Serving Him

A person with bhakti is not swayed by worldly attractions.

Power holds no charm for him. Wealth is immaterial to
him. Fame is not sought by him. All he aches for is to serve
the Lord.

Lakshmana did not hesitate for a second before deciding

to accompany Rama to the forest. He refused to pay heed to Rama’s words for, his mind was made up. He would be by
Rama’s side, serving Him and Sita. Later, Rama told him to
go back, in case Sumitra and Kausalya suffer at the hands
of Kaikeyi. Who will take care of them should this happen,
asked Rama. But Lakshmana refused to go back to
Ayodhya, because to him his foremost duty was to serve
Lord Rama.

Andal in her Tiruppavai prays that she should have the

good fortune of serving Him always and that He should
help her get rid of all other desires. That kind of attitude
doesn’t come naturally to all and is difficult to cultivate
too. One way to make a beginning is to stop putting
requests before Him, asking Him for something or the
other. We must pray that we should have bhakti towards
Him always, said Akkarakkani Srinidhi, in a discourse.
Azhvars and Acharyas have shown us their bhakti
through the way they served Him. In Srirangam, when
prasada prepared in the temple kitchen was taken every
day to be offered to the Lord, Ramanujacharya would wait
till the priest came out of the sanctum sanctorum.

Ramanuja would then look at the prasada to check if the

Lord’s fingers had left an impression in the food!
Seeing the absence of finger marks, he would say that
Lord had not touched the food for lack of bhakti! That kind
of involvement is needed in serving the Lord.