What’s the difference between work and service?
We should view whatever gainful employment we seek as a service, never merely as work. The mere thought of hard work, indeed, often drains a person’s energies, whereas joyful, willing service opens inner floodgates to a boundless supply of energy. -Swami Kriyananda
Here are three keys to help you transform your attitude about your work into Joyful, Willing Service.
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Do everything you do with the consciousness of inner peace.
If you find yourself getting tense, nervous, or upset at work, take a break, breathe, or meditate for a few minutes — whatever helps you to return to a balance point of inner peace and centeredness. Consciously try to bring peace and calmness into every activity. You’ll find you get a lot more done, too, and at the end of the day, you’ll feel refreshed and uplifted.
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Be intensely aware of what you are doing
Be intensely aware of what you are doing — not with strain or tension, but with quiet absorption. Serving with concentration also draws intuitive guidance and creative solutions to deal with the task at hand. A concentrated mind, as opposed to a scattered one, is automatically filled with upliftment and peace.
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Offer everything you do to God
Whatever your job may be — important or humble — offer it joyfully and freely to God. Remember, all work is His work – we are merely His channels in this world. No work is important or unimportant in God’s eyes, but serving in a spirit of self-offering draws His blessings.
At the conclusion of our community satsang we shared this list: 101 Ways We Serve at Ananda. We hope that you can find something on this list that you do, too, and join us in your service to God.
In Divine Friendship,
Nayaswami Jyotish and Nayaswami Devi
October, 2011
101 Ways We Serve at Ananda
- Raise cows, goats, and chickens
- Run an online radio station that plays Ananda music 24/7
- Grow vegetables and fruits
- Build and maintain water systems
- Do property management overseeing infrastructure and roads

Temple of Light under construction, 2018
- Develop new property
- Run a talk-of-the month group with Swami Kriyananda’s archived lectures
- Build and maintain homes
- Do community planning and master plans
- Compile phone lists, birthday lists, and The Villager newsletter
- Oversee the community membership process
- Teach children and run schools
- Start colleges and teach classes
- Run clinics as doctors, nurses, clerical support
- Raise children and build marriages
- Train and counsel new members
- Run markets, stock shelves, cook lunches
- Run a phone system

Ric Moorehouse, ironsmith & Director for Ananda Bell
- Operate a blacksmith shop
- Design beautiful gardens and plant tulips
- Maintain Crystal Hermitage and keep the garden systems working
- Pray for others and run a Healing Prayer Council prayer group
- Teach people Kriya and support their practice
- Train choirs and perform music every week of the year
- Sell gems and make jewelry
- Design and publish books and market them globally
- Ship Ananda books and products
- Develop websites
- Make meditation benches and cushions
- Develop online businesses and boutiques
Meerabi, Rajarshi Day landscaping, 2017
- Make sandwiches, hummus, and cookies for the market
- Offer online classes and webinars
- Commute or telecommute to jobs in the tech industry
- Do art and crafts
- Publish an online magazine
- Dry tomatoes
- Teach yoga and train teachers
- Work with community finances and pay bills
- Write paychecks
- Do financial and investment consulting
- Put mail in boxes and label packages
- Raise funds to keep things going
- Start new foundations to expand Ananda
Swami Kriyananda Mandir
- Attract the devas
- Make altars and sacred spaces beautiful
- Keep computers and computer systems running
- Teach a friend to use their iPhone or Kindle
- Teach people to meditate and train teachers
4th of July celebration, 50th Anniversary, Siana and family, 2019
- Cook meals for family and friends
- Take people to the hospital and pray during their surgeries
- Run The Expanding Light or the Ananda Meditation Retreat
- Organize Day of Service workdays
- Maintain The Expanding Light buildings and gardens
- Write books
- Create yearly calendars for The Expanding Light classes
- Answer emails
- Design flyers and brochures
- Give massages
- Give haircuts
- Take photos and make videos
- Support and visit meditation groups
- Harvest figs for friends
- Run boutiques and shrines
- Operate costume shops
- Care for our parents

Virani Ramsden, Yogata Dairy Founder with Jenny
- Do fire-clearing
- Start new centers and communities
- Smile at a stranger
- Help people sell things on eBay
- Start endowment funds for the future
- Donate and tithe
- Direct or perform in plays
- Raise bees and gather honey

Sevaka program, Meditation Retreat, 2018
- Join the local volunteer fire department
- Develop a Spanish Ministry and teach Spanish-speaking people in Latin America and Spain
- Cook three meals a day over 365 days a year at The Expanding Light
- Bring meals to people who are ill
- Lead sadhanas
- Sew curtains
- Fix cars
- Use big equipment to keep property open and beautiful
- Proofread new manuscripts
- Babysit
- Tell someone, “You can do it!”
- Send out mailings
- Teach people how to have radiant health

Rajarshi Day of Service, 2017
87. Clean houses
88. Do landscaping and create fountains
89. Make someone laugh
90. Teach the AUM technique
91. Stay calm in a crisis
92. Host thousands of people to see the tulips (and feed them scones)
93. Share nature with children
94. Go to book fairs, trade fairs, and New Age fairs
95. Teach Karma Yoga to new people
96. Feed the birds
97. Operate databases
98. Share divine friendship

Crystal Hermitage Gardens
- Attune with Master
- Love God
- Do lots of other things that never make it onto lists

Jyotish & Devi dedicating an altar and new Meditation Retreat structure, 2017
What ways do you serve?
Original post: 101 Ways We Serve, October 28, 2011.
8 Comments
Dear Nayaswami Jyotish Ji and Nayaswami Devi Ji,
Thank you for this blog. Very helpful.
Also thank you for sharing the 101 ways of serving. Very inspiring. With Master’s blessings may I serve his work through Ananda.
Joy
Prem
How can I join and participate? Living in Southern California… wanting to live at Ananda and do the things you do.
Thanks
Dear Irene,
Thanks for your willingness! (And this is the short list!) I suggest you check out the LA center website and start to connect. Or search the “Find Ananda Near You” map within Explore Ananda. You might be asking how to investigate Ananda Village, and the summer internship could be perfect for that. We’d love to have you visit. Thanks for reaching out. Joy to you! Carol
Thank you so much Jyotish ji and Devi ji – Reading this filled me with Joy and new Hope. My work hours had been dramatically increasing and so was the impatience in me – this message shifts my inner perspective towards seeing it as Growing Service to my Guru through my work – which fills me with willingness and enthusiasm towards what I’m doing! Many many thanks 🙏🏻💕
What a meaningful services!!! The services look very fulfilling to me. Hope one day I can serve others as a councellor.
Great works have been done at ANANDA
but
Services rendered here are unique and all associated souls deserve a great appreciation
God bless you all…🙏🙏🙏
Hi! Lovely blog
This is so vivacious! I enjoyed reading 101 ways also.
At Ananda India Online Community I look after subscriptions and make assessments for online courses. :)
Thank you Swamiji for establishing Ananda! <3 <3
Hello Nayaswami Devi and Jyotish ji,
It’s very inspiring, how to do our work. By Gods and Master’s grace I can inculcate those qualities in my way of working.
I won’t be able to help in any other way but I can always help to bring a Smile on someone’s face every day.
Thanks a lot for sharing Divine wisdom!