Dedicate
your all to God's service
Whatever you have in the
shape of wealth and property, living beings and inanimate objects, body and
health, energy and power, ability and utility, all belongs to God and is meant
for His service alone. Their utilities lie only in their being devoted to His
service. Deeming you honest and devoted to your duty, all these have been
entrusted to you for this very purpose. If, however, you fail to devote them to
the service of the Lord even on getting an opportunity to do so, and, regarding
them as your own, utilize them for your own enjoyment, or simply lay them by,
you not only commit a blunder but also swerve from your duty and play the
thief. As a consequence of this you will not only be deprived of these
possessions, which are never yours, but you will also be held punishable for
this offence.
If you recognize all these
possessions of God as belonging to Him and devote them to His service at the
proper time according to the worth of His manifestation, the Lord—who is naturally
possessed of an ideal disposition and amiability—feels beholden to you, taking
them as a gift from you, even though they are His own possessions, and in
return bestows on you the boon of Love, which is most difficult to obtain, or
even His own self.
When
you are offering to God only that which belongs to Him, where lies the occasion
for you to pride on this offering? Therefore, having employed anything in the
service of God, never take the least pride in this act, never seek any return
or recompense for it nor treat the man on whom you have bestowed the thing as
under any obligation to you. Whenever you offer anything as an act of service
do it without feeling any pride with the utmost humility and reverence. On the
other hand feel grateful to him inasmuch as in the form of that individual it
is the Lord alone who has accepted your gift.
Dishonesty
lies in the very act of owning any worldly possession—treating it as one’s own;
nay, it is the root of all evil, sin and bondage. The object which you call
your own is not yours nor will it remain yours. It has, on the other hand, been
granted to you by the Lord only to make you devoted to your duty, to make you
devoted to service and as an easy means of securing the boon of His Love or
oneness with Him by serving Him through its gifts. If, however, you treat it as
your own, you not only remain deprived of this supreme consummation of human
existence but you also pave the way for your downfall and damnation by
perpetrating sinful deeds as a sequel to your treating the worldly object as
your own.
If
you posses a thing which is needed by another at a particular time, take it
that in the form of that individual or situation the Lord is asking of you that
possession of His at the aforesaid place and time and seeks to bless you by
accepting it. Therefore, deem yourself lucky by humbly bestowing His possession
on Him with the utmost delight. Be an instrument only in dedicating a
possession of the Lord to His service, and not the doer. If you can do so, it
would be something more desirable.
What
belongs to you, really speaking, is your own self or the Lord’s holy lotus
feet, resorted to by the Gods and sages. Withdrawing all your sense of possession
of all other things, fasten it solely on His feet. Regard Him alone as your
own. He is yours and on realizing Him you will attain even-mindedness in the
world for ever. Having got rid of all fetters and achieved your end you will
become Supreme Bliss personified.
- Dedicate your all to God service