In plain words
Ekanātha saw it. He took the water in his carrying-pole pots and poured it for the donkey. The disciples laid their fingers on their lips. ‘Arē! What is this? He is pouring sacred Gaṅgā water into a donkey's mouth, without mingling it at Rāmeśvaram? How unholy is this?’ they were thinking. And Ekanātha: ‘My son! I am pouring it into the very throat of the glorious Rāmeśvara Himself. This Rāmeśvara has given me grace of this kind. I am not pouring it on some stone. I am not pouring it on lifeless matter. The living Rāmeśvara is calling to me, ‘Pour for Me, pour for Me!’ I accepted His call and made my karma fruitful,’ he said. In the same way, whomever we pour for, whomever we serve, to do it knowing the Satya that we do it for the pleasure of God is true service.
Many people come and go here. Greeting each one with folded hands: ‘Sir! Kindly forgive us. These are Swāmi's rules. You must not get up and come forward without permission. Please sit down,’ you must tell them, with good words, sweet words, soft and gentle words. The hearts of those spoken to in this way will melt. ‘Ah! What fine Seva Dal people, what fine people!’: so they too win a good name. Otherwise, if you go pulling and scolding like this, it is not fitting for members of the Seva Dal.
You know how rudely all the young people of today behave. At such a time, to bring all the young into the Seva Dal, plant moral, dhārmic and spiritual feelings in them and lead them on to the sacred path, each one of you must bring in ten people. If instead you say, ‘I will just do my own work,’ that is nothing but selfishness. It is not, ‘I will do my own work.’ ‘I will give someone else a share in my work too. I will give ten more people a share in my service. Of the rice that has come to my share, let us give ten balls to ten more people. One more ball I will eat,’ that is how we should think; we must not think, ‘I will eat these ten balls myself and sit back.’ In the work of the N.C.C., let us hand out the work to ten people as ten shares. Let us bring them too into this and make them blessed. I bring My talk to a close, hoping and blessing that the members of the Seva Dal will develop the broad feeling: ‘To offer sacred service to Bhārata itself, let us pay our debt of gratitude to this Mother Bhārata.’