God sees it as His duty to support and save His devotees. But the devotees have a duty too. That is to serve Him. How can we serve God? We can serve Him with our heart; we can serve Him with our words; we can serve Him with our body. How does one serve Him with one’s heart? One can serve Him, by making one’s thoughts dwell on Him all the time. But if He is to take up residence in our hearts, then we must keep our hearts pure. We must not harbour deceitful thoughts in our minds, and we must bear no ill will towards anyone. We can serve through our words, by singing His praise and by uttering His name. We can also physically serve Him in many ways. The Saivite saint Thirunavukkarasar served Lord Siva in all three ways, said R. Narayanan in a discourse. He thought of Him always; he sang of Him and he also served Him through his body.
Thirunavukkarasar would visit temples every day, and remove weeds and grass in the temple. He would remove stones in the circumambulatory path, so that these would not hurt the feet of those who came to the temple for worship. He would also clean up the streets leading to the temple.
While singing of Lord Siva, he said that the human body was a house. A lamp should be lit in this house, and that lamp was one’s mind. Bhakti was the ghee one should use. One’s soul was the wick one should use, and the lamp should be lit with the fire of gnana. If such a lamp was lit, then seeing His feet would become easy.
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Both Thirunavukkarasar and Thirugnanasambandar provided food to hungry devotees during a famine. Thus great men of God serve Him and His devotees in many ways.