of people for rural villages in India are just a few examples. There are one-year long courses being conducted in the ashram in India where few hundred people are undergoing spiritual training under Swamiji, completely free. They are learning the Vedic sciences without spending even a rupee on anything. There are many more ...

Anyways, one important thing, I want to highlight is Paramahamsa Nithyananda's expression of His enlightenment is like teaching a person how to fish rather than giving him fish for one meal. He is continuously on the mission of inner transformation of the individual through meditation. That is the biggest social service that someone can do. When this inner transformation happens, every individual starts to radiate that bliss and energy of the Master to everyone around; the socially perceived social service happens through each one of them. Like He says -

"Transformation of humanity and global peace happen through transformation of every individual."