sevā [service, servitude, hommage, devotion]
In mundane experience sevā, or service, is a common notion. In its simplest form it is the name of a transaction. If I do something for you in exchange for som reward, be it material or immaterial, this called a service.
In material form this reward could be money or perhaps som object of value, or even another service. sevā is often done under material constraints or coercion. We render service under the power of another pressed to do what we otherwise would not do.
But in immaterial form the reward might be some form of recognition, a moral reward, or some kind of immediate satisfaction that only the recognition of another can give.
In the Bhakti tradition sevā is practice. It is service to another at thehighest level. It is the greatest gift the greatest giving of oneself, and therefore the greatest form of spiritual relation. Every spiritual relation is sevā, every sevā is spiritual relation.
sevā is action done without any expectation of reward or compensation. I t is action done without ego, self-less, a pure gift, pure generosity.
The cornerstone of spiritual fulfilment is self-less service, sevā, to the Divine. By serving selflessly we come closer to God. This is because by erasing the ego as actor, as doer, there is only the soul that becomes active. The action of the soul is always and only in harmony with the divine.
Selflessness means soulful. Since God is soul, present in the heart of every being, coming closer to our soul means coming closer to God. The one-ness with the soul has other spiritual consequences.
Service to God in our everyday lives means service to any soul. When i serve you purely I am serving the Divine in you. As a consequence my service evolves the Divine in both of us.
And it is because service is the the highest form of the spiritual express that we hold in such high estime the maidservants of Rādhā, the mañjarīs, and we aspire to live in their mood of perfect generosity and service to others, to all others, but especially to Rādhā.
The mañjarīs are the pure servants of Rādhā, the Goddess of love, but more importantly the purveyor of love, the messenger of love, the energy of generous, wise love, who lets the force for the happiness of others flow through all things, so that the love of others becomes the love of ourselves.
Rādhā is the lover of Mohan. But she is lover in the strongest sense, the one who makes it possible to give love, to make love a gift, not only to be love, but to live love. As the lover of God she is the model for all lovers, for love that acts, for love that gives, that shares, that cares, that melts self interest, that makes the desire of the other the desire of self.
The ultimate sevā is therefore the service of this love: giving our selves to the giving of love to God. This is the task of the mañjarīs the highest sevakas, the servants of the love of God.
To serve the love of Kṛṣṇa by serving the lover of Kṛṣṇa. By serving the Divine by serving the lover the Divine they are the servants of love itself, of loving action.
They are our model and motivation for both everyday life and for the highest, most intentional practice of bhakti.
Our goal is not to force love upon the mundane events of our lives, but to realise and nurture its natural, spontaneous and constant presence there.
If we become mindful of the the divine love we serve, then love reveals itself in everything, and every act is service.