This past summer, a friend, brother, and mentor said something to me that hit me like a damn brick to the head. 

Quietly but passionately – “it’s not about taking Seva, it’s about giving yourself to Seva” – Ustaad Uptej Singh

You see friends, in this language, Seva is regularly translated as “service” or “selfless service”, and it’s frequently reduced to volunteering or helping others. While these interpretations aren’t wrong, they’re incomplete. When Seva is framed only as an act of generosity towards others, it quietly becomes optional…something that we do when we have time, energy, or surplus. 

Before I dive deeper, a big thank-you to my brother Angad Singh Nirh for being the kindling on this – he continues to challenge the narrative on what Seva really means and lives the life that ensures Seva is embedded into his disciplined lifestyle. 

In its deeper form, Seva isn’t an act of kindness that’s added onto life. Seva is a discipline. And discipline, by its nature, isn’t about convenience, it’s about commitment. 

Discipline Shapes the Inner World

Discipline is what trains the nervous system. 

Discipline is what refines intention. 

Discipline is what reveals where the ego resists. 

So, when we treat Seva as discipline, the question shifts from “who needs help?” to “what is required of me, regardless of how I feel today?”

In this way, Seva becomes less about outcome and more about orientation. You may have heard me say “Seva is a compass” and that it’s not driven by praise, gratitude, or visible impact – it’s driven by practice. 

Think of meditation for a moment and how it disciplines your attention, and then of physical training and how it disciplines the body. Now gently orientate yourself back to Seva and how it can discipline the self. 

Seva Isn’t About Feeling Good

You see friends, volunteering-as-helping carries this unspoken expectation: that service should feel meaningful, affirming, or emotionally rewarding. When those feelings are absent, participation wanes. 

Discipline doesn’t ask how you feel. 

Seva as discipline asks:

• Can you show up when it’s mundane?
• Can you serve when no one notices?
• Can you continue when the task feels repetitive, boring, or “beneath” you?

This. Is. The. Training. Ground. 

Now consult yourself, what acts confront the ego’s desire to be seen?

Seva As Training In Humility

Discipline humbles because it removes choice. 

When Seva is optional, the ego negotiates: “I’ll do this, but not that.”

When Seva is disciplined, the ego is invited to soften. 

In disciplined Seva, there’s no hierarchy of tasks. The visible and invisible are equal. The public and private carry the same weight. This equality dismantles the idea that worth is tied to recognition. 

Humility, here, isn’t a personality trait – it’s a practiced state. 

Seva and the Body

Discipline is embodied. 

Seva asks the body to bend, lift, carry, clean, wait, endure, etc. These actions regulate the body through purposeful movement and not through still alone. Over time, the body learns that it can act without needing constant emotional validation. 

This is particularly important in healing spaces. Many of us disconnected from our bodies, trapped in cycles of overthinking or emotional reactivity. Seva offers a way for us to get back through action, not through analysis. 

The hands move. 

The breath settles. 

The mind follows. 

Seva As Daily Practice, Not Occasional Charity

When we frame Seva as volunteering, it lives in the margins of life. When Seva is framed as discipline, it becomes a daily practice. 

This means Seva isn’t reserved for organized events or designated roles. It’s present in how one does what’s required without complaint. 

Discipline takes Seva from an identity (I am someone who helps others) into a way of being (This is how I live).

From Helping to Surrender

Ultimately, Seva as discipline isn’t about helping others. It’s actually about surrendering the self. 

Surrendering the need to be central. 

Surrendering the need to be special. 

Surrendering the belief that value must be rewarded. 

What comes then, you ask? Steadiness. 

And steadiness is what sustains communities, not bursts of goodwill. 

In Closing

Friends, when Seva is treated as discipline, it stops asking questions and pushes us to a place where we can learn to remain present, committed, and grounded, no matter what. 

It’s not theoretical. 

It’s lived, daily, through practice. 

And that’s where Seva begins. 

With love, 

Gurmukh