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[intro music] Dear listeners, Sai Ram and welcome to a new episode of our radio series, Serving in the Name of Sai. In this series, we bring you accounts of Swami's love and our love for Swami translating into service to humanity. Today's episode is part one of a two-part conversation with Mr. VSR Murty, a longstanding devotee of Bhagawan Baba from Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. Mr. VSR Murty is known for his brilliant eloquence, especially in the Telugu language, and has delivered hundreds of talks all over India and abroad. He is a guest speaker at various TV channels and All India Radio, where he expounds on science and spirituality. He's an academic council member of the Institute of Scientific Research on the Vedas, established in two thousand and five in Hyderabad. He has authored 12 books on Indian spirituality, deliberating on the philosophy of Adi Shankara to our Bhagawan and various other spiritual masters. In fact, he has been a longstanding devotee who came to Swami way back in the year nineteen sixty-two. So it's almost half a century of association. He gave a keynote address during the inauguration of Radio Sai studio in Tirupati in the year two thousand and twelve, and again, he gave a brilliant presentation during the inauguration of our new studio in Shivam, Hyderabad. He has been actively involved with the Telugu stream from its inception. In conversation with Mr. VSR Murty is Radio Sai's Bishu Prasthi, and they discuss about the importance and essence of seva. This conversation was first featured in Service Love in Action segment as part of our Thursday live broadcast on fourteenth November, two thousand and thirteen. Sai Ram, Mr. VSR Murty Sir, and welcome to the studios of Radio Sai. Sai Ram, Bishu ji. Just, uh, last evening, someone sent me a link. It was a small video. Mm-hmm. Actually a commercial, rather a promotional video and of three minutes duration. But what it conveyed in that three minutes, I wonder if three-hour long films also sometimes convey that so powerfully or not. True, true. It is very effective. The scene opens in a busy marketplace. The setting, as I can guess, is perhaps a semi-urban or rural area in Indonesia, Bali, that kind of, uh, a milieu. And it opens with a elderly woman, a shop owner- Mm-hmm ... spanking a little child and saying, "Why are you taking these medicines? Why are you taking these medicines?" Mm. And this little one, he's just keeping his head down, completely bent. And he says, "You know what, what is going to happen if you just steal medicines like this?" And suddenly another shop owner, who is a small restaurant owner, that mid-middle-aged person comes and, uh, he watches this scene and he sees this little fellow who's put his head down and he, he doesn't know how to react and, uh, that lady is, uh, reprimanding her black and blue. Mm. And so this person, he feels something and he says, "Are you, were you taking these medicines home?" And this fellow just slightly nods. And he asks, "Is your mother sick?" And this boy again nods slightly. Then this middle-aged person calls out to his little girl who's als- who also helps him in the restaurant and tells something in their language, and she returns with a veg cutlet and two buns. Mm. So he puts that buns and the veg cutlet into that packet which already had medicines, and he gives it to this little boy, and he tells the medicine owner, "You don't worry about it. I'll look after it." And this boy, the moment he gets it, he grabs it and he runs. You know, he's got it now. Now s- no one should change their mind. Right. He runs. And the scene ends there. The next scene, thirty years later. This mid-middle-aged person has now become an elderly person. And as he's, uh, uh, busy in his restaurant offering tea, et cetera, suddenly he gets a massive stroke and he collapses. And this little girl, now a young lady, she takes her father immediately to the hospital. And father is in ICU, and you can see that this young lady is so crestfallen, so depressed. Her whole world has collapsed. From her eyes you can see that she loves her father so much, and nowShe's constantly talking to the doctors, and there sh- doesn't seem to be any solution because you can make out that the doctor is telling, uh, m- not exactly the doctor, but the other professionals in between. They're saying, "If you want this operation to be done, you know, this is the amount that is needed," and et cetera, et cetera. And, uh, she, she really doesn't know what to do because it's beyond, uh, beyond their reach to afford such an operation. And father is in ICU, and, uh, she's absolutely clueless. Perhaps i- if she doesn't have the money, they will, they'll not do the surgery, and that's it. And then she gets a message that, uh, the doctor apparently said, "Let's get the operation done. We can worry about it later." And so her father is wheeled into the theater, and