1. UK 78- 41 Gururaj. Fine. We can start off with questions. Questioner. Guruji, please could you tell us what it means to serve and what are the mechanics that lead to service and is service different to different kinds of people, for example serving a guru or serving one's employer, or something like that, and should there be a balance between service and one's own personal life? Gururaj. Beautiful. Beautiful. What constitutes service, that is the basis of the question. Is this going out fine, can you hear me at the back? I’m trying to get the feel of it. Yes, that’s a bit better. Fine. What constitutes service? Service is performed by everything which is natural. Observe a flower, how well it serves us in its beauty and its fragrance. Observe the rain, how well it serves us in giving the water for things to grow. Observe the sun, how beautifully it serves us in giving heat and light. So, what constitutes service, is to express our real nature, and our real nature is nothing else but also an offering. This very offering is the real basis of service. Why people fail to serve is because they are not natural to themselves. Because of karmic values or samskaric values, the wrong thinking, wrong action, they have lost the art of service. Service has no mechanics. If you apply mechanisms to service, then it becomes not service but a drudgery, because you have mechanised it. But if service is allowed to flow - this thing is not serving me well. Ah that’s better. Now I can hear myself. Fine. So as I said, if we apply mechanisms or mechanics or a pattern to service, it becomes a drudgery and service ceases to be service for service is an art and all offering is an art. This very offering can only be properly performed, if it is used as an offering. Now, we know when we offer or pay homage to anything, it is done without any selfish motive, in other words, there is no sense of return. When we work for a boss, there is a sense of return. That is a necessity, that we work, we have to make a living, we have to pay rent, we have to buy food, we have to clothe ourselves. That is business. I give you so much, you give me so much in return. But even while working for the boss, a person can be of service only when he goes the extra mile. Work stops at five o'clock and most people watch the clock. As a matter of fact, many people go to work, not to work but to watch the clock. Immediately it strikes five, off they go. I mean, we can also take into account the fifteen minutes they spend in the cloakroom, and that is supposed to be service, stealing boss's time. So when a man works for the boss and he does just that little extra, then he is doing service. The other is doing business. I give you so much, you give me so much back. And many people do not deserve the wage they earn and that becomes thievery. Fine.

2. UK 78- 41 Now like that in every aspect of life, if things are done in the sense of an offering from deep within ourselves, with all sincerity and with all love and doing a thing for the sake of doing it, that is service. Now, service is far different from servitude. When we talk of servitude, it is a form of bondage, where we are bound down by certain rules and regulations, but service as I said, is an art, and art is freedom. So when we serve in the spirit of an offering, it is a freedom that is expressed from deep within ourselves. Service does not bind, it frees a person. Now that kind of freedom has its own rewards. It requires no payment, it has its own reward in the self-satisfaction that is gained, in the whole re-patterning, re- moulding, re-styling of our lives, there is the great benefit. And this re-patterning, re-moulding, re-styling can only lead to greater happiness. Then you find other kinds of service where a person joins some organisation, for example, the school feeding scheme - I don't know if you have it here, where poor children are fed - or the Cripple Care Association, the Deaf and Dumb Society, Blind Society, whatever. I have known many people because I have been associated with various organisations. These people come there and do work. They really work hard, but the motivation is nothing else but ego expression and not self-expression. There again you find a difference. An ego expression is to pander to one's self, making one's self feel important, that I am in a position to command. That is very binding. What are you commanding? Everything that you perform, being ego-activated is never satisfaction producing. It never produces that inner sense of joy. So when you, because of the ego, you go and do some work in the charity bazaar, have a stall on the street corner an d sell things for a certain charity and you feel, ‘Ah, I have done something’, you feel elated. Now, is that elation genuine or not? There is a wonderful test to it. Now you come back and the organisers say, ‘You have done such a wonderful job’, a pat on the back and you feel so elated, then you'll find someone that will come and find fault and will say, ‘Oh, you could have done this in a different way or you could have done this much better.’ And instead of being elated, you become deflated. Why? Because the motivation was ego and boosting the ego. And that kind of service, it might have a certain value but it does not have a genuine lasting value. Now if the very same service was done as an offering then praise or blame will not affect you at all, because once you find the inner joy there of serving. It could be praise or blame you are not affected. You become like the lotus flower growing amidst all the mud, and yet untouched, forever remaining pure because your very offering is joy and joy is the essence of purity. Good. These are little incidences that we come across in daily life.

