Is service always joyful? Often it is seemingly not. Tackling a problem of humanity, whether it be feeding the hungry or educating the children or something else can be overwhelming to say the least. Is there a deeper meaning to the word service?
Alice Bailey defines service as the “spontaneous outflow of a loving heart and an intelligent mind; it is the result of being in the right place and staying there.” This suggests that service pours to us from a higher place. It is not just something we do for others.
Does a focus on the spiritual realms minimize acts or deeds performed to those in need in the world? No, indeed. A True Server learns to combine the urges received from his awakened soul with his physical plane activity.
How does this happen? When a person first treads the spiritual path, he experiences an increasing flow of energies circulating throughout his body. His daily life is charged with new insights and revelations. Through developing a self-forgetfulness, he finds a constructive way to channel the newly found energies into his environment. The path of initiation is an esoteric training, a time when these several important subjective and objective changes happen.
Service, then, is the spontaneous effect of soul contact.
Often, our soul is shouting to contact us but we fail to hear the message. Our little ego or selfish personality has not become spiritualized. Through training the personality to be obedient, the server encounters the true tests of worthiness. He discovers that virtue, love and intellectual mind are the keys to making revelation possible. He leaves behind any selfish need to be famous or find fortune and stands securely in spiritual being.
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.” — (Mahatma Gandhi)
Wisdom Teaching School 