the operation is over. And then finally a bill comes to this young lady, and that bill says, "Operation this much. Uh, medicines this much. Patient care this much. Stay in the hospital this much," et cetera, et cetera. Total this much. Amount due zero. Paid in full with one veg cutlet and two buns. Mm. Wonderful. Understood. Mm. It really was such a refreshing, uh, feeling when I saw that three-minute video. And, you know, these are, uh, films which really make you think, which, which contemplate on what is giving and what is service, who can serve, how to serve, why should we serve? Is service charity? Is service compassion? Is only sweeping the house of a poor beggar the service? Is meditation service? Can bhajans be service? What exactly service? Is sympathy service? Is empathy service? What is service and what is not? So I just thought it would be very nice if we take some time and, and, and discuss because this is something which I think everyone would like to engage in. But these questions continuously keep cropping up. Should I go to office and work, or should I go and serve in the leper home? Is that service? If I'm staying at home and helping my mom, is that service, or should I go and attend bhajans? Is that service? Should I miss bhajans? If I miss bhajans and be at home and do something- Is it service? ... is it service? Now, what is service and what is not? So I thought if you can take some, uh, if you can, uh, the next, I don't know, half an hour, one hour, if we can deliberate on this, it would really be very enlightening for us [chuckles] and then for everyone, uh, who is onto this path. It's wonderful, uh, to talk about service, which is very dear to our beloved Swami. This particular as advent, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai has come into this world and had a sojourn of 86 years on this planet Earth only, not only to teach, uh, or preach about service, but He has given, opened the new vistas where ser- service can be an action. A love in action is service, according to Swami. Uh, why I refer to Swami, uh, quite extensively is there is no avatar comparable to Bhagavan who has demonstrated the service aspect. People spoke about transformations. People spoke about liberation, salvation. People spoke about charity, uh, giving and taking, taking and getting, getting and forgetting. So many aspects. But with Swami, it is entirely different. He has given a, a great thrust to the seva, the word. Uh, Bishu Ji, this is like this. Seva is not service. There is no equivalent word in English for seva. Mm. Seva is a Sanskrit word. Yes. The real equivalent, um, meaning for seva is bhavana. Thoughts emanate from brain. Thoughts which are impregnated or tainted with so many aspects, they emanate from the mind and brain both. But bhavana emanates... Bhavana means a feeling. Mm. A real genuine feeling. A feeling of concern and compassion, as you were asking about, talking about sympathy, empathy, and so many things. But no place for apathy there. Mm. Um, that emanate from the heart. That is a source, and that is a seat of our knowledge, our seat of our, uh, uh, the, the real self and all. Uh, when they emanate from the heart, that is called bhavana. Bhavana is entirely a positive feeling, a positive outlook, positive attitude, positive strength. So when everything is positive, and if it, we call it the bhavana, if it is translated into action in any direction that may deem fit or unfit, whatever, it is called seva. Before, uh, diving deep inside into the sea of the subject, I would like to remember beautiful words by Bhagavan. He defined seva in unequivocal terms very beautifully.He summarized, "Serving own is mundane. Serving known is humane. Serving the unknown is divine." When you serve the own, it's your duty, fundamental primordial duty to serve your own kith and kin and, uh, people who are related to you through blood. You have some friends and you serve them at the time of their need and all, and it's called humane. You don't know anybody. There's no connection with him. You are not sure whether you would meet him again in this particular life, yet you'll be serving. The person who receives will remember. The person who serves here forgets. I think this is the highest, uh, state of service which, uh, Swami was, uh, all the time telling and preaching to all of us. So this is what is nishkama. Nishkama. Nishkama seva, selfless service. Even there won't be any sense of feeling that he's indulging in activity. But he does. He does with great, uh, precision, concern, uh, compassion, and sympathy, and so many other aspects. I-i-if you take the story that I narrated, I felt at that moment- Mm. ... that elderly, uh, man- Man ... who giving those medicines to that boy and adding that, you know, some more food and buns was an act of absolute selfless service. Self... Yeah. He, he didn't know whether he's ever going to see the little boy again in his life. Right. Indeed. Yeah, so, so many