Service

In order to experience good meditation the mind and body must be progressively purified and selfish tendencies gradually reduced. The pure, unselfish mind is a joy in itself and is able to clearly reflect the blissful nature of spiritual consciousness. One of the best ways to remove mental impurities and overcome our selfish tendencies is to engage in social service. Giving our time and energy in the service of others brings happiness to those who are served but even greater joy to the one who serves.

Knowledge of the combined spiritual and social value of service led to the development of Karma Yoga, the science of Action. Karma Yoga is considered to be one of the three main paths to enlightenment. In general action leads to reaction and thus to some kind of mental disturbance. Mental disturbance comes because we are attached to the results of our actions, we develop vanity over our accomplishments and capacity – our ego is magnified and in the end we become the loser spiritually. But as we all must live in the world, there is no way to escape action. Karma Yoga, therefore, teaches us how to act in an egoless way that enhances and preserves the purity of the mind. The basic teachings of Karma Yoga are as follows: Act without being attached to results; Offer all ones actions to God; Surrender the vanity of doing the action and; Cultivate the feeling that God is doing everything and we are just instruments; Develop the mentality of, “Thy Will be done”; See those whom one serves as expressions of God and; at the time of giving service think that one is serving God in the form of the suffering people. By cultivating the science of Karma Yoga every action we do becomes a meditation and a means of our spiritual expansion.

Service and meditation are mutually beneficial to each other. Service purifies the mind so that we can do better meditation while meditation expands the mind and fills it with wisdom and divine feelings. As a result our actions will be free from narrowness and harmful sentiments – we will bring relief to others rather than pain.

In Yoga there are various categories of service which we should try to perform in order to fulfill our responsibilities to our environment and society. The first category is service to animals, plants and the natural environment. Watering plants, feeding animals, giving them love and affection enhances our feeling of oneness and harmony with the world and shows our respect for the life of all creatures. The second category is service to human beings. This can be subdivided into physical service, defense of the weak, financial service, intellectual service and spiritual service. We should render service according to our capacity and the need of the moment. Feed those who are hungry, defend those who are oppressed, donate to those who need a leg-up in this world, and make knowledge available to those who seek. Our planet has abundant resources. It is primarily the lack of service sentiment (or simply speaking, love), which is the source of so much suffering. The third and final category of service is cultivation of our soul and service to God and our spiritual teachers. One of the secrets of good concentration is to perform our meditation with the feeling of giving service. Offering our thoughts and actions to God, simple devotional expressions and care for the needs of our spiritual teachers are other forms of doing spiritual service.

“Self-Realization and Service to the Universe” is the motto of Ananda Marga. To fulfill this mission we are engaged in teaching the science of Yoga and Meditation around the world. At the same time we are actively engaged in many other kinds of service. Ananda Marga operates schools for the poor, homes for orphaned children, hospitals in poor areas, disaster relief, agricultural and rural economic development projects, distribution of food and clothes for the poor and a variety of other projects. We have received awards and appreciation from the United Nations and governments of Africa, India, South America and many countries around the world for our relief work and long term projects. Members in Taiwan raise funds for projects in poorer neighboring countries. One of these projects is an Ananda Marga children’s home in Mongolia with over a hundred orphans. This project includes a school, training facilities for young mothers, a medical facility, a bakery and other projects. Members in Taiwan also regularly visit old peoples homes and handicapped homes, entertaining the residents, distributing gifts and food and helping the staff with their duties. During recent floods and earthquakes Ananda Marga relief teams helped bring supplies, medical assistance and emotional support to stricken areas.