Cultivate the spirit of service and engage in some programmes of service, in the slum areas of this city, and in the Jails and Hospitals. Have compassion towards prisoners; that is the best method of rehabilitating them. Let them grow in faith, faith in the goodness of mankind. Then they will not engage themselves in anti-social activities: The child is not disgusted with dirt, its own urine and faeces; but, while growing up, the disgust is developed and stays. So, too, the criminal will outgrow his callousness and learn to be disgusted with his own behaviour. ‘The patients in hospitals who have no one to speak a kind, re-assuring word to them will be tearful with gratitude if you carry the light of compassion to their bedsides. Write letters for them, if they desire to communicate with those near and dear to them; tell them stories; give them good books to read, give them fruits and flowers. Brighten their surroundings a bit, shower smiles over them. ‘That will itself be a valuable drug which will hasten recovery. Social service should not become ‘Show-cial’ work! carried out for publicity or with the camera in view. Nor should it become ‘Slow-cial’ work. Why go slow, when you are doing good to the deserving? Do as much as you can, as quickly as you can. If you cannot do any good, at least desist from doing harm or from finding fault with those who serve. You have to be thanked even for this.

Know that seva is a better form of sadhana (spiritual effort) than even dhyana; how can God appreciate the dhyana (meditation) you do, when adjacent to you, you have some one in agony, whom you do not treat kindly, for whom you do not make all efforts to help? Do not keep yourself apart, intent on your own salvation, through japa or dhyana. Move among your sisters, looking for opportunities to help; but, have the Name of God on the tongue and the Form of God before the eye of the mind. That is the highest sadhana. Dil me Ram! Hath me Kam! -  Ram in the heart! Task in hand! Proceed in that spirit. God s Grace will be showered on you, in full measure. (SSS Vol.10)

Jesus exemplified the spirit of social service. The inspiration for this came from his mother Mary. From his childhood Mary taught him such good qualities as truth, kindness, compassion and justice. Jesus had learnt his lessons from his mother and developed his spiritual faith.

After they returned from Jerusalem, Jesus felt that service to his parents was his foremost duty, because he owed everything to them. In this spirit, he used to assist his father in his carpentry work. Joseph passed away when Jesus was thirty. He sought his mother’s permission to devote himself to the service of the needy and the forlorn. (SSS Vol.27)