Radhanath Swami On Seva

 

“Seva does not simply means to serve, seva means to serve with no egoism and no selfishness.” – Radhanath Swami

Real seva means we are not considering what we will get in return. Seva is service with the intent to please the object of our service. Cultivating this attitude brings about real bhakti, real love. So in this sense, by external considerations, there is no big or small service.

“Big and small are seen by Krishna only in reference to the content of our sincerity, and the purity of our love.” – Radhanath Swami

One can build a magnificent temple with pure love and that is a great service, or one can offer a simple flower and that is just as good, may be even better, depending on the internal quality of how we are genuinely trying to please the Lord. One of the reasons our spiritual progress gets impeded is because we don’t really appreciate the opportunity to serve.

The human ego wants to be served. The human ego wants to be glorified. And to the degree we hold onto these attachments, we cannot really appreciate the supreme, eternal, infinite value of glorifying Krishna, glorifying and serving those who love Krishna.

– Radhanath Swami