Life in kali yuga can be difficult and often coming with varying forms of suffering such as the recent pandemic as well as many difficulties within our own personal lives.

Its a continuous question in many philosophical minds as to how to approach this problem of suffering. Buddha for example stated that we are to overcome the problem of suffering by letting go of attachments.

Within the Bhakti tradition however we have a different approach. We overcome suffering through service (or seva).

How does this work? In several ways; one way is that by performing seva we are stepping outside of ourselves and in so doing transcending the perception of me, myself and I (a view which often begets suffering.)

By stepping outside of ourselves to help others we also increase our sense of compassion by stepping in to another’s world and extending ourselves.

The more we do this, the softer our hearts will become and the greater our sense of compassion for all living beings.

Examples of seva can be;

• Helping others worse off than us
• Helping those close to us
• Service through work
• Serving teachers
• Helping animals
• Serving sattvic food
• & Many More

We can find ways to serve through much that we already do and in doing so we will automatically become relieved from suffering. If not completely at least somewhat.

Bringing this mindset of service to our activities helps us to transcend attachment to material which is another important factor in why we suffer.  If we believe we need something externally and don’t receive it then this can cause suffering.

However by simply turning our focus towards serving instead of receiving it completely changes the dynamic and the miraculous thing is by serving we automatically receive anyway.

Service is in fact our nature, our natural disposition and therefore when we choose to be of service and to those important causes in our hearts then we will naturally transcend attachment to the lower things that hold us down in a state of suffering.

Try it out and see for yourself, the next time you are feeling down or having a bad day, step out and find a way to make a difference and help others. You will soon find you start to feel better and the more often you do this the more you will create positive improvements in your ways to handle difficult situations and help others.

The more often we take such actions the more it changes our mindset as we create positive impressions in our mind (known as samskaras in Sanskrit).

Samskaras can be either positive or negative and are often due to past conditioning. By taking charge of our lives and choosing to serve and help others we change the nature of our minds to more positive and kinder ways. Not only helping us to overcome suffering but others too.

All that’s here is God

You are your only real block

Choose to serve with love ♡