Service Without Servility
We have this mystery in spirituality, "service without servility," as Babuji emphasized again and again. We serve but we are nobody's servants. Servants serve for money, out of fear, for existence. We serve because we love. So in marriage too, there must be this idea of service - the wife serving the husband, the husband serving the wife. We serve, but not as servants. We serve because it is our nature to serve. We serve because the Master says serve. We serve with pride in the Master; and therefore, we serve Him, though we are serving you. Now again you find this operation: that the person served is not the person apparently served, but is the person who does not need my service at all - my Master.
One who serves is not a servant. I mean, the Master serves you all the time, but he is no way your servant. You see, when the service is of a higher nature than what you expect, there is no servility. But when that service is of a lower nature than what you expect, it is service with servility - you are a servant. So we make ourselves servants. Nobody makes me a servant of himself.
So you see, humility should not be confused with servitude. Humility is an attitude of the soul, where I tell myself, "I am what I am, but I should be what I should be." And this gap is my humility. The more I am inclined to think that I am already what I should have been, the more arrogance it is. So when I am conscious that between me and my goal there is still something to be achieved, it makes for humility. It has nothing to do with human relationships. Humility is always an attitude in which we meet someone who is - I can't use the word 'superior', because it is not right - who is perfect. Like when you see a beautiful painting, you stand in awe and reverence before it. It is not servility. It is not servitude. It is not humbling yourself before something. Nevertheless, the attitude is one of humility. So when you go into a church, to go near the altar, the feeling comes of humility. Why? Because there is that towards which I am moving. You cannot go arrogantly towards your Christ or your Krishna. So we should not confuse these things. And service without servility is the purpose of life. And how to serve the Mission? By becoming what he wants you to become. There is no other answer. All the rest is superficial.
I believe this path to be the lion's path, in which, we must be willing to sacrifice, if necessary, even our spiritual evolution and continue to serve humanity through not only this life but perhaps for all eternity, if that is His desire, if that is His wish and if that is the plan of Nature.
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