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Purity Supersedes Quantity in Practical Service


dattaswami

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Purity Supersedes Quantity in Practical Service

 

Purity in service is more important than quantity

The sadhaka must focus on developing purity in practical service

 

Purity is the most important factor in practical service. It is far more important than the quantity of service. Let us take an example. Let us say there are four samples of sugar. There is one gram sample of impure sugar, one kilogram of impure sugar, one gram of pure sugar and one kilogram of pure sugar. Clearly, the one gram and one kilogram samples of pure sugar are appreciable while the two samples of impure sugar are both useless, irrespective of their quantity. A devotee offers some food offering in a temple (Naivedyam) and expects the satisfaction of some selfish desire by God.

 

His sacrifice of that food is a small sacrifice and it is also impure. It is like one gram of impure sugar. Ravana chopped off his own heads and offered them to Lord Shiva. His sacrifice was great but he had a selfish interest in doing so. So, his sacrifice was like the one kilogram of impure sugar. Both these cases are worthless. Shabari fed a few berries to Lord Rama with a pure heart, completely free of any selfish desire. Her sacrifice was like one gram of pure sugar. Kannappa plucked out his own eyes and donated them to the Lord. He expected nothing in return. His sacrifice was like one kilogram of pure sugar. Both Kannappa and Shabari are appreciated.

 

The quantity of Kannappa’s devotion might appear huge in comparison to that of Shabari. But in fact, that difference in quantity is not very significant. This is because, both Shabari and Kannappa were pure (selfless). The difference in the quantity of their service was only due to the context of the situation. There was no requirement for Shabari to donate her eyes to Lord Rama. All that Lord Rama needed from her was some food and directions to find His lost wife, Sita. Shabari merely responded to the requirement of the situation with full purity. If there had been a requirement to even sacrifice her life for the sake of Lord Rama, she could have done it since she was already selfless (pure). Thus, in spite of the apparent quantitative difference between the practical sacrifice of Kannappa and Shabari, both their sacrifices can be considered to be almost equal. Hence, the sadhaka must focus on developing purity in practical service. The quantity of service will be decided by God’s requirement in the situational context

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