In the Vadan, there is the following saying : ‘The best way to love is to serve.’  This is easily understandable in the human context, for the parents serve the needs of the infant out of the love they feel, and similarly, it may happen that a couple will care for each other and children will care for their aged parents out of love.  In the same way, a person may feel a strong connection with their religion, their profession, their nation, their art or some other group or ideal and serve it faithfully for a whole lifetime.  In all of these cases, ‘service’ means ‘ministering to the needs of’ –from the simple offering of food and drink and clothing to the willing donation of time and effort or even life itself in whatever task is required to make the object of our love thrive and feel happy.

But what can it mean when we say, ‘serve God’? According to the story, recounted by Hazrat Inayat Khan here, when Moses heard the shepherd speaking to God and offering to comb His hair and give Him cool shade and buttermilk to drink, he felt obliged to point out to the shepherd that the omnipotent and all-pervading God, Creator of the Universe, did not need his grass hut and his simple hospitality.  Of course, in the story Moses is promptly reprimanded by the Divine Presence for pushing the devotee away from Him. This suggests to us that each one will have their own form of worship, but there is another layer of meaning in the story, which is that our way of worship can evolve as we ourselves evolve. Although evidently not beyond error, the Moses of the story certainly has a larger horizon than the humble shepherd.  And if we consider that from a mystical post of view a wider horizon means the dawning recognition that we are much less than we thought we were, that we are, so to speak, less than dust before the Sun, then in what way can we possibly hope to serve God?

The reflection of the Hasidic master on the inner flame and the outer stillness, posted here, gives us a clue.  When one has attained true ‘at-one-ment’ with the Divine Presence, one may be so still externally that anyone who sees you in prayer at that moment ‘might never guess the depth of your inner service.’  In this case, service is not ‘giving’ or ‘doing’ but ‘being’ –simply being present.  And for the one who has burnt the rags of ‘me’ in the bonfire of love, it is the greatest privilege to serve in this way, for it means forgetting one’s own presence in the  presence of the Beloved.