The SEVA Cafe, operated by Manav Sadhna, a multi dimensional NGO in Ahmedabad, India, was created to provide guests and volunteers to encourage giving and serving through the process of making and serving food. The concept is simple but has profound implications for engendering compassion: volunteers make and serve meals to guests who choose to give whatever they wish in return. That giving can be financial or it can be in the form of volunteerism. There are no prices for any items, and the entire financial process and operation is completely transparent and run by the energy of giving. What started as a simple idea has turned into a full operation running 7 days a week and serving hundreds of guests weekly. For me, performing a musical concert with J-Boogie's Dubtronic Science at the Seva Cafe, was a powerful experience...the creative energy of a place full of people who are giving without any expectation or judgement, without any alignment to politics, finances, or religion, was super empowering. The idea is actually not revolutionary...it is simply another interpretation of the pure love of giving food that a mother might give to her beloved child, or the meal a family may unconditionally share with each other at home...but to see this energy in a restaurant setting, a setting we normally associate with paying for food and service with money, that is revolutionary. On an even deeper, internal level, the idea of service itself unravels for anyone who participates in the circle of giving at Seva Cafe. Over time, we begin to experience an important universal truth: we are not serving one another; rather we are being given an opportunity to understand love by each person that we do serve. From this realization comes gratitude. Gratitude towards anyone we give our energy to, and gratitude for being given an opportunity to be a better human being. From this comes the epiphany that Seva Cafe is not about serving food and nourishing just the stomach. It is about nourishing something far deeper and far more important, the soul and the soul's capacity to love unconditionally.

People of all socio-economic levels come to Seva Cafe Ahmedabad to be nourished by the environment of love and giving that emanates from the cafe. Last year, a Seva Cafe was born at the Royal Cup Coffee House in LA, initiated by volunteers from Be The Cause. Here is their story...

I met with Sukh Chugh in downtown LA last week to talk about Seva Cafe LA. Sukh is a spiritual brother of mine, I am convinced we are karmically connected through our passions for service, creativity, and our shared love for being human beings on this planet. A volunteer with Be The Cause, Sukh shared his experiences of serving at the Cafe, which is located at the Royal Cup Coffee House in Long Beach. Seva Cafe is currently seeking to expand its reach and is looking for new venues that would be interested in helping to elevate the Seva Cafe concept. If you are interested, please visit www.bethecause.org.

Tell me about the Seva Café.

The word Seva is a Sanskrit word that means selfless service. People automatically attach the Seva Café concept to a South Asian theme. But the Seva Café is really a place of genuine giving. That to me crosses all kinds of boundaries, all kinds of religion, and places of living. For me the Seva Café, even though the word has its roots in the Indian language, is definitely not an Indian concept. This genuine place of giving exists within each and every human being that is alive. There is no one country that can claim ownership to what that space is.

The Seva Café is a restaurant that is very different from any dining experience you have ever had. The reason why is because when you walk inside a restaurant there is no price on any of the menus. The reason why is because the food that you eat is actually paid for by a previous guest before you arrive. This previous guest is someone whom you have never met or meet in your entire life. This allows the volunteers to focus on one thing: Can we create this meal with as much love as possible. At the end of the meal, instead of getting a bill saying this is how much money you owe, you receive an empty envelope and inside that envelope you leave whatever you wish as a genuine gift for a future guest, someone you will never meet in your entire life. The really powerful thing about the Seva Café is that every single person in the room is in a place of giving. The guests have an opportunity to be in that place of giving because of the envelopes they receive. Each and every volunteer is also in that place, because they are cooking food, washing the dishes, wiping the tables down. All through the sense of serving others and giving to others.

It can be an explosive environment. You step into a room where you have 50 people and each person in that room is going through the process of giving to another person.

Where is the Seva Café, where are you located?

