Seva is the Spiritual Practice of Being Selfless
Seva is a Sanskrit word, which means ‘selfless service’ or work performed without any thought of reward or repayment. In ancient India, seva was believed to help one’s spiritual growth and at the same time contribute to the improvement of a community. This is the art of giving with no need to receive, where the act itself is a gift to everyone involved. Seva is the art of blessed action.
Seva is the spiritual practice of selfless service. It springs from two forms of yoga, karma yoga, which is yoga of action and bhakti yoga, the yoga of worship inspired by divine love. It is one of the simplest and yet most profound and life changing ways that we can put our spiritual knowledge into action. It is asking “How may I serve you?” or “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. 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. Every human being is a manifestation. Every object manifests the divine. Service can instill more intensely than any other activity the sense of the basic one.
Service saves you from the agony you get when another suffers; it broadens your vision, widens your awareness, deepens your compassion. All waves are on the same sea, from the same sea. It teaches you to be firm in this knowledge. No other sadhana can bring you into the incessant contemplation of the oneness of all living beings. The mind of a person not engaged in service is a devil’s workshop. One who does not work sits like an inert object. Such a person does not get sleep also. The one who does not get sleep starts thinking of bad things. He gets unnecessary thoughts. He becomes mad afterwards. When we keep doing work, there is no room for such unwanted thoughts. Peace is the state free from thoughts. Love deepens with this peace.
This love is innate in us. So we can increase this love inherent in us through dedication and service. 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. In our interconnected existence, we are called to treat each person as a brother or a sister 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. 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. Selfless service of humanity prepares the aspirant for the attainment of cosmic consciousness, or the life of oneness or unity with god.
Through selfless service and charity, develop the heart and cleanse the lower mind. Purify your heart by selfless and humble service of the poor and the afflicted, and make it a fit abode for god to dwell. Selfless service alone can purify your heart and fill it with divine virtues. Only the pure in heart will have the vision of god. Grow in love, purity and self-sacrifice. Live for others. You will attain the state of blessedness.
Selfless service and cosmic love are the Ganga and Yamuna that irrigate the field of the human heart and enable the rich harvest of peace, joy, prosperity, immortality, and atma-jnana to be reaped.
This article is written by His Holiness Sri Balagangadaranatha Mahaswamiji, 71st Pontiff of Sri Adichunchanagiri Mahasstana Math