November 8, 2023
There was something in Gurudev Sivananda's personality which is indescribable. You may call it love, you may call it divinity - but it was that that made us do what we did. Nothing else mattered. I don't know if it's possible to repeat that experience to anyone else. I may serve you, but in that there is always a 'because', and that 'because' is shifting sands; whereas when I serve my guru it is because I love him and there is no other motivation. There is a constancy in that because it is in me, it is entirely mine, it doesn't depend upon him at all. I don't care if he loves me, I don't care whether he protects me or not, I don't care if he honors or dishonors me. I don't care what he does - pleases me displeases me - nothing. I love him, I want to serve him in exactly the same way as you would serve your baby - there it is firmly rooted in love, devotion; and that devotion has a spiritual quality. Minus this, secular service is not full, there is something lacking in it - it is a sort of contract.
If it is possible to serve without any motivation at all, that is divine, and that is what I would call devotion. There should be no 'because' at all. I serve you, period. But if you have to have a 'because' - I serve you because I love you or am devoted to you, which means it is all in me and does not look at you, into you; it is not dependent upon what you do towards me. If that is possible, there is love. Then you are free; in that service there is freedom - I am free to serve you because I don't expect anything in return. 'Adoring' is the word here. When it becomes adoring, you are not even a servant, you are a devotee. Here devotion is love. It is not a master whom you fear, it is a master whom you love.