Right Understanding To Help Others

Author(s): Dada Bhagwan
Publisher: Mahavideh Foundation

Page 14

Right Understanding to Help Others
15
Right Understanding to Help Others
(dharma) of a human being to improve that which has become ruined. People are always too eager to improve that which has already improved, but to improve that which has become ruined is regarded as "religion' (dharma).
Is Serving Others the Same as Serving God?
Questioner: Is service to people the same as service of God?
Dadashri: No, it is not a service to God. Why do people serve other people? It is because they hurt inside. When they see other people's misery, they feel sympathy for them and, therefore, they hurt within. They Help Others to ease their own pain. Therefore, the help one lends is really to ease his own pain. A man says, 'It was out of my kindness and sympathy for them that I gave donations to this charity, to that charity.' No! He is only doing so to relieve his own pain. Do you understand what I am saying? This is a very subtle point. Nevertheless, it is good to give to others because you will gain from it.
Questioner: Service to people is service to God. Is it better to serve people or should one serve idols in the temples?
Dadashri: Service to people will bring worldly happiness for you and gradually, one step at a time, it will take you towards liberation. But that does not happen in every life; only in certain lifetimes does everything fall into place. Since it does not happen in every lifetime, it is not a rule.
Salvation of the World is at Subtle Levels
Service to the society is not the same as service for the salvation of the world (jagat kalyan). Service to society is a worldly intent and for that a person does whatever he is able to. But it is all on a superficial level, whereas the salvation of the world (jagat kalyan) is a very different matter altogether. Doing salvation of the world encompasses subtle, subtler and subtlest inner language (bhasha). There are extremely subtle intents
(bhaav) and their vibrations. Humanitarian Service is an Attribute of the Prakruti
Humanitarian service (samaaj seva) is where a person binds a very strong commitment to serve humanity and serves humanity. He remains preoccupied in his service only; he does not pay much attention even in his own home. Kindness, pity, empathy, etc., are just internal feelings which will continue to manifest within a person. These are all inherent traits of the relative-self (prakruti) that a person brings forth within him or her from the past life. But in the final analysis, everything a person does is the doing of the prakruti; it all falls into the realms of the relative-self. Prakruti will vary: one person's prakruti will be such that he wants to make others happy while another person's will make people miserable. Both these traits belong to the prakruti and not the Self. Whatever traits a person has brought with him in his prakruti, are the traits that will express.
Service and Disservice are part of the Non-Self
Helping others or hurting others, both are traits of the nonSelf (prakruti). Neither involves any real effort (purusharth), yet one believes, 'I am doing it. Now, to believe, 'I am doing it, is an illusion. Because of your prakruti, you will continue to serve others even after having received Gnan. Such service (seva) will be pure (shuddha) service. The service that you are doing currently is associated with bondage because of your belief, 'I am doing it. It is meritorious (shubha) service. Nevertheless, even a shackle of gold is a shackle that binds!
After Self-realization, you will not feel pain upon seeing the misery of others, rather you will remain compassionate and their suffering will lessen. At the moment, what you experience for others is sympathy. That sympathy will always cause you pain because it torments you with what you imagine the other person must be feeling. Where there is sympathy (daya), there is always