इसी का अभ्यास पुनि पुनि, करु निरंतर प्यारे

उनका सुख ही चहहु निशि दिन, सुख न निज चहु प्यारे

उनकी इच्छा में ही अपनी, राखु इच्छा प्यारे |

We are the servants of God and Guru. Just like the different parts of a tree – the leaves, branches, and flowers, they all serve the tree. We should always think about God but it is equally important to have the willingness to serve Him. Another example to consider is how different parts of the body and the organs serve the human body. Similarly, we are parts of the energy of God. It is our duty to serve the Supreme power. Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhuji said –

जीवेर स्वरूप हय कृष्णेर नित्य दास

500 years ago, Chaitanya Mahaprabhuji had said that the soul is an eternal servant of God. Today Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj says:

सौ बातन की बात इक, धरु मुरलीधर ध्यान |

The most important point is that keep your mind in Shree Krishna and

बढ़वहु सेवा–वासना, यह सौ ज्ञानन ज्ञान ||

The most important piece of knowledge is to increase the desire to serve, to do seva. What is the meaning of the term, ‘to serve’? Do you think seva means to clean the utensils or to clean the meditation hall or to make a donation? No. Then what does seva mean? It means, to constantly desire for God’s happiness, because our primary aim is to please Him. This is called seva bhav, or the desire to serve. It is the nature of love.

God is very clever. First, He created us in such a way that we desire for all the happiness on earth, and then He puts forth a condition that we should not wish for happiness of the self. Instead, wish for His happiness. Our intellect says, “If we are to forget about our happiness, and think about God’s happiness, we stand to loose out. How can we live without happiness?”

God says, “When you wish for My happiness and you will make an effort to make Me happy, I will not be selfish. I am here to grace every soul. If you serve Me and make an effort to make Me happy, I will increase that Bliss thousands of times and return it to you.”

The happiness that we get by serving God is called Sevanand. It is considered as the highest of all the levels of happiness that we get in the realm of God. Even the bliss of a vision of God, Darshananand seems very less when compared with the happiness we get from Sevanand.

The happiness that we get by serving Him is even greater than the bliss God gets from Himself. This bliss of God is called Svaroopanand, which God gets from His own Svaroop, or self. But the happiness that a devotee gets by serving God is called Svaroop-shaktyanand. This Svaroop-shaktyanand is greater than Svaroopanand. God graces His devotee with a greater level of happiness than His own Self and then sits within the devotee to enjoy that Bliss. Hence, the Bliss that God gets from His devotee (through seva) is greater than His own bliss!

This is why God becomes the servant of His own devotee. He says that the love He gets from His devotees is greater than His own Love! Hence He says:

अहं भक्तपराधीनो

God says, “I offer Myself to My devotee.” Now, if we want to make God our servant, we need to first remember that we have to desire His happiness. His wish should be our wish too. We do have the willingness to serve Him, but we make mistakes. For example, a devotee says, “Swamiji, please come to my place for dinner”. Swamiji says, “I have to visit many other people too, and I have to reach a certain place before 4 pm, and then leave for my evening lecture.” The devotee gets upset with Swamiji for not fulfilling his wish! What are we saying by this? “Swamiji you must come and serve us! Fulfill our desires!”

This is not called service attitude. The meaning of Seva bhav is to wish what God and Guru wish. True seva is when a devotee does not impose his or her desires and likings upon the personality being served.

We pray to God and also wish to serve Him, but the service attitude is contaminated with the desire for self-happiness. This is the reason why Shree Kripaluji Maharaj says: “Serve Him according to His interest and liking. Remain happy by seeing His happiness. If you practice this, you will never go wrong in your devotion, or feel any disappointment.” At times, our mood gets off, we feel sad and express disappointment in our beloved Guru and God. This happens because we do not perceive our happiness in His happiness. If we begin to feel happy in His happiness, our state of mind will remain pleasant and positive.