“You cannot fulfill God’s purposes for your life while focusing on your own plans. ”
– Rick Warren
Kabir – The couplet
दास बनना कठिन है, मैं दासों का दास ।
अब तो ऐसा होए रहूँ, पाँव तले की घास ||
transliterated:
Daas bananna kathin hai, main daason ka daas |
Ab to aisa hoye rahoon, paanv tale ki ghaas ||
Translation:
It was difficult to serve, I am the servant of servants|
I now wish to be like the grass under each foot||
My understanding:
I have often succumbed to the temptation to be praised by serving, even to the extent of finding those circumstances where my service would be the most visibly noticed.
However, such service never gave me any peace – for it was immediately followed by the questions –
Was it well received?
Did it achieve purpose?
Was I noticed appropriately? …. And more.
When I finally turned my attention to the inside, quieted down the cacophony of the ego demanding attention, and learned to listen, the real need for my service began to show itself all around. When I began to serve because it was needed, rather than because it was opportune, a magical transformation happened – I was rewarded in ways I never understood before.
Serving because it is needed is the right way to serve. Being the servant has made me free of the chains of ego and the prison of perception.
I now see that allowing this body to be of service is helping me find the real purpose of this physical existence.