SADHU SEVA AND CHARITY BY SRISRI VINOD BIHARI DAS BABAJI MAHARAJ

Service to God or vaishnava should be selfless in nature. Even if your intention is to acquire bhakti in return to the service done, you are not being really selfless. Since you are interested in your own spiritual advancement, you can easily fail to see if your service is actually disappointing the other person. Suppose you want to give a sadhu some money or materialistic things which he considers as obstacles in his bhajan. He is disturbed by your 'service', but you expect bhakti in return of such service. This is merely self interest and not selfless service. Real service is service done only with the intention of the other person's happiness and welfare. A sadhak definitely wants to acquire bhakti, but not in return of the service done to vaishnava. The attitude should be : "I'm in no way fit to serve my Ishta or his bhaktas, but I'm a fallen soul, I have no bhakti, no faith, no qualities to please them. Please accept my service out of your own kindness and remain happy as is your nature." One needs great humility and consider himself the most fallen soul on earth (and everyone else better than him) to render service to Ishta and his bhaktas. When service is done with such attitude, one need not ask for bhakti, but when the heart of the bhakta is touched by the service, bhakti will inevitably befall on him.

If this was not the case, then the wealthy would give donations and buy bhakti in return. But service is done through body, mind and speech. Even money can be a means to render service but only if you have enough humility and selfless in intention. If vanity succumbs you and you think you are the giver, the bestower of kindness, then you are not being the servant of Krishna and you will never acquire bhakti.

This earthly body is made of pancha tatva : fire, water, space, air and earth. It is a pot of urine and faeces. Ras (liquid, such as kapha, pitta), rakta (blood), mamsa (flesh), medh (fat), majja (marrow), asthi (bones) and shukra (semen) are the seven materials used to build this body. Even if one of them comes out of the body, you would consider it impure and unsuitable to touch. If this body, which is made up of such nasty and abominable materials and which is temporary and fated to be destroyed, is used even in a small way to render service to our Ishta and his bhaktas, to give them pleasure, then isn't it like making huge profit out of waste? Krishna is always pleased by such an attitude and selfless service. What else is the use of this highly evolved and intellectually abled human form?

A simple act of giving can have different results due to different attitudes. There are four types of charity: satvik, rajasik, tamasik and nirguna.

"Yattu pratyupakarartham phalamuddishya va punah, 

diyate cha pariklishtam tad danam rajasam smritam."

Meaning: Pratyupakarartham means the charity given with the expectation of benefiting back from the other person in some way. In such charity, the giver regrets giving but still does so due to the expectation of benefiting in some way. They think 'I'm giving now but in future I can enjoy a few favours back.' Or if they couldn't benefit in any way they feel very sorry for having given so much for no reason. This is rajasik charity.

"Adesh kaale yaddanam apatrebhyashcha diyate, 

asatkritam avagyatam tat tamasam udahritam."

Meaning: The charity which is given not considering the place, time and situation of the receiver, and is given without any respect for the person receiving, is called tamasik charity. Suppose someone decides to give a precious perfume to a poor man who doesn't have any money even to buy food for himself. Or gives blankets in the middle of summer season. These are examples of inapt time and place. Apatra means a person disqualified to receive charity. One must be very careful not to give money to a thief, drunkard and other addicts. If they use that money for an evil act, you will be part of that act and will have to experience its fruits. There is no harm in giving food, clothing and medicine to such people, but give money at only trusted places. If charity is given with disrespectful attitude like shooing away the poor person or even with angry comments, then the charity is tamasik in nature.

The charity which is not sabotaged by these faults and is given without any expectation of return of favour is satvik charity. But the best way of charity is nirguna charity, where the giver is humbled by giving, and considers himself blessed by the person receiving the charity. The act of charity is a service to Ishta and his bhaktas, and therefore, the giver is a servant of them. Then how can he be the bestower of kindness? He is actually the person being blessed. This is why it is very important to acknowledge the recipient of service as representative of Guru during the act of service. But nowadays, people have become Guru, Acharya or 'big people' themselves, and want to bestow their kindness on sadhus. They then name it as 'sadhu seva'. It is a hilarious joke. Without becoming a servant how can you do seva? Who are you to bestow kindness on sadhus? To do seva, you have to become the dust of everyone's feet. If someone praises you for your greatness, kindness and charitableness, you must feel humbled and think who are you to give anything to sadhus? Krishna has given you all the wealth and is inspiring you to give to his bhaktas.

When vanity is mixed with wealth, it leads to spiritual retrogression. And when the attitude of servant of Krishna is mixed with wealth, it leads to both social and spiritual welfare. Everyone knows the incident of Ambarish maharaj and Durvasa rishi described in Srimad bhagavatam. When Durvasa rishi approached Bhagwan Shri Hari, after replying that He is indebted to his bhaktas and therefore is unable to help Durvasa rishi, He says:

"Ye daragarputraptan pranan vittamimam param, 

hitva mam sharanam yatah katham tanstyaktumutsahe."

Meaning: The one who has abandoned his wife, son, house, elders, life, wealth, material well being and well being after-death, everything to take my shelter, how can I even think of abandoning such a person?

Shri Hari is saying this to Durvasa rishi about Ambarish maharaj who is a Chakravarti samraat and has one crore wives. Durvasa rishi is a brahman and rishi, it is him who had led a life of sacrifice and asceticism. Then why is Shri Hari calling Ambarish maharaj as the one who has abandoned everything for the sake of Shri Hari's shelter in front of Durvasa rishi who has been doing tapasya for several thousands of years? This is because Ambarish maharaj was renunciate from within, while Durvasa rishi had flaunted his temper which was suggestive of vanity. (Durvasa rishi is an avatar of the fiery passion of Mahadev Shiv, and is unblemished by material traits such as vanity. But this leela is only to teach us jeevatmas that Shri Hari dislikes vanity however spiritually advanced one might be.) Therefore, even if a person is surrounded by material pleasures and wealth, if he considers himself a low servant of Krishna and uses his resources in service for others, he will become very dear to Krishna and Krishna considers him as a real renunciate.