People avoid service to God stating that God does not require

[dattaswami]

People avoid service to God stating that God does not require

 

The statue of Rama without any shelter was seen by Ramdas. He felt the need of shelter for the statue. In fact, an inert stone carved as statue does not require any shelter since it is nonliving object. Atheists thought like this and rejected the idea of shelter for the statue. Even theists, who thought that the statue is God, also neglected the need of shelter because God being the shelter for the entire creation does not require any shelter. But, Ramdas took the statue as living form of God and worked for constructing the shelter for God. In that case, how much need is there for the actual living form of God? If you think that no need exists for God, it is only a clever way of escaping the service to God. Often, people avoid service to God stating that God does not require any service from any body. Ramdas constructed the temple for the sake of the statue of Rama. This love in the form of service is pure, because Ramdas did not aspire anything in return from such service.

 

There are several kings, who constructed bigger temples then the temple constructed by Ramdas. Such huge temples may be bigger in construction, but all these temples are smaller than the temple of Ramdas, because the temple of Ramdas is the only one that was constructed without any aspiration in return. Therefore, the temple of Ramdas may not be biggest, but it is purist.

 

No doubt, the size of the temple shows the size of service to God, which is proportional to the intensity of devotion to God. Therefore, I say that God is not pleased with the size of service and corresponding intensity of devotion. He is pleased only with the purity of the service, which is nothing but lack of any desire to be fulfilled with the help of God.

At the Lotus Feet of His Holiness Sri Dattaswami

 

Anil Antony

 

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