aspects. So the way, when you want to really serve people, the very purpose of human life is to be always useful, uh, for others. That is paropakaraya idam shariram. Shariram means not only the body. It is the body, mind, soul component. All three put together is a confluence. That, um, uh, the very manifestation of these three aspects constitute one human body, and the human body should be always useful to the other man or to the world at large. So as Vivekananda also said, you know, "Stretch out. Stretch your hands out into the society. Come out of the meditation." The amount of inner power, inner energy that gets concentrated should be flown down the lane so that whatever you accrue during the state of meditation, uh, should reach out to the man, uh, who is always there to receive. Not one, but millions and trillions of people, not only in India, in fact, uh, entirely on the globe. So when we come to the service, the bhavana, as I, as we are talking about, who will get these bhavanas? There must be some preparation. Is it the preparation of willingness? A desire? A want? An intention? A concern? What is that? It is all. It is not one. It is a combination of all. You take, uh, any incident in life where service is rendered. All these, uh, components will guide the particular situation, and your action may be instantaneous, and it may be momentary, or it may last for, uh, uh, several months and years. But the undercurrent is, uh, your concern. Can you give an example? Yeah. A real life story if you have seen- Yeah ... any in your life. Oh, so many. Hundreds of, uh, stories. See, every day we go for work, every day. The same car, the same road, the same driver, the same, uh, walls on either side, compound walls, uh, being pasted with so many, uh, wall posters. We read them, read them, and read them. Yet there will be also, a-along with this, there will be a fixture which is constant, which is not changing for several years. And it is there. Why I call it it, I'm not referring whether it is she or he. It, it represents the need. It represents the poverty. It represents helplessness. It represents aspirations. It represents love for life. And it still sits along the roadside helplessly, always awaiting for some help from some quarters. So while I was, uh, going to my office, to my factory, a number of times, almost every day, I used to see this man entirely covered, uh, with a white cloth. In the initial stage, I didn't know, uh, uh, that he, he was a leprosy patient. I didn't know about it. He can't stretch his hands because all his fingers are eaten away. But he always looks forward. He knows my car number. He knows the color of my car. When car comes, he's sure that I'm there in the car, and he's also sure. So it has become such a habitual incidence. He's sure that I will stop at him. I get down, offer some food, and go. Even he cannot receive the food through his hands because he has no hands, no palms. He will keep the bowl ready so that I will gently put inside. Suddenly, I found one day the place vacant. The food packet which I was carrying, I had to carry home back.My wife asked me, "What happened?" "I don't know. I, I didn't find him there. I'll inquire. Today I didn't have time to know what exactly happened to that gentleman." She said, "Okay, there will be several people. There may be somebody sitting in the same place." Next day, without, uh, my getting into any act of inquiry, he was sitting there, the same story, the same scene, the same action, the same food was given, the, uh, fresh food. But the inquisitiveness I had, in my mind I could not resist. When I was putting the food in the bowl, I asked him one question: "What happened to you yesterday?" "Yesterday I was not well. I had some stomach ache. I was suffering. It was indeed a suffering. Your car, I don't know. Even if you bring that food, I, I cannot eat. So I was, uh, praying God for some medicine, some medicine. But who will give me medicine? Some people give me money. Some people give me food. Some people give me clothes. Some people give me a, uh, shawl because it is winter. But nobody will think that this man also needs some medicine. So when somebody was trying to give me some money, I said, 'I'm suffering. There is some pain in the stomach. Lower abdomen. Can you get me some medicine?' That gentleman put me in an auto, took me to a doctor. He got me examined. I was not permitted inside. The doctor came out. He examined me, gave me some medicines. Yesterday night I slept. Today morning I am free from that problem, and I am very hungry." Then, uh, he stopped. "Sir, you come regularly. You give me food continuously, and I have been receiving it. But now my body tells I need medicines too. Can you bring me some medicines or take me to some doctor if required?" It is a new thrust, new dimension. Serving monotonously, serving in the same form or format, what we call, is indeed monotonous to the giver and taker too. We have to understand