Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
What good is 'serving' if you're only doing it out of dread?
Real service isn't done from fear — the true servant grows so close to the One that they become one with it.
A shalok that redefines what service even means: what sort of service is this, by which the dread of the Master does not depart? If your 'good behavior' is driven by fear of getting in trouble, it's not the real thing — real closeness dissolves dread, it doesn't run on it. The true servant is the one who merges with the Master — who grows so close, through love, that the distance (and the fear that lives in distance) disappears. For a child: doing good out of fear of punishment is a shallow, anxious kind of good; doing it out of love, until you feel close rather than scared, is the real thing. Love casts out the dread that fear-based obedience never can.
What's the difference between behaving out of fear and behaving out of love?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI