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	Service Human and Divine</p>
<br>
	<p class="para">To wish to serve humanity, to do good to it shows ambition and egoism? How?
</p>
<br>
<p class="para">
Why do you wish to serve humanity? What is your 
purpose? What is your motive? Do you know in what consists the good to 
humanity? And do you know better than humanity itself what is good for 
it? Or do you know it better than the Divine? You say the Divine is 
everywhere, so if you serve humanity, it is the Divine whom you serve. 
Well, if the Divine is everywhere, he is in you too; so the best and the
 most logical thing should be to begin by serving yourself.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para">
Is there then no need for service to humanity? 
Hospitals, nursing organisations, charitable institutions have not been 
useful to humanity? Has not the spirit of philanthropy mended and 
improved the conditions of human life?
</p>
<br>
<p class="para">
Has it, I ask? You have tried to help a few 
people here and there. But what does it amount to compared to what needs
 to be done? The proverbial drop in the ocean or less than that even. 
You remember the story of St. Vincent de Paul? He began giving alms to 
the poor. On the first day there were ten, on the second some twenty, on
 the third more than fifty and the number went on swelling in more than 
geometrical progression. And then? Colbert, the King's Minister, 
remarked seeing the plight of the
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-164</p>
<br><hr>
<p class="para">saint: "Our brother seems to be giving birth endlessly to his poor people".
</p>
<br>
<p class="para">
I do not think that the spirit of charity has in 
any way improved human conditions. I do not see that men have become 
either more or less subject to disease and indigence than before. 
Charity was always there and misery has coexisted with it ever. I do not
 think the ratio between the two has diminished in any way. You remember
 the ironical but pertinent remark of someone who said in view of 
science's attempts to cure and remove misery: "Poor philanthropists 
would be in a sad plight, their occupation will go!" The true reason why
 one wishes to do charity is elsewhere, it is to please oneself, it is 
for self-satisfaction. It amuses you to do the thing: it gives you the 
sense that you are doing something, that you are a valuable member of 
humanity, not like the others, that you are somebody. What else all that
 is except that you are vain, full of self-importance, full of yourself?
 That is what I meant when I said that it is ambition or egoism that 
makes you humanitarian. Of course, if it pleases you to do the work, if 
you feel happy in doing it, you are at perfect liberty to do the work 
and continue. But do not imagine that you are doing any real or 
effective service to humanity; particularly do not imagine that by that 
you are serving God, leading a spiritual life or doing Yoga.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para">
Just an illustration of the quality of the spirit
 that animates humanitarianism. A charitable man will give generously 
for a thing that is known, recognised, appreciated;
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-165</p>
<br><hr>
<p class="para">he will be liberal if he finds his name attached 
to the work, announced and pronounced, if there is fame for him in it. 
But ask him a dole for something genuine, comparatively modest or out of
 the way, something that is truly spiritual and divine, you will find 
his purse-strings tightened, his heart closed up. A gift that bears no 
value to the giver does not tempt the ordinary humanitarian. There is 
indeed another different category of givers, of the opposite kind, who 
want precisely to remain anonymous: they would be displeased if their 
name were announced. But the motive here too is not very different; in 
fact it is the same motive acting a<i> rebours, </i>
backward as 
it were. Here there is the additional element of self-glorification: one gives 
and people do not know who, it is something all the more to be proud of.</p>
<br>
<p class="para">
You must look into yourself, question yourself 
before you do a thing simply because it is the thing normally done and 
it is how things are normally done. You can do good to others, if you 
know what is that good and if you possess that in yourself. If you wish 
to help others, you must be on a higher level than theirs. If you are 
one with the others, level with them in nature and consciousness, what 
can you do but share in their ignorance and blind movements and 
perpetuate them? So it happens really that the first thing to do is to 
serve yourself.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para">
You will make a remarkable discovery as you 
proceed to know what you are and who you are. That is how you should 
begin. "I want to serve humanity. How can I serve? Who is this 'I' that 
wants to serve?" You say,
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-166</p>
<br><hr>
<p class="para">"I am such a person, this form and this name." 
But the form you have now was not there when you were a baby: it has 
been changing constantly. All the elements of your body are being 
renewed totally. Neither are your sensations and feelings those you had a
 few years ago. Your thoughts and ideas have moved through revolutions. 
The "I" covers a sum of everchanging factors. There is nothing 
particularly to be called "I": it is only a ring of changes. An empty 
name seems to be the only constant thing. One element at a time comes 
forward—an idea, a feeling, an impulse—and that is your "I" for 
the moment. At another moment another element comes up and becomes your 
"I". You are not one "I" but a crowd of many "I"s. So what is the value 
of the declaration of one of the I's that it has found the goal, the 
truth, the duty you have to follow? Thus if you proceed further, 
questioning and analysing yourself thoroughly and sincerely, you will 
stumble upon the reality. You will find that "I" does not exist at all. 
What exists is something else: it is the one indivisible reality, the 
Divine alone.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para">
It is this self-discovery that will give you the basic 
knowledge, the foundation of your life, the discovery that your self as yourself 
does not exist, you are indeed nothing. This sense of nothingness must pervade 
your being, fill all the elements of your being before the truth can dawn upon 
you and the Divine Presence can be felt. And what you have been doing all along 
is the very contrary thing, asserting your egoism, your vanity— pretending that 
you were somebody, you could do something,</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-167</p>
<br><hr>
<p class="para">that the world needed your help and you 
can give that help. Nothing of the kind. When you discover this truth 
and accept it, when you are humbled and in true humility you approach 
life and reality, you will find your real career and vocation.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para">
In a deeper sense it is indeed by serving 
yourself that you serve others best. When you discover a dark spot in 
you, a grain of egoism, ambition, selfishness, when you do not yield to 
its impulsion but surmount it, when you thus conquer in your self a 
movement that leads you astray, in the same gesture you make the 
conquest for the sake of others too, you create the same possibility in 
others. There can be nothing more dynamic than this setting of personal 
example. It is not that others observe you and imitate you; the 
influence is more subtle and more powerful. You create the opportunity, 
make an opening, bring into active play the force of your realisation, 
even without the knowledge of others; the others are only benefited by 
the invisible help that is lent to them. But you must be on your guard 
here too. You must not say, "I will help others, so let me improve 
myself." There should not be any such spirit of barter or bargain. 
Confine yourself to your own business; how others are affected or not 
affected is not your concern. If you entertain that kind of idea, you 
invite the same vanity and egoism, by the backdoor. Yours should be like
 the blooming of a flower; it blooms out of its own joy and delight of 
self-fulfilment; in the process, by its very existence it spreads its 
perfume all around, fills the
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-168</p>
<br><hr>
<p class="para">surrounding with its glad vibration, but that 
simply happens, it does not do all that purposely or intentionally. Even
 so the soul that perfects himself: the victory he wins for himself is 
contagious and extends automatically.
</p>
<br>
<p class="para">
I have said your ego is an illusion. Your "I" 
does not exist at all. There is nothing like separate, distinct 
individualities and individual fulfilments. The Divine alone exists and 
the Divine's Will. He is the single and unique and all-embracing 
reality. What then is the source of this variety and diversity of 
existence? What is the significance, if any, of the many individualities
 and personalities, their appearance and play on the world-stage?
</p>
<br>
<p class="para">
That is another story. I leave it for a future occasion.
</p>
<br><p class="pageno">Page-169</p>
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