the need of the other person and serve. That, that should be the fundamental aspect of service. What is the need? Hunger, thirst, then pain in the body, pain in the mind, pain in the feelings. Above all, there is a sense of neglect by the society. Then who will take care? These questions were, uh, they were lingering in my mind till I reached my factory. But that day, I resolved personally. Swami has given me one person here, a, a classic, uh, case where I can be of great service to him in total. It is not food alone. We, we always think, "I have been giving him food. He's, he's safe." No, it's not that. So, uh, afterwards, uh, I got him some clothes, some new clothes, because in service I never-- we, we should not give the worn clothes or torn clothes or whatever, or used clothes. Then I gave him a pair of clothes, medicines. Then I engaged a doctor who is sympathetic towards such patients. Incidentally, he's also Swami's devotee, so he used to come to the, uh, roadside and give some prescription, and also medicines free. So this is how the service we can't, uh, indeed define, say, "This is service." Service is an instant reaction that emanates from the mind or from the heart, where you can take care of the need of the other man. It can be anything. Once, I remember Swami was telling about the 14 lokas. Thirteen lokas He defined in the body. Suddenly He said the 14th loka is in this world. What is that? He said it is called the Kimpurusha Loka. Kimpurusha Loka, Kimpurusha means sparsha. That is called touch. See, we, I gave him food. I gave him clothes. I gave him medicines. I must have given some money too. I must have taken full care. But did I touch him? I didn't touch. Had I touched him in the very first instance, I think these things would have been, um, not indeed necessary for the man, because that sense of neglect by the society, we have to address. That is the best service according to Bhagawan. So service is, uh, definable in many, many, many ways. It's multidimensional. Absolutely. Two, three thoughts come to my mind. Yeah. As you mentioned, uh, this because one aspect which comes out very forcefully is sensitivity. And, uh, I will narrate one instance of, uh, how Bhagawan taught this aspect of sensitivity. This was, uh, uh, in an interview room. It happened many years ago. Mm-hmm. And, uh, Mr. Rangarajan, who is currently the Controller of Examinations. Mm-hmm. He narrated this in a talk in front of Bhagawan. Mm-hmm. It was his first interview andBhagwan had a group of young devotees, and he was also fortunate to be part of that session. And since it was his first encounter with Bhagwan at such close quarters, he was in awe of Bhagwan and, you know, so absorbed and, uh, all the time amazed seeing Bhagwan interact, seeing Bhagwan create something, and seeing Bhagwan, you know, lovingly talk to these youngsters, et cetera. So the interview was getting over, and, uh, then, uh, Swami reached out, uh, for the bag of, uh, vibhuti, which Swami always had on the windowsill. Right. So Swami took that vibhuti bag, and, uh, uh, Swami looked at Rangarajan sir. But no, sir was so lost, uh, looking at Bhagwan, so, uh, it didn't strike him anything. Swami started serving, but the moment Swami was about to serve one young devotee in the group, he's got up, and he told Swami, "May I hold the bag?" Hmm. So Swami gave him the opportunity, and then Swami looked at Rangarajan sir and said, "See? Did you see?" Yes. Indeed. And then Swami served vibhuti. Vibhuti. Hmm. And, you know, he was saying he came out of the interview room, and, you know, he was feeling so terrible. He, he was so, uh, enamored and, uh, in a loss that there was such a beautiful opportunity to serve Bhagwan. And, you know, he had, he had stopped being sensitive to what he could do for Bhagwan- True ... at that point in time. And that was a really, uh, something very disappointing. And he thought, and he's constantly praying, "Swami, Swami, give me one more opportunity, and I will definitely do it. I will not miss this chance. Please give me one more chance." And fortunately for him, Swami called him the next day also. A-again, there was a group, and, uh, sir was there. And after Swami wa- uh, interacted with that group, and it was time for, uh, the session to close, or so it appeared. And, uh, so Rangarajan sir, th- now he was just waiting, you know. "I have to just grab that bag." That's it. Yeah. [laughs] "I should not miss it today before anyone else." So he, as he sensed, "Okay, this is now the session is going to end," you know. So even before Bhagwan said something, he went and took the bag. And Swami is like, "Arre, what are you doing?" [laughs] But, you know, Swami is very happy because, you know, it, it is a feeling that, you know, like a mother feels so happy the s- the child has learned the lesson. Yes. So Swami was very happy, actually. So Swami, uh, uh, gave him the bag and, you know. So Swami, as he held the bag, Swami started