Of all the service and sacrifice one can perform, the highest form is helping ourselves and/or others attain God Consciousness, Buddha Consciousness, Christ Consciousness, Krishna Consciousness, etc. Attaining or helping another to attain Self-realization (who they really are) is actually the goal of human life.
Attaining God Consciousness is when one is able to see God in everything…realizing that She/He is the Supreme Doer, the cause of all causes. I know that this description can be elaborated on, but for my purposes, I’ll use this very concise description.
The Self-realization I speak of is not the realization of one’s full potential here on the material plane, but the realization of I AM. Yes, I AM that I AM. This is pure love, pure consciousness, pure awareness.
So being an environmentalist, humanitarian, etc., is important, and each of those roles helps raise our consciousness. Some are even able to see and experience God while performing these services. Those who are on the receiving end can, at times, also see the service as an act of God. They may even come to realize that there is something more to life then this experience and are then lead on their journey to the path of Self-realization and a deeper relationship with God.
So, why is Self-realization and God consciousness the highest form of service? There are so many reasons that I cannot answer them all. But think of service and sacrifice for a moment and what it means to you. In my April Newsletter and the blogs for this month, I said service and sacrifice is the act of giving without expecting anything in return.
In order to obtain God consciousness or Self-realization, one has to give up one’s own desires. We get a glimpse of this when we fall in love or have children. We give up certain activities and other things we like for the one we love. And in return we receive something back. It could be as simple as spending more time with that person or saving up to buy them something, etc.
In attaining God consciousness and Self-realization, we give up our own selfish desires. To have a desire to be the best you can be…to create the best project at school…to become the best ball player…raise the most money during an event…these are not the desires I am talking about.
The desires I refer to include having the biggest house, the most money in the bank, the best-looking body, etc. This does not mean we live like hermits. We can still enjoy life and experience pleasure, but not to the extent that those things are controlling us. They are not our goals in life.
We need money to exist and we work to earn it, but we don’t let work become the most important thing in our lives. We buy a home to have a nice place for our family to live, but not to the point of letting it become an obsession. We take care of the wonderful bodies we are blessed with, but remember that we are not our bodies. When we pass on, our bodies remain behind.
The Prophet Mohammad said, “Be of this world as if you are a traveler—a passerby—because this is not your home. Sometimes you sit under the shade of a tree. Sometimes you sit by a lake with your clothes and shoes full of dust. But you are just a traveler-passerby. This is not your home.”
So while you’re performing your service, whatever it may be, remember the Love that never ends, the Divine Love. The love of the Divine is a love that is unselfish.
Following is a wonderful poem:
I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
I awoke and saw that life was service.
I acted and behold, service was joy.
~Rabindranath Tagore
[Rabindranath Tagore, (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941), was a poet, novelist, musician, and playwright who reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1913, he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Tagore was perhaps the most important literary figure of Bengali literature. He was a representative of the Indian culture whose international influence and popularity internationally perhaps could only be compared to that of Gandhi, whom Tagore named “Mahatma” out of deep admiration.]
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