The term ‘Seva’ means Service. It implies unconditional and devoted service with no expectations in return. It is often called ‘Selfless Service’ although the description is inherently contradictory. This is because ‘Seva’ implies ‘Service to Divinity or the Self’. So it might be more appropriate to call it ‘Self- full or Self- oriented Service’ rather than ‘Selfless Service’. However I am just playing with words, because the word ‘Self-less’ really means ‘Free of Selfishness or Ego’. It is a way of focusing on the Divine Principle in the Universe.
Sri Sathya Sai Baba has always stated that ‘Seva’ is the best personal Sadhana for this age, the Kali Yuga. He used to say ‘Manava Seva is Madhava Seva’.
About a decade ago, Baba launched a new focused program called ‘Grama Seva’ during the Navaratri festival. He declared “Grama Seva is Rama Seva’ and directed that during the nine days of Navaratri, all His University students and staff should systematically visit all the villages in the vicinity of Puttaparthi and present food, sweets and clothes to every household. It was both a means of sensitizing the students to the realities of rural life as well as sensitizing the village folks to spirituality.
This year I was blessed to participate in this program. It was a remarkable experience. Considerable planning and preparation had gone into the program. Every village had been visited and mapped. Team leaders were knowledgeable of the geography, the logistics and the disposition of the households. There were nearly fifty trucks each carrying nearly ten to fifteen students and a couple of staff members apart from the stocks of food, sweets and clothes.
Each truck had a ‘Communicator’, generally a student who operated a wireless Walkie Talkie system to keep in touch with the ‘Home Base’, keeping them continuously informed of the progress, seeking replenishments of stocks if required or offering surplus stocks if available. All the campuses of the Sri Sathya Sai University, that is the Prashanti Nilayam, the Anantpur, the Whitefield and Muddenahalli campuses, were represented in full.
On reaching the village, we first went to the local temple and starting from there, we wound our way through the village, singing bhajans, a form of Nagar Sankirtan, by which we announced our arrival to all residents. Thereafter, in a systematic fashion, we went lane by lane, house by house, handing out the food packets, the sweets and the clothes. We enquired from the resident of each house, how many people lived in each house and accordingly handed out the appropriate number of packets.
The Gram Seva program has been going on from the year 2000 and both students and the villagers were aware of the modalities. I was touched by the enthusiasm of the villagers and the lovely decorations, festoons, rangolis (floor patterns) and smiles with which we were welcomed. It was obvious that they were in fact welcoming Bhagavan Himself.
Baba organized the ‘Seva Dal’ sometime in the sixties. This was a purely voluntary group of devotees for carrying out all sorts of operations. These included cleaning of the ashram premises, crowd handling and management, help in the canteen and kitchen, security duty on the ashram premises, and in the residential quarters, help in the hospitals and in the early years, even the construction work at Prashanti Nilayam. Seva Dal workers came from all parts of India to a planned calendar which allotted fifteen days to each State Seva team.
The Seva Dal volunteer was distinguished by the white uniform he wore and the blue and white scarf around his neck. Devotees considered themselves fortunate to be part of the Seva Dal corps. Stories abound of Baba’s immense kindness and love for them and such stories are still pouring in.
The concept of service to humanity is based on the ‘Universality of God hood’, on the fact that the universe, with all its myriad manifestations of nature, of man and animals, birds and plants, is but a manifestation of the Divine. Recognition of this inherent Divinity in nature is the principle underlying both the Navaratri festival where Nature is revered as the Mother and the Seva movement.
It was extremely fortunate for me to get a first hand experience of Seva at Puttaparthi and simultaneously witness the Veda Purusha Jnana Yagna which is performed at the same time. It was so appropriate for my commentary on the Sloka 5 of the Upadesa SAram wherein Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi talks of the Seva concept and the reason for considering the world as Divine. Is it not remarkable that both Sri Sathya Sai Baba and Bhagavan Sri Ramana propound the idea of Seva as a primary Sadhana?
UPADESA SARAM SLOKA 5
Jagatha Ishadhhee Yuktha Sevanam
Ashta Murthibrudh Devapujanam
Jagathaha - the world, moving, moveable, changeable
Ishaha - the lord of the universe, the supreme deity
Dhee - intellect, understanding, mind, idea, imagination.
Yuktha - joined, united, fastened, yoked, filled with
Sevanam - the act of serving, service, worship,
Ashta - eightfold
Ashtamurthi- the eight- formed, an epithet of Siva, the eight forms being the five elements, the sun, the moon and the sacrificing priest.
