"A Dog's Life"

Many of us feel employment constricting. Few are blessed with bosses who
are understanding and give full play to the subordinate's initiative,
recognising merit and rewarding it in time. Most of the time, service is a
grind, with inadequate rewards and in many cases, involves sacrificing one's
independence of thought, word and deed. Enlightened employers, who treat
their workers with the regard they deserve and as partners in a common
endeavour, are indeed rare. The run-of-the-mill boss, especially in countries
where labour laws are lax, treats the workforce as little better than slaves.
The dignity and independence that characterise self-employment, be it
selling pencils in the street or being a professional (doctor, engineer, etc.),
are woefully lacking when one is in somebody else's employ. So much so,
Manu compares service to a dog's life, and wants us to avoid at all cost
("Seva shva vritthi: tasmAt tAm parivarjayEt").

Just as the dog is made to wear a collar to indicate ownership by a superior

being and is held on a tight leash to make it tow the line of the master, those
in service too are hemmed in by rules and regulations framed by their
employers governing their conduct and lives, denying them all freedom of
action, thus being reduced to mere "His Master's Voice". However exalted be
the person you serve, your status remains the same, that of a servitor: simply
because a person is the personal valet to the President, he is not accorded
any protocol privileges.

While defining Liberation or Moksha, Shastras tell us that it represents

freedom from the unending and vicious cycle of births and deaths, ascent to
Sri Vaikuntam and the partaking of eternal bliss in the service of the Lord. It
is the last part of the definition that is puzzling, the bit about service to the
Lord. It is understandable that one should pay obeisance to the Supreme
Being, out of adoration: but why serve Him? Isn't service of any sort a lowly
occupation, irrespective of the stature of the entity you serve? And what sort
of liberation is it, if it entails another spell of servitude?

One has had one's fill of serving others in the world of mortals-pirarrke
uzhaitthu ezhai aanen laments Sri Thirumangai Mannan, recalling the
countless aeons spent in serving others without doing anything for one's own
upliftment. At least in the mundane birth, the period of service is limited to
the life term, while we are told that the service to the Lord is eternal,
involving unending servitude!
Is it correct to call this state of eternal bondage "Liberation"? Is it not
leaping from the frying pan of limited service to earthly masters, into the fire
of eternal servitude to a Divine Master? What the Upanishad says of the
liberated soul, Sa Svaraat bhavati (He becomes his own master) doesn't go
well with the concept of kainkaryam.

However, notwithstanding all this, Sri Nammazhwar prefers to be a constant

slave to the Lord-

ozhivil kaalam ellaam udanaai manni

vazhuvilaa adimai seyya vendum naam

Sri Ramanuja prays to the Lord to accept him as an eternal servant-nitya

kinkarataam praartthaye
Sri Alavandar yearns for the day when he would be pleasing the Lord
through the performance of all sorts of intimate errands-

kadaaham iykaantika nitya kinkara:praharshaishyaami sanaatha jeevita:?"

Sri Kulasekhara Azhwar prays to the Lord of Seven Hills to accept his
services in some form or the other, at least to hold the Lord's golden
spittoon-Venkata kon umizhum pon vattil piditthu udane pugapperuven
aavene

Ilaya Perumal is so greedy in this matter that he wants to monopolise all

types of service to Sri Rama at all times-
aham sarvam karishyaami jaagrata: svapatascha te

And even the inhabitants of Sri Vaikuntam are in constant competition for
appropriating to themselves the maximum amount of intimate service to the
Lord. Take for instance Sri Adisesha, who performs multiple roles as the
Lord's footwear, umbrella, throne and bed-
Chendraal kudayaam irundaal singaadanamaam
nindraal maravadiyaam-neel kadalul
endrum punayaam manivilakkaam poom pattaam
pulgum anayaam Tirumaarku aravu
What makes all these worthies hanker after what is clearly a "Dog's Life"
according to no less a person than Manu?

The answer to this and other such questions lies in what we consider as
demeaning service. It is true that service of any sort, to one's employers and
to others, which one is forced to perform out of a compulsion to earn one's
living or out of fear of retribution or for achieving some material end, is
indeed demeaning. We never perform such service with a free heart and
would any day refrain from such servitude, given the option. It is the
absence of alternatives that engages us in such service, which lacks the
element of voluntariness.

