Introduction: Service as a Spiritual Practice

The Heart of Service is an exploration of the spiritual aspects of service—especially of its power to transform our consciousness. When we serve selflessly, we unlock hidden treasures of joy, expansion, and divine connection. The difference between mere work and true service lies primarily in attitude—specifically, how selfless or how self-involved we are. Even a little training in the right attitudes and practices can elevate our service and make it an extremely effective spiritual path.

Yogananda emphasized that any genuine path to liberation must include both meditation and service. He wrote, “Unselfishness takes everybody, including one’s own self, into the circle of brotherhood. It brings many harvests—return service from others, self-expansion, divine sympathy, lasting happiness, and Self-Realization.” Thus, though on the surface this is a book about service, seen more deeply, it is about the journey to Self-realization.

One morning, as Swami Kriyananda and I shared breakfast, we began discussing the difficulties in making spiritual progress. Pausing between bites, he summed up the entire path in two sentences: “The purpose of the spiritual path is to dissolve the ego. This is done by longer, deeper meditation, and by seeing God as the Doer in every activity.”

--Excerpt from The Heart of Service by Nayaswami Jyotish