Daily Archives: January 10, 2015

“The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt. “
– Frederick Buechner
 
Kabir – The couplet
चली जो पुतली लाउनु कि, थाह सिंधु का लेन ।
आपहु गली पानी भई, उलटी कहे को बैन ॥
 
transliterated:
Chali jo putli laun ki, thaah sindhu kaa len|
Aaphu gali paani bhayi, ulti kahe ko bain||
 
Translation:
A doll of salt went out, to measure the ocean’s depth |
In the ocean, it dissolved (merged), who can put it back together again? ||

My understanding:
Taking the thought of service to the next space – when we put our all into an action, we have no bandwidth to spare to think of or presume result. When our whole existence is focused on the act and not the result/reaction, we have become the act. When this happens we are not the individual any longer, but the service itself.

Fire exists to be used. We can choose to use it to cook food, warm ourselves or burn things down. It can be used to forge weapons, or build shelters.

No one blames the fire or praises it – they just use or suffer the result.

Service is the fire – light it and become the fire. It will find the appropriate use for itself.

When we merge into service, we have become part of a much larger space. There, the old me has burned away, to be unavailable to forge or be recast any longer.

For me, service is the greatest version of God I can present for the use of others.

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
 
Kabir – The couplet
फल कारण सेवा करे, करे न मन से काम ।
कहे कबीर सेवक नहीं, चहै चौगुना दाम ॥
 
transliterated:
Phal kaaran seva kare, kare na man se kaam|
Kahe Kabir sevak nahin, chahai chauguna daam ||
 
Translation:
Work done for a consideration, is not work done to serve |
Says Kabir, this is not service, when there is a price attached ||

My understanding:
Continuing in a similar vein from the prior post, the opportunity to serve is more than ample reward for the service offered. So why do so very few see this or accept it when presented?

We seem to crave for more than just enough. When we cook, we make more than might be needed “just in case” and then complain when there are too many leftovers in the refrigerator. We buy more, bigger, faster, heavier, lighter, greater than needed at the time, and then complain about the funds running out. We eat more than we need for the moment, and blame it on “the caveman instinct” when the excess is highlighted.

The first error is to succumb to the desire for more than the need. The next error, compounding the first, is to blame it on anyone or anything other than the self, the real culprit. When we refuse to recognize it as an error of judgment, there is no correction we will ever accept for the poor behavior.

So recognize the mistake, call it what it is, stop looking for scapegoats, and then do away with the excess. Once this cleansing is done the first time, keep repeating it, same way as we take a bath everyday, and not just the one time and then never again.

For it is only when we keep the mind clean and spotless that it can truly sense the brilliance within!