Spirit of Service

So my talk is titled “Spirit of Service” and I just said that you can’t describe the spirit of service, so what am I going to talk about for the next 40 minutes? [Laughs] What I’m going to talk about is not the spirit of service, because you can’t describe that, but what I am going to say is why we are not in the spirit of service in this very moment? Right now. That is the question before us.

So why am I not serving others at this very instance?

In other words, why am I selfish right now? I can really answer that because I have so many selfish moments and I know exactly what it is because I experience it. Take a general example: Many times I go in to work on public holidays because I have to do some extra work to catch up. So one particular weekend, I was at work and all of a sudden it dawned upon me that I was the only one at work. I’m here at work, and I’m saying, “What are you doing? You’re doing all this stuff, and you’re not getting anything in return. Why are you doing this? Are you just obsessed? Is there something wrong with you? Do you really want to be doing this? You could be out there hanging out with your friends. You could be out doing so many other things. You could watch a movie, you could do something fun, or you could even do nothing!  whatever you want.” But I wasn’t doing any of these. I was at work doing all this other stuff, and I realized that it was hard. I watched myself and asked, “Why is it hard?”

Why is it so hard to give?  Why is it sometimes difficult to look out for others, to give without expecting something in return, what I came up with is that we always want something in return. You want something in return for everything you do. And when you don’t get that something in return, then it hits you. Oh, yeah. Oh, this is not such a good thing. And that’s hard.

So the question still is why is it so hard to do something which is selfless?

And why do I always want to go after these outcomes?

Take the situation on ground at the moment, because of corona virus, business women & women and traders, are taking advantage of what is happening and increases every single item in their stores and stalls.  Why? Where is our spirit of service? We are therefore called to live the spirit of service. When we do so, we are performing a selfless action, yes, it is selfless because there is an effort, even if it only 10%, the truth is that we have to realize this dichotomy between selfish and selfless. It’s very clear. It’s in front of you. It’s staring at you. You say, “Oh, yeah, OK, I can either do something which is selfish or on the other hand, do something which is selfless.” These are two different things. And they’re right there in front of you. This dichotomy is very clear. Whether it’s just a smile or something really extravagant, a selfless action feels distinctively different from a selfish one.

So the question still is why is it so hard to do something which is selfless? And why do I always want to go after these outcomes? Why am I not content just staying here doing the things I’m doing – why do I want something in return and why do I always want to pursue something? Can I give up this pursuit? because there are so many negative effects of it. You can see it in your daily life – when you want all these ends, you lose the beauty of the moment.