The Value of Service

Wisdom Teachings
Right Living
Book: On Service

Just as the different cells of the body don't exist for themselves but have a function in service of the entire body, it is a law that we ourselves can only live by serving the greater life. Therefore everyone has to serve the surrounding life in one way or the other and must gain the required skills. If we don't exhale, we also cannot inhale; if we don't want to serve, we also cannot receive. Service in objectivity and meditation in subjectivity are like the two aspects of breathing. The inhalation we get through meditation must be translated into action by serving the surrounding life. Service is a horizontal work, meditation a vertical one. The vertical work enables us to express ourselves well in the horizontal work. Those who meditate better can also serve better. You gain depth in order to grow more into the horizontal. At the same time the degree of service to the beings in our surrounding determines the degree of depth we reach. The work in the vertical and in the horizontal has to go on simultaneously; otherwise the energy gets stuck or lost. It is one of the simple truths of nature that we receive from above when we start distributing around us. In distributing we don't have to look on what we can get; this is commercial thinking. If we go on distributing - good deeds, words and thoughts, also wisdom and love -, the channel opens vertically. Then we are able to receive more and more and the higher ones can cooperate with us.

Service and meditation work have to be put on a par, if we want to make progress in spiritual life. It is even dangerous to meditate without having the attitude to serve. A wrong motive is like weeds growing rampant in our garden, fertilised by the energy of meditation. Thus meditation can cause inner chaos and great problems: With some it gives rise to unbridled emotions and sexual impulses, with others to ambition, pride or subtle manipulation. With egocentricity we circumscribe ourselves and build our own hell. Through selfless service the soul reaches the universal consciousness.

The desire to serve however alone is not enough; each service needs an appropriate competence. If we want to heal but haven't learned it, how big may be the damage, for us and for others? Only intelligent, trained servers can do the right service at the right place and at the right time. So we have to acquire knowledge how we can serve and equip ourselves for this service. Spiritual study broadens our understanding and gradually leads to a vision, if it is combined with active service and dynamic meditation. Meditation, study and service form an equilateral triangle.

To serve with knowledge opens for us higher sources of learning. The value of service lies in adjusting the personality with the soul and the soul with the spirit. This knowledge is of utmost importance. A wise man said: “Among all services serving the spirit is the best.”

If we don't have the knowledge, we can serve hundreds of lives, but we remain what we are. Many nuns serve all their life, but their comprehension doesn't grow, since they don't devote themselves to the same extend to learning. If service would enlighten by itself, all those serving patients in the hospitals for years would have to be greatly enlightened. But this is not the case.

The study of wisdom enlightens. We don't have to read all the books on spirituality and esotericism etc. For us the teachings of those who know the truth are enough. You find it in the world scriptures having come through the great initiates like Krishna, Buddha, Moses, Pythagoras…. Also the books which came to us via H.P. Blavatsky, A.A. Bailey, H.I. Roerich, E. Krishnamacharya and K.P. Kumar help on the way. The teachings of the masters are full of instructions. By daily studying a little, taking our own notes and translating them into our everyday life we prepare ourselves for receiving higher impulses. Every spiritual impulse expresses itself into the world. If an intended work doesn't get manifested, there can be no expansion of consciousness. “Service is expressed in good deeds, which are possible under all circumstances. Great achievements contribute to Our joy. We show the way, but it must be trod by human feet.”(Supermundane § 125)

Where there is the will, there is also a way to serve. The wisdom teachings say: “Dedicate your life to good will.” The good will is the foundation for the whole creation; it is not only that which was defined by Alice Bailey in the 20th century. Nor is it good will that you can fluently quote from the books, but that you think of the well-being of others and transform the entire life into a life of service. It is an attitude to have the inclination to serve at all times and to watch out for opportunities. He who reads too much tends to become increasingly impractical. No matter on which plane we serve, it is important that we are also engaged in service on the physical plane and work with our hands, at least one hour per day; otherwise we tend to become top-heavy. It is an important service to pass on knowledge and instruments, including transmission of meditation techniques.

Unfortunately a lot of service is done with publicity and missionary spirit. Political and religious movements try to buy people by distributing food to the poor and giving medical care and education free of charge. We are happy if the others wear the same badges as we do - but this is aggression, born out of mental over-activity. We enslave people, if we impose our own opinions and convictions on them.

We should also do our employment for which we are paid as a service. But we should as well do some service for which we don't get money, in silence and simplicity. This gives joy and liberates from the debts of one's individual karma.

In the present age the measure for service is: What have you done for the group? Natural groups form themselves around us, at home or at our work. With them we can consciously build up a group. The first and original group is the family group; the second are the friends and people whom we regularly meet in everyday life. We shouldn't define “group” in a too narrow manner: A dog or a cat at home also belong to the family group as well as the flowers and the other things in the house. Let's not neglect them, but include them consciously and daily say to them, “How are you?”

In each living being there is the heart. Real heartiness we don't create by speaking about books. The only key for establishing a cordial relation is to do something for the others, knowing their needs. Let us grow aware of the needs of the others and help them from our heart. The other being will notice and realize it. Thus service will become a natural way of life.

Sources used: K.P. Kumar: Seminar notes. The World Teacher Trust / Dhanishta, Visakhapatnam, India. - A.A. Bailey: A Treatise on White Magic, Lucis-Trust, London (www.netnews.org / www.lucistrust.org). “Supermundane”, Agni-Yoga Society, New York (http://www.agniyoga.org).