distributing vibhuti to the group. As he was doing this, Swami now looked at one more youth in the group and said, "See? Did you see?" [laughs] [laughs] So that is how this cycle goes on. But, uh, I, I feel it is a very beautiful example, Swami teaching through his life just how sensitive we should be wherever. I mean, he-- This was an example where he, he was teaching. But when we saw Bhagwan, uh, do this, I mean, there have been so many instances. Like, and what comes to my mind very freshly is this Orissa episode where, uh, in 2008 the floods happened. And, uh, when it was reported to Bhagwan that, uh, "Swami, thousands of people are marooned, and, uh, this flood is so devastating," that the first question Swami asked is, "Is there not anyone there who can help?" "Well, Swami, yes, there are people, and there are many businessmen there because they're... I mean, because Orissa is known for its, uh, minerals. You have a lot of rich people who are setting up industries there." And Swami said, "Are they not doing anything? They are taking the resources of the state, but are they not doing anything?" So everybody was silent, and Swami said, "No. Then I want to build houses for them." And then the next, that evening itself, you know, Swami in the Pune, inside Kulwant Hall made that announcement that, "I'm going to build 1,000 houses. Uh, it doesn't matter how much it costs." And Swami, in fact, sold one of his, uh, bungalows in Kodaikanal. In Sai Shruti and there's one more bungalow, the hilltop bungalow. I think that is the highest point in Kodaikanal. Very beautiful place, actually. Swami used to go visit there. But he just sold that house because he wanted to create houses for another 1,000 people. Uh, I felt that was, uh, I mean, you, you cannot have a, a more sterling example of sensitivity, uh, because, uh, I felt that was, that sort of summed up, uh, how sensitive we should be. And, uh, I'll just add one more thing. I have read that book, uh, Many Life, Many Mansions. Many Mansions. Hmm. Many Mansions. It's a book by Edgar Cayce where he talks about reincarnation and past life, uh, people who have, uh, memories of past lives through past life regression and all that. And one thing that comes out very forcefully through his analysis is this. People take birth again and again because they have to learn something. There is something that you have to overcome. There is something that you have to sort of conquer. One trait. It could be anger. It could be anything. And that is the reason why you are born, because you have to grow, and you will grow only when you are confronted with all the situations. Until you grow, the situations will keep coming. Be it greed, be it anything. Life will not leave you unless you overcome that. But he says, onceThat soul or that mind, whatever, realizes that he is not here for itself, but for others. Others. When that thing is firmly established that I'm not for myself, I'm only for others, then birth stops. Rebirth stops. It's after all, the human birth is to learn. It's a continuous process, incessant process, a perennial process till he achieves that full stop. It is to learn and also unlearn to, unlearn what he has already learned. So there will be some scope for any individual to learn and learn and learn, only finally to unlearn. Unlearning is real knowledge, and that is the wisdom. Learning is a process. It is only a physical activity or a mental, uh, game. So the service is unlearning. When you consciously do it, it turns there is a possibility of the service activity turning into vanity. When you do it with less consciousness but tremendous amount of awareness, these two are different. When you do it with awareness, it is a charity. A charity of service or whatever. If you do it with a conscious or, uh, does it consciously, it is vanity. Swami always says, "No. No service activity should be a vanity." It should not show off your physical, metaphysical, mental, and, uh, economic strengths to the world. World doesn't need all that. Uh, world is not carried away by figures. You may quote any number of figures. They don't mean anything. Have you reached out to the needy or not? Are you sensible and sensitive to a particular situation or not? It is not enough if one is sensible. One should be sensitive, too. These two, a combo, uh, that, that should reflect in any service activity. So we plan, we design, we tailor so many activities and say we served one lakh people. We served fifty thousand houses. We, we gave kalashams to seventy-five thousand last year, and this year it has gone to one lakh fifty thousand. You want to say charity is not reaching out to the real needy? One. Is it increasing day by day? Are you not geared up to the situation? So many questions will be thrown at us. So the best thing is, uh, what we call in simple terms, strengthen the epicenters. The ne-nearest is the epicenter. Distant is not epicenter. The closest epicenter, which is approachable and