Right Understanding To Help Others Right Understanding To Help Others | Page 35

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Right Understanding to Help Others
the ego of a person. Wherever there is any kind of a worldly
service, there exists dharma. If you cannot provide service for
the world, then do the service to your own Self. The service to
one’s own Self is higher than the service to the world, because
the one who serves his Self does not hurt anyone!
Questioner: But surely a person has to have this
realization?
Dadashri: That realization is not easy.
Questioner: How can it be acquired?
Dadashri: You have to ask a Gnani Purush, ‘Sir, are you
doing service for the world or are you serving your Self?’ He
will reply, ‘I am serving the Self only!’ Then you have to request,
‘Please show me that way.’
The Signs of Service to the Self (Atma)
Questioner: What are the signs of the service to one’s
Self?
Dadashri: The primary sign, prerequisite, is to not hurt
any living being. Everything falls under this main quality. This
includes celibacy (brahmacharya). Non-celibacy is tantamount
to hurting someone. Even in consensual sex, millions of potentially
living beings (jivas) die in the process. This is the same as willfully
hurting others. With such non-celibacy (abrahmacharya),
service to others ceases. Other signs (lakshan) of service to the
Self are that one does not lie, steal, commit violence or hoard
money. Hoarding money and other material things is a kind of
violence (himsa). It hurts others. Everything is encompassed in
this.
Questioner: What are the other signs (lakshan) of service
to the Self? When can one say that he is doing service to the
Self?
Dadashri: The one who serves the Self does not hurt