December 5, 2012 – Service to Humanity

There have been hundreds of perfect Sannyasins,
because Sannyasa had been widely preached
and numerously practised;
let it be the same with the ideal freedom
and we shall have hundreds of Janakas

Sri Aurobindo

(Thoughts and Aphorisms 105)

Service to Humanity

One of the commonest forms of ambition is the idea of service to humanity. All attachment to such service or work is a sign of personal ambition. The Guru who believes that he has a great truth to teach to humanity and who wants many disciples and who feels uncomfortable when the disciples go away or who seizes on anybody that comes and tries to make him a disciple, is evidently following nothing but ambition. You must be able, if you are ready to follow the divine order, to take up whatever work you are given, even a stupendous work, and leave it the next day with the same quietness with which you took it up and not feel the responsibility is yours. There should be no attachment – to any object or any mode of life. You must be absolutely free. If you want to have the true yogic attitude, you must be able to accept everything that comes from the Divine and let it go easily and without regret.

The Mother

The Great Adventure 30