3. UK 78- 41 So, true service is always an offering without motive. The one that really knows how to serve is truly a Karma Yogi. He works for the sake of work. He works for the sake of work and not wondering or anticipating the result thereof. That is the Karma Yogi. Now as he goes on, as he proceeds on this path, he will find that he could perform the maximum amount of work with the minimum amount of effort. Now there will be mental effort, there will be physical effort in the work involved, but because of the stillness that’s created in him, the effort becomes effortless. That is the secret of work. That is why some people, very few in this world, can work twenty two hours a day and never feel tired. Two hours of sleep is enough because the body requires it, they are subjected to a body so that requires some rest. So here, because of the service being an offering, an inner stability is created. And having an inner stability, the whole world around the person could be in turmoil but you are untouched. Now as one proceeds on this path of serving for the sake of serving, now you will find many times that things do become difficult. Sometimes the cross is hard to bear, but it has its own rewards. It has its own rewards. So when we serve for the sake of serving, when it is motiveless, when it is ego-less, then the service has value and it is evolutionary. It is never stagnating. It is like our flower. If the flower stops growing it dies. The life of the flower consists in its flowering, for that flowering is life and life is never stagnant. It forever flows and flows and flows all the time. That comes because it is serving without motive. Now, if we examine the word motive, it could be interpreted in different ways. Is there an altruistic motive or is there self motive? Self-motive is ego-building and altruistic motive is ego-diminishing. Now our teachers want to teach people, to help them in their paths so that their lives could become happy and joyous and they could go nearer and nearer on the path towards Divinity. If that is done for the sake, not of oneself, but for the sake of others then, although there is a motive involved, the motive becomes motiveless. It is a motiveless motive because the self is not there. I am not a Prep Teacher or full Counsellor because I want to be looked up to. I am a humble servant, more humble than the humblest. To me the street-sweeper or the lavatory-cleaner is also an expression of Divinity and I serve, not the street-sweeper or the lavatory-cleaner, but I am serving Divinity. Be he saint or sinner, that is not my business. My business has to do with the Divine. That is why, every day when we meet each other we say ‘Namaste’, ‘I bow, I salute the Divinity that is within you'. Now if we remember that, that we are forever bowing to the Divinity in another, then service assumes its truest form, then service is the offering. How beautiful, how beautiful to be able to offer oneself. Now this applies in every facet of life. Husband and wife, if they could only learn to offer themselves to each other, what a wonderful life it could be. You have been hard to me the wife might think. That is your business, you have been

4. UK 78- 41 hard, what must I be? Soft. Yes, I must be soft. But if I fight back, then he is going to become more harder. And vice versa. So, in that sense, you too are offering yourself to your beloved and for that moment he could be totally wrong, but you know within yourself that he loves me, he does. And even if he’s made a mistake today, he might be in a bad mood, tonight it will be fine. Perhaps when we go to bed. Perhaps when we are together, it will blow over. Therefore I always advocate, if you have twin beds, throw them away! Buy a double bed. Yes, yes. The closeness, that is what I am talking about, the closeness that is what I am talking about and not other things that some people might be thinking about. The idea is to develop greater and greater closeness. Good. And as greater and greater closeness develops, then life just becomes an offering. Because if he is her and she is him, that itself is the flowering of a married life. The petals of the flower do not find them apart from the stem. It is all part and parcel of the one construction, the one picture that constitutes life. That is an offering, so natural, so spontaneous. How do we do that? How do we do that? That is done by just being ourselves, by being our natural selves and not the artificial facade that we create around ourselves. If people can only learn to be themselves and stop projecting an image which they wish to be. So what people do, they live in an image which they are not, so living becomes a wishful living, wishful living. I had a little note from someone w ho mentioned that, instead of the wishbone, I pray it could be my backbone. Very beautiful, very beautiful, that backbone is courage! That I am responsible for myself. I am responsible for my actions because I have that backbone that keeps me up and steady. I want to be myself. And that is what meditation and spiritual practices is all about, so that life could become an offering, an offering to Divinity. What are we here for? We are glorifying the expression of Divinity. And the expression of Divinity is nothing else but glory. And we misuse it, we misuse that privilege by the free will that has been given to us. Now I wonder if it wasn't really a mistake to be awarded a free will. You will ask, why was man given a free will? Because it is by that free will that all the problems in life starts happening. All the problems in life is because we have free will. And if we use the free will in a good manner, no problems, and if we use it in a wrong way, problems. Now the old boy upstairs must have had some plan in this! (Gururaj laughs) There must have been some plan in this free will business. Yes. Yes. Yes. If there was no free will, there would have been no evolution. If there was no evolution, there would have been no expression. If there was no expression, there would have been no manifestation and even Divinity, the un-manifest, cannot exist without that which is manifested. The relative and the absolute are part and parcel of each other. So this free will came about on its own, as fragrance emanates from a flower. So, free will was not created, free will is an emanation or a projection of Divine will. And through the process that this emanation or manifestation has gone

