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and properly employed in the welfare of the others. This is the true form of service. In service renunciation is important and not in accumulation of things. Therefore, the interest of the servant is always in renunciation only. The things are an inseparable part of the world and, so, to accumulate things is to become a debtor of the world. To surrender the things for the welfare of the worldly creatures and to serve with whatever one has is to become free from the worldly debt. When one becomes free from the worldly debt he becomes free from the worldly association with pudgala that constitutes the karma matter also. When the association with the karma matter comes to an end, the soul liberates and becomes one with the indestructible and eternal supreme soul. Then the difference between the servant and the supreme soul vanishes. What is meant is that by serving one gains the power of renunciation, which accelerates the soul towards liberation. The servant does not expect anything from the world and, therefore, he does not think about the worldly affairs, but it is the world that thinks about the servant. The servant does not run after the organisation, but the organisation runs after the servant. The servant's heart is devoid of both – poverty and pride. The value of service rendered does not depend on giving more or less number of things or on doing more or less of the service activity but it depends on the feeling of kindness, compassion, love, affection, and on the feeling of giving. The service rendered with feeling is the only valuable service.
Service takes the form of giving away the available pleasure and means of enjoyment to others for mitigating their misery and to promote their welfare and not to desire any recognition, honour or property etc., in return even to the extent of not desiring to be known as a servant. It is so because even to be recognised as a servant is to enjoy the worldly prestige attached to the term and is, therefore, selfishness. The feeling of selfishness destroys the feeling of service and is a serious flaw. The feeling of service strengthens to the extent that the feeling of selfishness decreases.
Underlining the importance of service, Ācārya Hari-bhadra says in his commentary on the Āvasyaka sūtra that once Gañadhara Gautama
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