From the Circular given on 25-Dec-2008 from SSB SSF (ssbssf.com)
Who is a Volunteer
A volunteer is a person who contributes his body,mind or soul to a service voluntarily or with one's own intent. He will not do his service with any external pressure. He does every volunteer's work with joy and happiness. There should not be any strain in his mind while serving and the moment he feels stress, he must try to withdraw from the service without affecting anyone.
Voluntary service for a spiritual institution requires additional merit. The service that a volunteer does here has tremendous value and demands high level of purity of mind. There must be a selfless attitude in doing the voluntary service. At the same time it must neither boost his ego nor be hurting to others. Everything here is done only out of love and any kind of negative thinking like hatred, prejudice etc. should not be there in the mind at all.
There could be incidents where the volunteer feels that he is humiliated by others during the course of his service. There may also be incidents where disrespect and pressure or authority is shown towards him. A volunteer in NC should not mind all these things, as these are not related to him. He must try to avoid any negative reaction. He should develop the courage to accept everything positively. When his mistakes are pointed out, he must take them as a learning opportunity. He must respond only with love to each and everyone, even at the time of challenge to his self-esteem and ego .
Spiritual voluntary service is the best social service we can offer to the society or nation. Initially the volunteer starts serving the institution and its members. If he is not successful in serving the institution with dedication, he may not be successful outside. Every test and trial is a chance for improving the perfection levels, and hence, one need not be de-motivated by the comments or criticism from others.
He must be prepared for any kind of criticism from others, even when the work is well done, and must develop the courage and strength to face them. He should not abandon his service under any circumstance, unless and otherwise he has lost himself owing to his weakness.
In case of NC volunteers, he can inform the Master whenever he feels depressed or agitated because of his incapacity to receive the comments from others. The Master will help him by understanding him properly about his strength and weaknesses. He will find the truth and take decision accordingly. But the volunteer must report the truth to Master without hesitation, whatever may be the nature of the incident.
Master takes care of the welfare and spiritual progress of a sincere volunteer, who therefore does not have to bother about them. Sometimes, he may be asked to skip a Satsangh or spiritual practices owing to the need for his service. At that time, the volunteer must be prepared to sacrifice anything for the sake of the Master.
