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SERVICE OF GOD
(Excerpts from Madman’s Jholi)
By Sri Sri Sitaramdas Omkarnath

Never should a moment pass without service.
When will this mind turn,
That only desire of serving Him remains?

A devotee does not want anything except being in the service of his dearest Thakur. He does not want virtue, wealth, desire or emancipation. His only object of desire is service. He is satisfied with the resolve that ‘I will come and serve your feet’.

God Himself says, ‘The Heaven, happiness, wealth, riches and the Kingdom of Heaven are trifles.’
‘The devotees do not accept anything except my service.’

Srimadbhagavata mentions, ‘Even if I offer Salokya, Samipya, and Sayujya emancipation; the devotee does not accept them.

The devotee’s only prays:
Never should a moment pass without service.
When will this mind turn,
That only desire of serving Him remains?

The act of anointing the house,
Cleaning the temple,
Cleaning the remains of offering from the Holy Body,
Picking Tulsi, sandal, flowers,
Meditation on God
Thinking of the Self with the uttering of the mantra,
Reading Suktas, hymns, chanting the Name,
Study of the Vedas, Puranas and other Shastras,
Worship of God according to rules,
Performing these five kinds of worship
I will remain always engaged in speech, body and mind
And cool all my agonies,
‘Service alone lifts upwards’.

It is service that takes us to the higher world. That service alone does away with self-identification and the feeling of ‘mine’ and gives us experience of the soul. Service alone gives us direct perception of the loving and the loved Lord. Service alone keeps Him bound in love. No other Sadhana, worship, Yoga, sacrifice and penance, is needed. Service; only service is needed. The devotee, rendering service through body and mind, does not even realise when and how he has been set free. He does not even notice his crossing this vast ocean infested with dangerous creatures like lust, anger, etc.

In the Upanishads we see that God wished to become many and take different forms. Then, in innumerable universes, He took form of everything from a tuft of grass to Brahma, and started this act.

He says to Brahma in Srimadbhagavata, ‘Before Creation, I alone existed. There was nothing; existent, non-existent or unmanifested. On Creation, I become all the objects that are, gross or subtle, and on dissolution, I alone will remain. I only was, I am and I only will be.’

There is nothing else.

Vishnupurana says, ‘Gods, human beings, birds, beasts, trees and reptiles, though they exist like dissimilar things, are all the manifestations of Vishnu. Knowing this the whole world should be looked upon as the one Soul since Vishnu assumes all forms.’

‘All objects that exist at any place, with or without any form, are His body.’

‘Vishnu alone is the Moon, the Sun, the stars, and all others heavenly bodies. Vishnu alone is the fourteen worlds. Vishnu alone is all forests, mountains, directions, rivers and the oceans. He is all. All objects that exist or not, are all Vishnu.’

‘This is my teaching to you in brief; the knowledge that there is no difference between all objects and the Supreme Soul is the highest truth and essence.’

‘All that exists in the world is Lord Vishnu. There is nothing except Him. You or I and all the objects that exist, are the Soul. Give up the delusion of distinction.’

Maitreya said, ‘I have already received the knowledge from you that this world is the manifestation of Vishnu, it exists in Vishnu and there is nothing except that Vishnu.’

‘That Supreme Being is the manifested and the unmanifest. That universal soul Lord Hari exists as the Universe.’

‘O Shankara, know yourself as inseparable from me, you are who I am. Even this world full of gods and demons and men, is the manifestation of myself. It is the men deluded by ignorance, who make distinction.’

That, God himself is in the guises of all and is performing His act, is gradually understood by the devotee.

The loving devotee with undivided devotion, bows to all things; the sky, the air, fire, water, the earth, the Moon, the Sun and other heavenly bodies, all material objects, all creatures, the ten directions, all trees, all rivers, all oceans and all other things, thinking them to be the body of Sri Hari.

The devotee loses his self doing the service of God and in chanting His name. He offers obeisance with the belief that all are His form. His belief that, gods, human beings, beasts, birds, trees, creepers, worms and insects are all the images of God in His Leela, and that all things beginning from the atom up to the Himalayas are His forms, becomes strengthened.

Vishnudharmottara states, ‘Anyone related to me is Vishnu, anyone who is my enemy is Vishnu, the heaven, the sky, the earth and the directions are Vishnu. The whole universe consisting of objects both animate and inanimate, is Vishnu. The fourteen worlds are Vishnu. I have no friends, I have no enemies, there is no collection of elements and there is no one apart from me. You, he and I are only physically different bodies of God.

I belong to that God and that King of the Gods is mine. I am not invisible to him and he is not invisible to me. I bow to God, who pervades this whole universe. I take refuge in only Him, who is mine and to whom I belong.

While serving God, the devotee sees everything as the body of God. He also comes to look upon his own body as the ‘Leela-image’ of God. He begins to consider taking care of it as service to God. On eating his meal, the devotee says, ‘I offered food to God.’ He remembers nothing except service. Since everything is the image of God this body is also His. The devotee is then filled with joy. He is not afraid of hearing the praise of the body and accepts it as praise of God. ‘What I had so far known to be my body is the form through which He performs His Leela. Oh, what joy! What joy! I am without a separate identity. This ‘Leela-Vigraha’ of God is serving all the ‘Leela-Vigrahas’ of Himself! Oh, what joy! That Supreme Being Sri Bhagwan is playing his Leela as the doer and receiver of service, as worship and the object of worship.’

Glory to God!

Glory to service!

Glory to service!