Sivananda Yoga is the best way to understand and express bhakti. The first step in Sivananda yoga is to serve. The second step is to love. Service and love are concepts of bhakti. When service and love become predominant in life, the mind is drawn to contemplation and remembrance of God. The devotee begins to see God and experience God’s glory within her/himself. That is why the definition of bhakti is serve and love. – Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati
What does service mean? Service is the action of helping. Service is working unconditionally, without expectation. Service is seva.
Seva is a beautiful privilege bestowed to us from the divine. It is opportunity by which we can express our gratitude towards the Supreme for all that we have been blessed and further share this unconditional love with the rest of creation. – Bhagavad Gita
Seva is also known as Karma yoga.
Dear Ones, I have been running a TORCH, an NGO for the last 29 years. I have had the most wonderful volunteers coming and helping us. I will not mention which countries they were/are from. They have given the money which their friends would spend for their special Birthdays to us to fulfill the children’s dreams. The girls love Barbi dolls and the boys adore cars. I said to the giver of gifts that I would get Barbies for the girls and Porsches and Benz’s for the boys. The kids know the name of these cars. When we gave them the gifts, you should have seen the expression on their faces. The girls started stroking the hair of the dolls and braiding it. The boys were racing their cars. So here it was love and the kids loved it.
Please understand I am not focusing on the gifts but the affection which our volunteers have for the children. One volunteer, who was a nurse brought her kit along and cut their toenails and examined them to see, whether they had cuts and bruises. Remember, they live on the street with their parents but they are remarkably clean.
Everyone who comes to our project, loves our kids. They teach them coloring, singing dancing, paper cutting and crafts. So here there is a transformation from serving to love.
Love is about seeing the divine in another person. – Bhagavad Gita (4.12)
Love in Hinduism is a sacrament. It preaches that one gives up selfishness in love, not expecting anything in return. It believes ‘God is love.’
Sivananda Yoga is what we should practice in our daily lives, serve and love.
Aim Hrim Klim