accessible, you focus on that. Try to understand and analyze. Consciously can begin to do it, but with awareness do you do it? This is the sum of service according to my perception of Swami's philosophy. Yeah. You mentioned, uh, service should not be show service. True. Swami used to always say that. It should not be a demonstration. Correct. In fact, uh, in one discourse, Swami [laughs] uh, narrated a very beautiful story. Swami said there, there was this rich man who wanted to, uh, donate fans for a school meant for underprivileged people. So the fans were brought. But, uh, he wanted that, you know, people should know that it, he's the donor. True. That is very important. So what is the most prominent place where he can actually put his name so that, you know, the moment people look at the fan, they, they can know that it is Mr.- And Mrs. ... so and so, yes, who has donated the fan. So he said, "You know, my name should be there on the blades of the fan." On the three blades of the fan, his name was there, very prominent, and he, he went back very satisfied. And, uh, uh, he went to all the classrooms, and he was very happy. And then when the power came, the fans started. And once the fans started, he saw that actually once the fan rotates, no one can actually read his name. So that was not something that he had wished. His purpose is not served. Served. So ultimately, he gave a direction that the fans can be there. Hmm. But- But not to be on. They should not be on. Because if it's on, people can't read his name. Hmm. I mean, that is what, you know, that, that is a very humorous incident Swami narrated, but I think that is what, that, that shows the attitude, uh, of, uh, what happens to a service, how defunct it becomes- Yeah ... once you, there is a tinge of selfishness, that aggrandizement, uh, that show off as we call. You know, that's what perhaps, uh, uh, I mean, through a very simple example Swami gave us. I mean, it's a very, uh, symbolic example. Exactly. But I think, uh, when we look at many service activities today in the world, many times you see that ultimately, though there is a very beautiful vision and there's plenty of resources, but very little reaches. It becomes sort of meaningless because there are these, uh, attitudes, uh, which have sort of, uh, ruined the whole activity. Vishu, there is, uh, an undercurrent of mental cheating too in this. People indulge in activity. Suppose they spend about, uh, ten thousand rupees on a particular, uh, service activity. But the amount of, uh, money that they spend on canvassing for this is twenty thousand rupees. So is it service? Not at all. Swami says you do it, that's all. You do it without any canvassing. Transmit. That's very important. Transmit, uh, the love, the innate feelings, bhavanas, the seva aspect.The, uh, uh, divine persona which is already within you, it should radiate, it should, uh, reach out to the people through some action. Of all the actions, as I mentioned earlier, the touch is the ultimate. It is not fundamental. It is final. Touch. Suppose we, we keep visiting hospitals, no? Service activity. Touch the patient. Just don't give away the packet of, uh, fruits or, uh, br-bread and butter. No, it's not that. Touch him. That gives him confidence. Oh, the, that's called, uh, what we call the aspect of want. We are wanted by the world. That's why world is coming to me, so I must get back quickly. I must recover very fast and indulge in similar or same activities as my brothers or sisters are doing. So that will, uh, invigorate, that will, uh, in fact glorify, they propel the inner, uh, feelings to get into the act of service. I think that service Swami was always talking about. It's distribution of things is one. There is only a kind. Do it with kindness, with sympathy. Yeah. Absolutely. What comes to mind is, uh, one conversation, uh, that the head of the Department of Cardiology serving in Swami's Hospital in Bangalore had with Swami in an interview room. I think this was sometime in two thousand eight, two thousand nine. Swami gave an opportunity for all the doctors and, uh, a few other staff members, uh, of an interview. And this doctor actually at that time was relatively new. He's a very competent, uh, physician, and, uh, he joined as the head of the Department of Cardiology. But, uh, coming from other backgrounds, he had his own way of dealing with patients. That day, Swami looked at him very keenly, and, uh, He asked him, his name is Dr. Chandrashekar, he still is the HOD, "Do you have everything in the hospital to look after the patient?" He said, "Yes, Swami." He said, "Do you have all the equipments and infrastructure? Do you need anything for cardiology? Uh, CTV is actually cardiac surgery." He said, "No, Swami, we are, we are actually well equipped. There is no problem." Then Swami said, "Then when the patient comes, you know what you should do? You should look the patient in the eye." And as you mentioned, you know, "You should