Prayer Book

10. Serve Man as God

This is the gist of all worship - to be pure and to do good to others. he who sees Shiva in the poor, in the weak, and in the diseased, really worships Shiva; and if he sees Shiva only in the image, his worship is but preliminary. After so much austerity, I have understood this as the real truth - God is present in every Jiva; there is other God besides that. 'Who serves Jiva, serves God indeed'.

The great duty of the householder is to earn a living, but he must take care that he does not do it by telling lies, or by cheating, or by robbing others; and he must remember that his life is for the service of God, and the poor.

Who feels there for the two hundred millions of men and women sunken for ever in poverty and ignorance? Where is the way out? Who feels for them? They cannot find light or education. Who will bring the light to them -- who will travel from door to door bringing education to them? Let these people be your God -- think of them , work for them, pray for them incessantly -- the Lord will show you the way. Him I call a Mahatman (great soul) whose heart bleeds for the poor, otherwise he is a Duratman (wicked soul).

The only God to worship is the human soul in the human body. Of course, all animals are temples too, but man is the highest, the Taj Mahal of temples. If I cannot worship in that, no other temple will be of any advantage.

The fool dwelling on the bank of the Ganga, digs a well for water, such are we! Living in the midst of God - we must go and make images. We project Him in the form of the image, while all the time He exists in the Temple of our body. We are lunatics and this is the great delusion. Worship everything as God - every form is His temple. All else is delusion.

We may all manage to maintain our bodies more or less satisfactorily and for longer or shorter intervals of time. Nevertheless, our bodies have to go; there is no permanence about them. Blessed are they who bodies get destroyed in the service of others.

This life is short, the vanities of world transient, but they alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive. if the Lord grants that you can help any one of His children, blessed you are; do not think too much of yourselves. Blessed you are that that privilege was given to you when others had it not. Do it only as worship.

May I be born again and again, and suffer thousands of miseries, so that I may worship the only God that exists, the only God I believe in, the sum total of all souls - and above all, my God the wicked, my God the miserable, my god the poor of all races, of all species, is the special object of my worship.

You must give your body, mind and speech to 'the welfare of the world'. You have read - 'Matru Devo Bhava, Pitru, Devo Bhava - Look upon your mother as God, Look upon your father as God', but I say, 'Daridra Devo Bhava, Murkha Devo Bhava - the poor, the illiterate, the ignorant, the afflicted - let these be your God'. Know that service to these alone is the highest religion.

Take my advice: Set yourself wholly to the service of others, when you come from your colleges. Believe me, far greater happiness would then be ours than if you had had a whole treasury full of money and other valuables at your command. As you go on your way, serving others, you will advance accordingly in the path of knowledge.

Even the least work done by others awakens the power within; even thinking the least good of others gradually instils into the heart the strength of a lion. I love you all ever so much, but I wish you all to die working for others - I should rather be glad to see you do that!

All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. he who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying.

In the world take always the position of the giver. Give everything and look for no return. Give love, give help, give service, give any little thing you can but keep out barter. Make no conditions, and none will be imposed. Let us give out of our own bounty, just as God gives to us.

The highest aim of all disciplines, all spiritual paths, is the attainment of the knowledge of Atman. If you, by being devoted to the service of others and by getting your heart purified by such work, attain to the vision of all beings as the Self, what else remains to be attained in the way of Self - realisation?