However, there is quite a different type of service, which we perform quite

of our own volition, with no element of compulsion. Our parents, who bring
us into this world and endure all sorts of inconveniences to bring us up, are
entitled to some sort of reciprocation, though none can be found that can
adequately recompense them for all their sacrifice. Thus when we serve our
parents, we do it gladly, without any expectation of a quid pro quo, happy at
the opportunity to be of help to those who are responsible for what we are
today. The same applies to service to one's teachers and Acharyas, who
transform us from being mere fireflies living for the cosmic moment into
eternal beings entitled for endless bliss. One is thus glad to serve one's
preceptors with love and respect. In fact, as in other things, it is the Lord
Himself who sets us an example for this, in Sri Ramavatara, when He put
Himself at the disposal of Visvamitra Maharshiimou sma muni saardoola!
Kinkarou samupastthitou. Similarly, when we do something for our children,
who are our own flesh and blood, we never consider it a chore and do it just
for the pleasure of seeing their visages bloom with delight.

There is nothing some people wouldn't do for their beloved, be it lovers,

spouses, children or parents-no chore is too demeaning or beneath their
dignity.

We thus see that service performed voluntarily, to gladden the heart of those
we love or venerate, doesn't evoke in us the feeling of loss of self-respect.

If this is the way we feel towards others who are our relatives in this birth,
consider how beholden we should feel towards the Lord, who is our
Guardian Angel in birth after tedious birth, always hovering protectively
over us to ensure that we come to no harm physically or spiritually, and
rushing to our aid when we do harm ourselves by not listening to His
homilies, as detailed in the Shastras. It is He who gives us this precious
human body, enabling efforts for redemption; it is He who sends us
Acharyas in an effort to wean us away from the path of misery and
destruction that we insist on treading time and again, and it is He who has
perfected paths like Prapatti to lead us straight to His own abode. The love
and affection He has for us should be evident from His never giving up His
endeavour to rescue us from the bottomless pit of Samsara, despite our
failing to grasp His proffered hand, loathe to emerging from the ensnaring
pleasures this world has to offer. His infinite mercy in residing with us in the
same body as Antaryaami or inner- dweller, disregarding the filth and refuse
(physical and otherwise) that characterise our innards, is indeed a token of
His constant concern for our welfare.

The Lord is thus our all and doubles as doting parent, loving wife, adoring
child, true friend and sincere guide, in all our endeavours throughout our
endless journey through the corridors of Time, unchanging in His affection
irrespective of the ups and downs in our physical and spiritual state. When
we consider the exaltedness of His stature and our own unspeakably low
nature, our eyes fill with tears at Emperuman's endless love and concern.

Given all this, is it any surprise that Azhwars and Acharyas covet the life of
service, in any and all forms, to this Supreme Being? When He has done and
is doing so much for us, is it wrong for us to show our appreciation,
adoration and affection in some form or other of service?

When you love somebody beyond measure, it is natural for you to long for
some way to demonstrate such affection by doing something concrete. It is
natural for us to wait hand and foot upon the person whom we love or adore
with an overwhelming passion. Thus is born the concept of "Kainkarya",
which is derived from the word "Kinkara", a person who is always at the
master's beck and call, eager to please with whatever type of action the
master may require of him.

Going a step further, when someone is extremely dear to us and is the object
of our deep affections, we find that those dear to that person become, ipso
facto, precious to us too. If our bosom friend loves someone, we too start
cherishing the friend's friend. What is dear to our beloved becomes dear to
us too. Thus, to a devotee who has great love for the Lord, all that is dear to
the Lord become objects of adoration, veneration and regard. And what can
be closer to the Lord's heart than His devotees?

In case this sounds like a Chinese puzzle, in simple terms, all the Lord's
votaries are dear to us, because the Lord is dear to us. And we should yearn
as much for service to such exalted bhagavatas, as we do for the Lord's
kainkaryam. In fact, Acharyas go a step further and declare that kainkaryam
to the Lord's devotees is more pleasing to Him than that to Himself. This is
the glorious and distinguishing tenet our Sampradaya has to offer, the
concept of Bhagavata Kainkaryam, laid down by the Lord Himself in the
Gita-

Mama mad bhakta bhakteshu preeti: abyadhikaa bhavet

Tasmaat mad bhakta bhaktaascha poojaneeya viseshata:

In view of all this, don't you feel like exclaiming, "Oh! For a Dog's Life!"?