Yogiji Maharaj founded our bal mandal activities. He was a sadhu with countless saintly virtues. Shastriji Maharaj often said that, “If Vyasji has forgotten to include any virtues of the true sadhu in the scriptures, then one can see them in Yogiji Maharaj.’’ One of these was the virtue of seva – selfless service. Here we will look at just one incident of his phenomenal yearning for seva. It will inspire us to cultivate this virtue in our life.

In 1960, Yogiji Maharaj visited Dar-es-Salaam, the capital of Tanzania. His lodging was in the mandir. In the morning while bathing, he noticed some clothes left by the yuvaks who travelled with him. He grabbed this opportunity to do seva. After locking the door, he started washing the clothes.

The yuvaks were busy in some other seva. Suddenly, they heard the thumping of clothes being washed in the bathroom. They thought that it was Yogiji Maharaj washing his robes. Therefore they called out, “Bapa, please leave the robes. We will wash them.”

After a few minutes, the door opened. Then the yuvaks’ jaws dropped! Instead of robes, they saw their own clothes in Swami’s hands. Washed and wrung neatly! “Bapa!” they cried out. “Why did you wash the clothes? We thought you were washing your dhotiya.”

Yogiji Maharaj laughed innocently. “Am I not a swayamsevak too? I got the opportunity today, so I did the seva. When would I get an opportunity to serve noble yuvaks like you? Therefore I got the benefit of doing seva.”

All the yuvaks began offering dandvats to Swami. They bowed whole-heartedly at his sevadharma.