5. UK 78- 41 through, it has gathered around it all this dust and dirt whereby Divine will is covered. For to work according to Divine will, is to live a natural life. And because of free will, we have made a natural life into an unnatural life. That is why, that is the impediment why we have not understood the meaning of service. Now the offering, service does not mean martyrdom. Martyrdom is a kind of imbalance. It is an imbalance. Martyrdom mostly originates from a certain fanaticism, that you have a purpose. You have a purpose conjured up by your mind and you become a martyr. That is not service, that is not offering. This has been done, this has been done by great saints for an entirely different reason altogether, that by me sacrificing my life, so many thousands of others can benefit . For them, that sacrificing of the life, that martyrdom had an altruistic purpose and therefore that was an offering. But in daily life some people try to become martyrs, self-suffering martyrs, which is not necessary at all. Many people become martyrs to try to express an inferiority complex in the form of a superiority complex. There's a quarrel at home and the wife says, ‘I'm going on a fast. I'm not going to eat until you fix things up’. Motivated martyrdom, that kind of martyrdom is blackmail. (Gururaj laughs) Yes. But rather an appeal from the heart in offering, ‘I don't agree with you, but if you think it's right, go ahead, go ahead’. And then the man will start thinking, ‘You know, there's something here’ - he will start thinking. So, you kill with kindness, you convert with love not martyrdom. You see what service means. It has so many many facets, so many facets to that beautiful sparkling diamond. And yet each facet contains the brilliance of all the other facets. It's like a holograph, holograph, Amrit? Holograph. Yeah, holograph. He goes into meditation when I speak. (General laughter) Yes, yes, he does. Now, I've been told a bit about holography, where each bit of the plate contains the entire picture. So even if the entire negative is destroyed, and you just have a little bit left, that little bit will contain within itself the entire picture. Likewise, in this service, in this offering, the entirety of all goodness, of all virtue, is contained. That is offering, that is service. Now, coming to the service of a guru, why do you want to serve a guru? Why? Because the guru is going to lead me to salvation, therefore I must serve him? He can't lead me to salvation. And if you find any guru claiming that, forget him, discard him. He is not necessary. But if the guru says, ‘I can show you the path but you are going to walk yourself. I'm not going to carry you on my back, I can't’, then you can listen. And the proper service to the guru is not the little expressions that you do for anyone, any friend. Any friend, any visitor that comes to your home, you will see that his laundry is done, and his tea is made - with apologies to Savita and Usha (Gururaj laughs) - and to see that all the comforts are there. Things like that. You do that for any guest that comes to your home, especially a guest that you love

6. UK 78- 41 very much, as they love their guru very much. Fine. And that is very, very much appreciated. Not the service only, not the actions, but the love that motivates that, that creates that, that is appreciated. The love is seen shining. Good. Now that is part, a very, very small part of the service to the guru. The real service to the guru is this, show him that you are progressing. Show him that. You don't need to show literally, it can be seen. Sometimes you meet someone, like one of the chelas and, ‘Oh, I have been doing this and I have been doing that and I and my brother or my sister or my brother have been doing that’. Is that serving your guru or just satisfying your own ego? Rather you know, ‘Guruji, this has been done or that has been done’. The guru knows who has done it and who has not done it, he knows. It is not necessary to say, ‘Oh, I did this and I did that’. It’s not necessary. That is service, that is offering, that is not wanting recognition. That is the true offering. For even without wanting to be recognised, the true guru recognises already. The very action speaks so much louder than words. You see how simple it is. The very actions performed by the true chela speaks louder than words and the guru does not need reminding that I did this for that one and I did that for that one. It is not necessary. It is just known. Good. So there is a selfless-ness involved and when that selfless-ness is involved and as the ego is diminished, or the ego used in a totally different perspective then that is the greatest service to the guru. My guru, when I asked him, I said, ‘Swamiji, now on this last trip, tell me one thing, what is the most important thing you have done in your life? You had the opportunity of starting up your own Ashram, you had the abilities of having thousands of students throughout the world, why did you not do that, why, what stopped you?’ Do you know what he told me? ‘I came, I was born in this world for one purpose and I have achieved that purpose. I have achieved that purpose and when I leave my body, I am the happiest man for having achieved the purpose’. So I asked him what purpose and he tells me. ‘You find out!’ (Gururaj laughs) That is a guru, that is a man, a God-man upon earth, because it is not given to everyone to teach perhaps. But it is given to everyone, the meanest creature, to do their dharma selflessly and that is service. So the best way for a chela to serve his guru is to be worthy of the teachings of the guru. That's the best way. Nothing else, nothing else, nothing else, nothing else. And to be worthy of the teachings of the guru is not to keep on theorising, although that helps to understand things, but the practical aspect of life. When the guru asks his chela, ‘Teach’, this is the way for this age. Teach people how to find themselves, their true selves, for each and everyone is a sparkling diamond, covered with dust. Help to blow off this dust, in a very humble, simple, selfless devoted way, with love, blow off this dust. It is not necessary for it to be there, and let the diamond shine in its true splendour. For each one is a diamond, each one is Divine. That is the service of the guru. That is the service of the guru.

