TRUE SERVICE IS A WAY OF LIFE
By Edward Abdill
Originally printed in “Light Of Consciousness” magazine 2006, vol. 18 No. 2
THE GREAT RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS teach that service is an integral aspect of the spiritual life. We can contribute service to charitable organizations, hospitals, schools, and religious organizations. All of that may be useful and deeply appreciated by those who need our help. Yet from a Theosophical point of view, it may or may not be true service. To repeat what one of the adepts' said in a letter, "motive is everything for us" (The Mahatma Letters 295).2
There are many who serve because they believe they are expected to. Some do it to be seen and praised by others. There are corporations that expect their employees to do some charitable work so that the company wins the admiration and therefore the business of its clients. Employees who serve in order to get high marks on their evaluations are not really serving, no matter how much good their work may bring about.
Sometimes when people think that they should serve, they become meddlesome. We cannot remove all of the
world's ills single-handedly. We must learn to see what we can do and what we cannot do. Sentimentality often
interferes with real service. When we cannot help, it is essential to accept that fact. If we become sentimental and try to help when we cannot, we may make matters worse and waste time trying to do the impossible when we could use that time to do what we can do.
What we do in order to serve is not nearly so important as the attitude of mind that prompts us to serve. From a Theosophical point of view, true service is a way of life that results from an interior state. The insights that we gain through study and meditation become part of our very nature. They change us. We become more conscious of a deep unity with all that lives, and compassion naturally flows out of that realization. When we see someone in need, and we know that we can help, we do. We do it not because we have been taught to be charitable, but because we cannot do otherwise. It is part of our nature. We cannot walk away from serving because we cannot violate our own nature.
A true story may help to illustrate the nature of real service. Many years ago there was an old lady who played the organ for a small church in New York. She worked as a nurse on a night shift in a Queens hospital until she was in her eighties. When she got off work on Sunday morning she would travel to Manhattan, arriving at about 8:30 a.m. She would have breakfast and then go to the church, prepared to play for the service at 11:00 a.m. At 12:30 p.m. she would have lunch with members of the congregation and then travel to her sister's home in Queens for a few hours of sleep, after which she returned to the hospital for work.
Members of the church were amazed by the strength of her dedication. One Sunday at lunch people around the table were praising her. She could not understand why they were going on about it. She was rather annoyed by all the praise, and she ended it with one statement. She said, "Please stop it. I'm just doing what I want to do." The woman served because it was her nature. It was not work to her. It was a joy.
To live a life of service means that when we see something that we can do to help a fellow human being, an animal, or a plant we do it instinctively. We need not donate many hours to charitable work. The simple act of smiling at a supermarket clerk who seems unhappy is service. If we see a broken bottle on the sidewalk and remove it so that no one will be hurt by it, we are serving. Whenever we act selflessly to do what we can to bring joy and harmony into the life of a fellow being, human or other, we are serving. Those who render true service do so because it is part of their nature. They can do no other.
Study, meditation, and service are one whole. Study is a kind of meditation, just as meditation is a kind of study. Service is the inevitable result of true study and meditation, because these two lead to a realization of the ultimate unity of all life. Compassion flows from that sense of unity, and compassion is made visible by the action of service. -•***'
1 Master Koot Hoomi
2 The Mahatma letters to A. P. Sinnett, Edited by Vicente Hao Chin, Theosophical Publishing House, 1998.
Copyright £ 2005 by The Theosophical Publishing House. Edward Abdill is a former director of the Theosophical Society in America; he lectures throughout the United States and internationally. This article is an excerpt from his recent book, The Secret Gateivay, published by Quest Books, Theosophical Publishing House, www.questbooks.net. Photo © 2006 Jupiterlmages Corporation
