Parmarth / Selfless service

Charity is an action, performed frequently or infrequently. Selfless ser­vice is an attitude, a mode of being. Parmarth is living without the self yet harmoniously with the world, while doing a right job and retaining consciousness of the moment.

Parm means supreme. Arth is meaning, the purpose for which an action is performed. That which is done for the supreme is parmarth. Supreme may mean God, or it may mean a cause for which the player chooses to dedicate his existence. It is a giving up of self for a higher cause.

When a player understands his role in the drama and knows that the individual self is but a vehicle for realization of the Supreme, all that he does ceases to concern him. He only does his duty and acts out his role in the play. He does not know what the final outcome of his actions will he. When he does his duty without thought of right or reward he becomes selfless. And then all his acts are parmarth.

Living in parmarth is possible only when the player realizes that rights follow duty and that rewards are the fruits of action. Duty and honor (rewards) are byproducts of the game, not the final goal. As long as the player exists within a body with five organs of action, karmas are inevitable. The player’s choice is whether to become concerned about rewards and punishment, honor and humiliation, or to devote his life to understanding the nature of the game and living unconcerned with whatever happens, continuing to perform his duty.

A reward is in nobody’s hand. Countless factors affect the outcome of every momentary situation. Whatever happens is whatever was pos­sible at that time. If the player has no hopes and desires, every moment becomes an achievement. When he gets away from the false concepts of profit and loss, he enters on to the plane of selfless service.

Selfless service is an arrow that lifts the player to the human plane. Performing his duty in a right manner, giving up the self to what has to he done, brings about the loss of identification that is the greatest prob­lem in the third chakra. The individual ceases to exist as a separate entity and becomes part of a larger whole.

Examples of this third-chakra selfless service can be found in organizations — one of the primary forms of expression on the celestial plane. Charitable institutions, grant foundations, and professional vol­unteer service groups all constitute forms of selfless service. Selfless ser­vice is exemplified in the lives of Albert Schweitzer, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nathan Hale (“I regret that I have but one life to give for my country”).

Selfless service is the last plane through which the player must pass in the third row of the game, the third chakra. From here he moves on to the plane of balance, the plane of faith and devotion.