7. UK 78- 41 Some chelas are very kind. They know that a guru must also eat and sleep and drink water and some of them are very, very helpful, for that, which is appreciated. A live guru is better than a dead guru. Yes, yes, yes. A guru never accepts anything for nothing, never ever. His nature is to give always. He gives and he gives and he gives to his utmost ability always. But to be able to give his body too needs to be sustained. That happens, it comes automatically, it just works. So selflessness devotion, not necessarily devotion to the guru, but devotion to one's dharma and automatically devotion to the guru develops. And devotion is never worship, do remember that. Devotion is an expression of love, selfless love. Devotion is the desire to become one with another. And through the guru chela relationship that I have experienced, and I only talk of experience is this, that if I love my wife, there is some motive involved, even in its minutest degree there's a motive. If I love my job, there is still some little motive, something to do with self. But when there is a closeness, a relationship between guru and chela, there is no motive, there is no motive. It is a self-desire to find self realisation. And the one that has trodden the path that knows the way, he would be the best to approach. And one approaches such a person, as I approached my guru, in total humility. I told him when we first met, that ‘I am nothing but a blank sheet; you write on it’. That is the offering. That is the offering. In other words, to approach a master which you feel some connection, where some spark has been sparked off, such a man is approached as I did to Pavritranandaji, with a blank page, in other words it means an open mind, a totally open mind. And I used to argue with him, oh yes I used to. If there was any point I disagreed with, I said, ‘I'm sorry I don't agree with this. Explain me more’. Yes. By argument, I mean debate, debate until I understood what he was trying to say. And sometimes it took me many years to understand what he had said. As I gained a greater maturity and more knowledge, I understood more. And this is the experience of everyone, where you read, say the Bible or the Gita. If you have read it ten years ago and you read it today, you have a totally different understanding of it, because you have developed more. And the greater your development, the vaster your awareness, the greater you perception, the greater the understanding. So service is an offering, a motiveless offering. That is why in history, in all Scriptures, they went out to do their master's work. But to do that, there has to be faith and devotion. You have doubting Thomases, fine, but their doubts too disappear and then those doubting Thomases become Saint Thomases. Yes. Yes. Yes. It is good to doubt because the doubt springs from your mind. It has nothing to do with the teacher, remember that. And if you overcome your doubt, you are overcoming the discrepancies of your mind. So it's good, because a doubt is the springboard of further enquiry. It is the springboard for further enquiry. And as you go on enquiring and enquiring and enquiring, you find you have to knock

8. UK 78- 41 for the door to be opened. Yes. You have to seek to find, we know that. There's a whole tradition behind all these various faiths in the world and we have been brought up in those traditions and we understand those traditions, but w e don't practise them. That is our misfortune. So, that is service. Service is a spontaneous offering to Divinity. Everything else is taken care of by itself. Okay. Good. Next question or have I gone on too long? Nine twenty five and six seconds. Oh thank you. How did you know I needed water? Thank you. Tonight we want to do a prayer for Swamiji. Actually that's your grandfather you know. Good. I'll do a Vedic chant and thereafter we'll do some minutes of meditation. Okay. Fine. (Arti Bajan follows). Gururaj sings in Sanskrit ‘Guru vishnur, guru .............. ‘Om shanti, shanti, shanti’. Peace unto peace, light unto light, bliss unto bliss, fullness unto fullness. Aide. On Tuesday when we had the telegram, we had been feeling particularly close to Pavritranandaji ever since Guruji arrived because we’ve been about him a great deal and on the Tuesday evening a group of us full Counsellors had the meditation that we’ve just had. And afterwards I wrote this poem which he wanted to share with you this evening. To Swam iji, ‘A silent tear upon my cheek As love mourns for love A magnitude of hearts weep in silent joy To shout aloud, ‘He is here, He is here, He is’. Knowing, and yet not known, beholding love I gaze upon his face, the mirror of my soul. And Divinity speaks, He is here, He is here within my heart.

9. UK 78- 41 An eternity of silence in sad soft eyes For who alone can know the fullness of eternal joy That speaks through my beloved Guru's glance. For He is there. Nought but little lives and love have filled my heart until this time Oh special life and love Sharing He and Thee as one For He is Thee’. Melt, my heart, in inexpressible waves of saddened joy, For in this loss, no loss But gain for Him and Thee. As Divinity sweetly succeeds itself From Him, to Thee. Namaste. END