Brudh - bearing, upholding, supporting, full of, endowed
Deva - divine, celestial, a god, deity
Pujanam - worship
Serving the world, understanding (conceiving of) it as an integral manifestation of God (represented) as comprising of the eight aspects of Divinity (namely, the five elements, the sun or intellect, the moon or mind, and ego-consciousness).
The Manifest Universe, including the body of the observer (or experiencer) is a composite of the five Mahabhutas (or Primordial or Basic) elements. Various manifestations are observed to express degrees of combinations of the elements. Thus the human observer will experience the world of solids, liquids, gases and the atmosphere and the all-permeating and all-encompassing space. The existence of the atmosphere is experienced primarily by the sense of touch, sometimes by accompanying sound (such as a gale or tempest). The existence of space is only experienced by the sense of hearing. All this has been dealt with at length by us in discussing the Sloka 4.
However, how does one clarify the difference between ‘living’ and ‘non-living’ manifestations? One day the plant is clearly ‘ALIVE’ and some days later it ‘DIES’. The plant exhibits its ‘LIFE’ by certain aspects such as the green color, the growth of shoots and leaves, flowers, fruit. When it ‘DIES’ it simply dries up. What is this ‘LIFE PRINCIPLE’ in the plant?
Similarly, animals exhibit their ‘LIFE’ through mobility, expression of sounds, breathing. When they ‘DIE’ the body becomes still and gradually disintegrates and is soon absorbed into the primary elements.
In the same way, one experiences ‘LIFE’ in human beings. Mobility, speech expression, movement of hands and feet, the existence of the heart beat and pulse, the process of breathing in and out and the processes of evacuation of the bowels, all signify the existence of ‘LIFE’. In contrast ‘DEATH’ is followed by the disintegration of the body.
What then is this ‘LIFE PRINCIPLE’? Why is it absent in many parts of the manifest universe?
This aspect of ‘LIFE’ is called ‘PRANA’ in the ancient scriptures. It is definitely not a ‘MATERIAL’ phenomenon which can be measured by any kind of instrumentation known to man.
Thus, in addition to the existence of the five Basic Elements, PRANA is a sixth ‘SUBTLE’ element. The word ‘SUBTLE’ is chosen to signify that it is incapable of being observed or measured by any of the ten organs of man. Its presence can only be inferred by the resultant behavior of a plant, animal or human being.
This leads us to the realization that perhaps more phenomena of a ‘SUBTLE’ nature exist than experienced by the sense organs.
One can consider that, like the manifest physically cognizable universe, there exists a ‘SUBTLE’ universe, which is invisible to the sense organs but whose existence can be cognized or inferred from certain phenomena observable by the sense organs.
Prana, Mind and Intellect can be said to be the three such ‘Subtle’ elements comprising an ‘invisible’ universe. This invisible or subtle universe exists externally (to the human being) and internally (within the human being).
Just as the sense organs are the connection between the human body and the external universe, similarly the process of breathing, the process of thinking and the process of awareness are the links between the internal ‘subtle’ human system and the external ‘subtle’ universe.
Of these, ‘BREATHING’ is a very important process and a link. It interconnects the ‘PRANA CENTER’ in the human being to the ‘UNIVERSAL PRANA’. The living being, humans, animals and plants, alike, draw sustenance for life through breathing, eating and drinking. Prana permeates the universe, in all its aspects. It is available in all that is manifested, solid, liquid, gas and energy forms. It is most easily and readily accessible through the atmosphere and hence, for the living being, breathing is a key process through which it absorbs Prana and , so to speak, recharges its Pranic Center.
If the living being is deprived of food and liquid, it can still survive as a living being, if air is available. If air is not available the living being will soon ‘DIE’. This could mean that the Pranic Center in the living being which makes it ‘ALIVE’ needs to be continuously kept re-charged, as it were, from the external Prana.
Just as the umbilical cord is the indispensable conduit of life-giving sustenance to the embryo, growing in the mother’s womb, similarly the process of breathing is the indispensable conduit of life-giving sustenance to the living being. The physical umbilical cord which is cut off on the birth of the baby is replaced by the ‘BREATHING UMBILICAL CORD’ which is subtle.
The ‘PRANA CENTER’ in the human being is closely linked to the ‘MIND CENTER’ and ‘CONSCIOUSNESS CENTER’. Prana, Mind and Consciousness are all, so to speak, located at the same center, and they are closely interrelated and bound to each other. This integrated center of ‘LIFE’ in the human being is called ‘HRUDAYA’ or ‘HEART’ in the ancient scriptures. The Hrudaya is subtle in nature unlike the physical ‘heart’ which lies on the left side of a human being, for example, and is responsible for the circulation of blood.
