Question: What should be our attitude while doing selfless service for you?

Sri Chinmoy: You may work for me ten to fifteen hours a day, but if your attitude is wrong you will get nothing from your actions. Furthermore, these very things that you are doing can be done by somebody else. Believe me, no disciple of mine is indispensable, no matter what post he or she holds. Again, I also am not indispensable. In the eyes of the Supreme, I am a tiny drop. If I, who am supposed to be your leader, am not indispensable, then how do you think that you are indispensable? The leader himself can be removed by the Supreme.

Devoted action, surrendered action, can be equivalent to contemplation. When I ask you to do something, please feel that it is through devoted action that I am trying to bring you closer to me, to the divine reality in me. This is an opportunity, a real opportunity for you. You can become closer to me through your meditation, and you can become closer through dedicated action. Meditation is one way; dedicated action is another.

There is inner action and outer action. If I ask somebody to do something, that is outer action. Through his dedicated action he will grow close to me. But if you, whom I have not asked to do that particular job, can inwardly offer to me your sincere wish that he do this job well, then that is your inner action. If I ask somebody else to do something and if you become jealous or feel miserable, then you are getting zero out of a hundred. Also, you are unconsciously creating a problem for that person. Your jealousy, your undivine thoughts and other wrong elements enter into him, and he is prevented from doing his action. Unconsciously he becomes the victim of those thoughts and then he cannot do his action devotedly.

But if you want to get a hundred out of a hundred, then when I have asked a particular person to do something you will send your good will. "Oh, let him do it well, let her do it well." Your dedicated action will be at that time good will. So when he gets the thing done in the outer plane and he gets a hundred out of a hundred, you are also bound to get the same.

At our spiritual Centre, everybody is involved. If I ask someone to do something and he does it, then everyone gets the benefit. If you do something well, then others are also getting the benefit. But if you do not do well, then everybody becomes the loser. Here you have found a family. Your success will be accepted by others as their success. Your failure has to be accepted by others as their failure. In this way, when you accept others' failure or success as your very own, you can really be my spiritual child.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Service-boat and love-boatman, part 1, Agni Press, 1974
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/sbl_1