The Concept of Service
They also serve who stand and wait. Service does not mean doing
something. Service means obedience. If Master says, "stand at the gate," you
stand at the gate. "No, no, but Master! I am not doing anything." "Yes, but
you are standing at the gate! Do you think it is not doing something?" So
service is synonymous with obedience. It does not mean going around with pots
and pans and making a lot of noise, and putting a lot of smoke in the kitchen,
so the Master's eyes are burning and he says, "Oh! I am happy the kitchen
is burning," you see. That is noise. That is smoke. A pure hundred percent
efficient fuel generates no smoke. So when we are hundred percent efficient
in our service, the service should not even be obvious, should not even appear
as service, to Him and to us. We should not be conscious that this fellow
is working for me, because it is as if he is working, when He ceases to feel
any difference between Himself and His devotee. He looks and He sees working
here, He looks and He sees another Himself working there, He looks there and
He sees and a third Himself working there! The three blessed devotees of the
Master who have become like Him, though maintaining their individual identities,
their bodies and their character.
Brother Don's closeness with Babuji was something special for the people from the West, and that was because of his ability to serve him when he was sick. It is something the West has adopted, the ability to serve without distinguishing between good work and bad work, dirty work and clean work. I wonder how many Indians would be able nurse a sick man when he is vomiting, having diarrhoea and he has to be cleaned up. Because we may think we love, but we are not able to serve. Strangely enough, in the West, I don't think the ability to love is there, but they have the ability to serve. They don't distinguish between cleaning a toilet and washing a saucepan. No Westerner would hesitate to clean out a toilet. They do it all the time in their homes. They don't have servants. We would use a toilet but not clean it!
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