The subtle ‘Hrudaya’ is responsible for giving life to the mass of matter called a body and for ensuring all ‘life-sustaining’ processes such as blood circulation, breathing, evacuation, digestion and also all mental, emotional and intellectual activities.
These processes are said to be controlled, actuated and regulated by different subtle aspects of ‘Prana’ called the Five Pranas, namely, Prana, Apana, Udana, Vyana and Samana. Prana is subtly responsible for all body activities and mind activities. Thus in one ancient school of thought the human system is conceived to be several layers or KOSHAS, called the
ANNAMAYA KOSHA or Physical Body
PRANAMAYA KOSHA or Prana Layer
MANOMAYA KOSHA or Mind Layer
VIGNANAMAYA KOSHA or Experience Layer (Intellect)
ANANDAMAYA KOSHA or Bliss Layer.
We will now further examine this concept.
The physical body and the mind are kept ‘alive’, so to speak, by the Prana. Hence this PANCHAKOSHA definition of the human system describes Prana as in between the body and the mind and thus energizing and activating both aspects. The experience gathered through interaction with the world by the body and the mind is stored and retained as memory in the Vignanamayakosha. This layer includes the associated analytical abilities. All three subtle aspects, that is, Prana, Mind and Intellect-Memory-Experience are located in the Hrudaya.
Beyond this center, and in fact, the subtlest cause of everything is the Consciousness Principle and is here called the Anandamayakosha. Pure Awareness is inherently Blissful. Pure Awareness is characterized by a condition of Bliss, Perfect Peace and Pure Love. This is a state of EXISTENCE and the subtlest TRUTH behind all that is manifest.
This type of description of the human system is also described as SHARIRAS or bodies in another school of ancient thought. This lays out the Physical Body or STHULA SHARIRA, the Subtle Body or SUKSHMA SHARIRA and the raison d’etre , the Inner Cause of all that is Manifest, the KARANA SHARIRA.
In the Sloka 5 of the Upadesa SAram, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi describes the Manifest world as comprising the Eight fold Integrated Deities or Aspects. What are these?
They are:
The Body and the Material World (built of the Five Elements)
The Mind
The Intellect and Experience
The Prana
The eighth aspect is here above indicated as Prana. Several interpretations substitute Ego-consciousness, Time and in one case, the Officiating Priest instead of Prana.
These eight fold components of the human system also apply, on a global basis to the whole of the created universe. It will thus be observed that the created universe comprises not only the Manifest universe (formed by the permutations and combinations of the five elements and Prana) but also comprises the Unmanifest or Invisible universe. Indeed it is clear that the Unmanifest Universe may be much more in content than the Manifest.
The Purusha Suktam, which is one of the world’s oldest treatises on creation, and is present in all the Vedas, talks of the Four Padas ( quarters) comprising the physical, subtle or mental, the soul or supersubtle and the underlying basis or Brahman. The Omkara or Pranava symbol also talks of the three levels of creation, the Bhu (physical), Bhuvaha (subtle or mental) and the Suvaha (soul or supersubtle) levels.
Bhagavan emphasizes that the universe that one experiences is a complex combination of the eightfold or fourfold or threefold or fivefold aspects, whichever way one wants to view and understand it. It is inherently Divine and one Sadhana that he also explains is to relate to the universe as Divine. This is Seva and it is a form of Worship.
Sloka 5 reemphasizes the concept of NishkAma Karma which was talked about in the context of Sloka 4. Life is a series of activities. One needs to consider everything one does as Worship of the Divine. In particular, the elements that comprise the physical universe are Divine, the Mind and minds that one experiences are Divine, the intellectual analysis one encounters is Divine and life in every form is Divine.
Such an attitude prepares one for further progress towards the Truth. Living in the full consciousness of Divinity is the best Sadhana. Baba called it ‘Paropakara’ which He explained as ‘Para meaning God, Upa meaning near to and Kara meaning work’. This term is often translated as ‘Working for the benefit of others’ but in the light of Baba’s interpretation it means ‘Working to be near to God’. This means considering the whole world as Divine. That is Seva in its purest form.
This last month has been a revelation to me personally of the value and the beauty of Seva as Sadhana. I pray that all of you may benefit from such an experience and enjoy the Bliss that descends on one who is immersed in it.
Today is the sacred festival of Deepavali or Diwali when one lights the lamp of wisdom in one’s heart to dispel the gloom and darkness of ignorance. I will separately be sharing a collection of interpretations by Baba with all of you.
All my love and God Bless and Sairam
http://www.saibabaofindia.com/Grama-Seva-2010-Puttaparthi.htm
http://www.freewebs.com/fort-samithi/prasanthi-seva.htm
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