Service is the first step along the spiritual path. - Baba
Seva is the very essence of Bhakthi, the very breath of a Bhaktha, his very nature. It springs from the actual experience that convinces the Bhakta that all beings are God's children, that all bodies are altars where God is installed, that all places are His residences.
You have no reason to feel proud when you are able to help another, for your skill or wealth or strength or courage or official position that gave you the chance to serve was the gift of God, whether you recognize it or not. You are only offering this God's gift to another God's gift, namely the poor, the illiterate, the weak, the diseased, the grieving, the broken-hearted, who seek your help.
Service without ideal of self . . . trains you to transcend all the artificial distinctions imposed by history and geography, and to realize that the human community is one and indivisible.
A wave of service, if it sweeps over the land catching everyone in its enthusiasm, will be able to wipe off the mounds of hatred, malice and greed that infest the world.
Do not believe that you can by means of service reform or reshape the world. You may or may not; that does not matter. The real value of service, its most visible result, is that it reforms you, reshapes you. Do service as a spiritual discipline; then you will be humble and happy.
Through service rendered without any desire to placate one's ego, with only the well-being of others in view, it is possible to cleanse the consciousness and have the atma (true inner self that is divine) revealed.