Being Ram Dass: A Celebration

In Service

When Maharaj-ji gave me the name Ram Dass, servant of God, he began to awaken a quality of service in me, with Hanuman as the model. I’d done plenty of studying and teaching, but not much hands-on service. Now I felt called to find places where I could be helpful to others, to become a more perfect servant. I was shifting my consciousness to align with Maharaj-ji, coming closer to him by following his instruction to “Love everyone, serve everyone, and remember God.”

In the Bhagavad Gita, service as a spiritual practice is called karma yoga. It is about bringing life into the spirit, serving those around you as the One. In the West, most of the models I’d seen for helping were about doing good, getting results, the kind of social and political activism that was working to dismantle old structures. Seva, or selfless service, means giving up the fruits of action, letting go of how it all turns out. As with Hanuman’s devotion to Rām, seva is intimately connected to surrender. —from Being Ram Dass