Selfless to Self Less Services

When we talk about selfless services, we associate this with women. A mother, wife, daughter, daughter-in law, all these relationships demand selfless services to nurture every individual involved in that. When I was a kid, I expected everything from my mother. My expectation also involved her happiness, but I always wanted that happiness to be associated with me. I always wanted her to consider me as her priority. I never realized she has a life apart from me. She always told I am her life and I believed that, which made everything she did to me “selfless”. May be the same happened with all her other relationships and she never realized her selfless services to everyone led her towards a journey of becoming self less.

Being selfless doesn’t limit to women or cannot be described by the activities done by a woman. Think about having Rs100/- with you which you plan to spend for yourself. When that plan is disturbed, we tend to disturb everything and everyone. A father plans his entire salary to satisfy his family needs, wants and expectations. His selflessness is ignored because it is measured with money and ignored by value. When a father’s plan of spending his income on something he planned for is disturbed, he accommodates the ask without hesitation. That is his selfless service towards his family.

Our journey starts from being an individual to becoming a family and then back to being an individual. Being selfless is taught and believed to be the best way of sacrifice to have a peaceful, harmonious and happy life. Have you ever thought of having a soulful service rather than a selfless service which balances your self in the journey of becoming an individual again? Moving forward in life with endless selfless services leads us to a life which becomes self less. On the other hand, when we learn to lead our life with soulful services our self gains its soul and services become selfless without any effort.

Society draws boundaries around each relationship describing what a selfless service is and how focusing on self while delivering the service is inappropriate. As we age, all the norms become one with us and we lose our self thus becoming society. Have you wondered why society has no soul and no self even though the main constituent of the society is “us”?

               Soul protects your “self”
               Self serves the “society”
When the order is reversed, society guides you to serve the soul then services become self less.

Services become selfless when you add your soul into it and you can add soul only when you think and value your self in every service. If you focus on removing the “self” from the service, you will end up with only the service. Serve your relationships being your self and the relationship which respects you will always remind you to be yourself and appreciate a soulful service more than a selfless service.  Every service we do adds value to our self which takes us closer to our soul.

Selfless services might drive you away from yourself, but Soulful service will introduce you to yourself. Explore to feel the difference.