speak to him in a manner that he's your own kith and kin." Swami said, "If you do this, half, more than half his problems will be solved. See, all the patients who come to this hospital, they're all very poor patients. They have nowhere to go. All they need first is that love." Swami said, "All I want is when patients come, please look into their eyes and speak." And he says that just one interaction with Swami changed his perspective so much. He said, "Earlier, I have worked in so many other hospitals. Earlier, I used to always think of the patient as an intruder. You know, a patient has come, so what does he want? Okay. What are your symptoms? Okay. You know, you give your stuff. Okay, fine. That's done. Okay." He, he told, "I never actually had that kind of a feeling earlier. This has changed my perspective of patient care of so much." He says, "Now, when I go for my morning rounds, eight in the morning to see all the patients, believe me, it is no more a patient round. For me, now it is a darshan round." Wonderful. Wonderful. So as you are saying, you know, if, if you can look into the eye of the patient, uh, and touch the patient, you know, you just one loving pat, one, that itself will... And I, and I, and I believe, uh, this is so much true because, you know, Swami, Swami has told so many times, ninety-nine percent of our disease arise in the mind. I mean, once, once, uh, y- y- you are mentally, spiritually healed, you know, body will he-heal by itself. Anyway, that's a different topic altogether. But I think this aspect of, of, uh, feeling for the other, I think how intensely you, you feel, I think that intense is ourself. Feeling alone is a healing, no? Absolutely. That what Swami always said. Mm-hmm. Feel for others. Mm-hmm. Feel for yourself or for the self is very fundamental. We feel for ourselves. But feeling for others with whom you have either contact or no contact is, uh, a much higher plane. There you will be sen-- very, very sensible because the inner, uh, characteristics of an individual, they, uh, surface. And they, when they are translated into action, the other man is benefited. When the other man is redeemed of all the difficulties that he's undergoing or the, uh, challenges that he's facing in life or deficiencies he's suffering from or excesses that he's suffering from, all, all will come to one line and one level of operation where one can maintain that state of equilibrium and equipoise. So service is, uh, definitely a, a beautiful external expression of our in-inner internal culture. And it is an elevation of our mind level. That's very, very important. Otherwise, service is not a mere physical activity. Not at all.In fact, a very beautiful, uh, quotation of Bhagawan comes to mind. Swami once said, "The fruit of faith is prayer. The fruit of prayer is love, and the fruit of love is service." Fruit of love is service. Swami said the fourth dimension, no? Yes. The, uh, fruit of, uh, uh, faith, uh, fruit of feeling, uh, prayer is a fruit of, uh, faith. Faith, practice. Practice, feeling. Feeling, then, uh, finally, what we get out of all this. It is, it is like, uh, describing a tree from root to fruit. That what Swami said. Mm-hmm. So it is a combination of all aspects. And that's why we always say service is a multi, multi-dimensional activity. Yeah. Absolutely. Actually, at this point, uh, I will- Uh-huh ... I would, uh, like you to, mm, narrate some very sterling examples of service that you have seen in your life. Because it is one thing to talk about it as a philosophy, but I think only when we see that in action and done by people who are living with us, people like you and me, people who, who, whom we interact with every day, you know, o- only then it really, uh, sends that powerful, uh, inspiration. Only then it really motivates you to feel, "Okay, if he can do it, why not I?" Right. "Why, why, why can't I do it?" I mean, I, I know of so many, uh, of my classmates who, who have made that resolve. [upbeat instrumental music] Sai Ram. You just heard an episode of our radio series, Serving in the Name of Sai, in which we brought to you part one of a two-part conversation with Mr. VSR Murty, a longstanding devotee of Bhagawan Baba from Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. In conversation with him was Radio Sai's Bishu Prasrti, and they discussed about the importance and essence of seva. The second part of this interview will be aired same day, same time next week, and this was first featured in Service: Love in Action segment as part of our Thursday live broadcast on 14th November 2013. Please do send in your feedback and comments, and we look forward to your emails. And as always, you can reach us at listener@radiosai.org. Thank you, and Sai Ram. [upbeat instrumental music]
SSSMC · audio
Episode 061 - On Essence Of Seva - Part 1
Episode 061 - On Essence Of Seva - Part 1
Source: Sri Sathya Sai Media Centre
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