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Sai Baba's Teaching on Service

Baba's teachings on service

In our Sai Centers, selfless service is just as important a spiritual activity as devotional singing.

"Avatars of God are engaged in service; that is why Avatars come. Hence, when you offer service to mankind, the Avatar is pleased and you can win grace."

Sathya Sai Speaks X, 19, 126.

Service and the Sai Organization

"The members of our Organization must be ready and eager to help students, the sick, and the poor. Feel that this is work that pleases Me . . . Spend your days and years in activities that help those in dire need, and thus make this human existence of yours worthwhile and fruitful."

Sathya Sai Speaks IX, 32, 173

"Let me tell you that nothing is impossible if an organized society is set on achieving it. Even liberation from material entanglement can be won through serving and promoting the progress of society. Through the sense of unity, the willingness to sacrifice, and the softness of compassion, all objects can be gained. So, the Sathya Sai Organization must move forward with hearty enthusiasm in the field of service to society."

Sathya Sai Speaks XI, 34, 191

Make service a lifetime activity, which begins with your family. Service to those in need, performed with a loving attitude, while recognizing the Divinity in those we are helping, and done selflessly is an example of Sai selfless service, whether it is done at home, at work, or alone. The foundation of Sai service is always spiritual.

"Do not keep yourself apart, intent on your own salvation through meditation; instead, move among your sisters looking for opportunities to be of help, with the Name of God on your tongue and the Form of God before the mind's eye."

Sathya Sai Speaks VII, 39, 204

"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 to worship."

Sathya Sai Speaks IX, 35, 189

What is selfless service?

"What exactly is selfless service? It is the very essence of devotion, the very breath of a devotee, his very nature. It springs from the actual experience of the devotee, an experience that convinces 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 V, 66, 327

"The spiritual exercise of service is quite distinct. In service, you devote all your energy and attention to the task at hand, for it is a dedicated task. You forget your body and ignore its demands. You set aside your individuality and its prestige and perquisites. You pluck your ego by its roots and cast it away. You give up your status, your conceit, your name and form and all that they demand from others. This process makes the mind pure."

Sathya Sai Speaks X, 19, 122

Selfless service is a self-serving activity

Selfless service helps us to:

• Control and purify the mind
• Put a ceiling on our desires
• Erase our karmic burden
• Remove the ego
• Bring love into our lives
• Experience the Unity of all
• Become aware of the God within all
• Win the Grace of God

"When a devotee seeks with humility and purity to give service and love to My creatures who are in need of such selfless service, as his beloved brothers and sisters, as the blessed manifestations of My Immanence, then in fulfillment of my role as Sathya Sai, I descend to help, accompany, and carry that yogi. I am always near such a yogi to guide him and to shower My love on his life."

My Baba and I, by Jack Hislop, 170

Our attitude when doing service

Make Selfless Service: a "State of Mind" and a "Way of Life"

"God will not ask you, when and where you rendered service? He will ask with what motive you did it. You may boast about the quantity, but God seeks quality, the quality of the heart, the purity of the mind, the nobility of the motive. The Lord is pleased only when you do the things He desires. How else can you win His grace, but by nursing and nourishing His children."

March 19, 2008 Thought for the Day, Sathya Sai Baba