Method of Service to the Master

One should serve the Master by withdrawing oneself completely from the ego, and thus attaining humility. Such service alone is pure, and only he can perform it who himself is pure in heart and mind. Those who have crooked natures, who are fraudulent or have bad or ulterior motives are unworthy or unfit to serve the Master.

Guru Arjan says:

We should worship God day and night. In this there should be no lethargy or negligence. And the way to worship the Lord is through worship of the Master with Love and devotion, having abjured pride and obduracy.

The service should be incessant and not spasmodic. One cannot calculate its worth in terms of money; and if thus calculated or done with any ulterior motive, it is worthless and merits no reward.

_______________

Footnote: The highest service is that of the Guru, and it is also the purest. The Guru is free from all ties and attachments. He is an ocean full of the Surging Waves of Love. By serving Him we become free from ties and attachments to the ephemeral world. Then intense Love of God is awakened in us. One who loves the Lord also loves His creation. Thus the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man are realised, and in this manner love is developed in us not only for God but also for His creation.

By serving the Master we serve our Lord. The scriptures go so far as to say that if you wish to serve your Lord, you should worship your Master, because by so doing you worship the Lord.

How to worship the Master? The scriptures tell us that we should serve the Master with body, wealth, mind and soul. Above all we should worship Him by Dhyan – contemplation / beholding His Radiant Form inside. That is the highest form of worship.

It is so comprehensive that all other forms of worship are included in it and no other form of worship is necessary. Worship of the Master consists of inculcating in one’s mind love for and faith in Him, and devoting oneself to Spiritual Practice as instructed by Him. The best type of service to a Master is devotion to Him. But it is very rare. The Master is actually Shabd Incarnate. Therefore, the best service to the Master is through the soul’s union with Shabd. This is done by filling one’s mind with Naam and thereby attaining a state of bliss.

Holy Scriptures enumerate various advantages which accrue from service to the Master:

• Peace and bliss are achieved;
  
• the mind is steeped in the dye of Naam and becomes conscious of His immanence;
  
• liberation from Kal – the time / Negative Power – and his punishment;
  
• various bad karmas and their effects are erased;
  
• one achieves all one’s desires. All desires are fulfilled;
• in the end, one attains freedom from birth and death.

Without service to the Master, it is not possible to give devotion to the Lord nor can the mind reap the fruits of concentration. Man becomes eligible to get a human body in his next birth by service and devotion to the Master.

Those who serve the Master are invariably sustained by Him at the time of their death, while those who do not serve the Master, waste their life in vain.