Only a blissful person can be of help to others. Only bliss can make you compassionate, only bliss can create a beautiful energy in your life which can be of help to others, of service to others. Without bliss you cannot serve anybody. You may think you are serving, you will be simply harming. You may think you are helping; you may be doing something else.
A miserable person can only give misery to others. We can give only that which we have. It is not a question of good intentions. You may wish to help, but you may be doing something else. Unless there is a blissful energy inside you, overflowing, you are bound to harm.
This is a basic distinction that I want to make, because up to now in the name of religion many people have been serving humanity; they are themselves miserable and they become great servants of humanity. They serve the poor and they serve the crippled and they serve the ill, they open hospitals and schools and they do all kinds of things. They only create mischief. They don’t help anybody at all. Their whole trip is an ego number.
Parents think that they are helping their children, and they simply destroy. I am not saying that they don’t want to help; they want to help but they are incapable of it. Their parents destroyed them and now they are destroying their children, so misery continues, accumulates, becomes bigger and bigger.
Hence I don’t say to my sannyasins to be servants of humanity. I say to be meditators, dancers: rejoice, and then service will come. No need to talk about it: it comes of its own accord as a shadow. It follows you, and then it is a benediction.
