Attachment to Serving

Swami Chinmayananda

oi-Staff

By Staff

Monday, August 31, 2009, 17:18

One of the devotee of Gurudev had assumed the job at one yajna of taking care of Swamiji's footstool, slippers, and cane at the end of each lecture. Every night, as soon as the lecture was over, she would unobtrusively position herself next to where Swamiji was sitting, move the footstool out of his path, place his chappals in front of his feet, and hand him his cane. In order to do this, she took a seat on the floor very close to the front, near his seat.

One night, another woman had taken her spot. When the time came to help Swamiji with the footstool, she said to herself, "Don't worry. The person who took my seat will take care of things". But her rational mind didn't listen to her own advice, and at the end of the lecture she got up from her seat, positioned herself in front of the other woman, and crawled toward the stage to be in position to move the stool.

Swamiji stood up, and she took the footstool away and handed him his cane and chappals. But instead of walking off the stage, he sat back down in his chair and said in a very loud voice for the entire hall to hear: "If I had remained standing, she would have taken away my chair also!"

On several other occasions, at satsangs and bhikshas, Swamiji repeated the same line in her presence: "If I had remained standing, she would have taken away my chair also" - just to make sure that she got the message that attachment has no place in doing any kind of work, including service to the guru.

About the author

Swami Chinmayananda

Swami Chinmayananda the great master's lectures were an outpour of wisdom. He introduced the Geetha Gnana Yagna. He wrote a lot of books on spirituality, commentaries to Vedantic texts, children books etc. He then started spreading His teachings globally.....