The Seva Café is currently operating in Southern California at the World Cup Coffee house in Long Beach. Be the Cause rents out the coffee shop every Saturday night, and we transform it into the Seva Café every Saturday from 5 to 10pm

We have never promoted, we have no advertisement, and everything is created by word of mouth. Some Saturdays we feed 130 people, and some Saturdays none at all.

Each volunteer has to be in a place of no expectations. This is when you are a volunteer, so we go as deep as we can into a service mentality. Part of what keeps you from being able to serve another human being with genuine compassion are your own expectations. So if you walk into the Café as a volunteer expecting to see 130 people and only 50 people show up, That is going to stop you from actually reaching out and being loving to another human being because in your mind you are thinking how many people are here, why is this not a successful night? What defines a successful night isn’t how many people came or how much money got left, but how much you serve with a genuine heart. How much change did you go through in your own self in those 5 hours that you were there?

How have these experiences changed you? What has happened to you going through this process of service?

It is a powerful thing, I am 32 years old. Been through numerous corporate environments, been to school, watched a lot of TV, watched a lot of movies, hung out with friends. Unfortunately, learning how to serve with love isn’t something that I have known. It is not something that is taught to us from our school and from our jobs. All of the sudden, you venture out into the Seva Café, and the whole tag line is “Serve is Love.” So you assume that you know how to do that. I know Love, I have seen it in movies, and everywhere, people talk of it…but at the end of the day, do I really know what Love means? Do I know how to serve with Love? Now, I’m face to face with this volunteer opportunity. I show up as a server, I take people’s food order, I turn that food over, I bring that food to the guest, and at the end of the meal, I am responsible for bringing the empty envelope, I take this envelope and I present it to my guests, these are the people I am trying to serve with Love.

As I walk up to the table, I put the envelope on the table, and as soon as the envelope hits the table, a thought goes through my mind; this curiosity: how much are they going to give. That is what I begin to wonder to myself. So all day long, I have been telling myself that I am going to serve with love, but in that moment what I am hit with, is my greed. I begin to judge these people: Are these people rich people, are they going to leave a lot of money? Did these people understand what I was talking about? In that space, there is no room to be loving…if I am busy judging these people, I can’t be loving these people at the same time. Greed and love cannot coexist together in the same place at the same time. That is what is powerful about the Seva Café: You think you are there to serve the guests, but the guests are actually serving you. They are giving you that opportunity to see yourself for what you are. Want to serve with love? Your greed becomes visible in that moment. And that is one experience of just bringing an envelope.

Stuff happens when you are wshing dishes. Stuff happens when there isn’t a busy night…your mind starts unraveling all these expectations, and you get to see yourself for what you are. Life is a beautiful thing, you and I exist as a process of nature. But on top of a very pure way of looking at the life. We are layered with greed, we have ego, we have hatred, we have anger, and services is a tool and a path to happiness. When I am greedy, and overcome with hatred, I notice that I am creating harm with myself. I am moving away from happiness, and so I go to the Seva Café, and I am genuinely serving another human being. I can’t do it with anger, I can’t do it with hatred, and anger if I am going to serve. Just walking around with a sandwich is such a powerful experience, because I am bringing this sandwich to a guest, and what I am doing, is I am putting myself in a place of love. That is working through my ego, my hatred, my anger, and allowing me to experience what many of us are lacking in this world: true happiness and true peace.

Any restaurant you go to you sit down to get a meal, the establishment is thinking: How much money are we going to make with this person? That is our relationship with food. This place, the Seva Café, allows us to let go of all of that, the greed, and get to a place of genuine love and service. Being in that space can be very transformational.

People cry, the guests cry, I have served a sandwich to a guest, explained to her what is going on, and she has broken down and started crying. All I have done is brought her a sandwich.

Why is Seva Cafe important for LA? For the USA?

There are a lot of ways to look at the western world. There is a doctor in India who performs eye surgery and he says that people are struggling with a poverty of wealth. People here in America are dealing with a poverty of service. It is important everywhere.

Be the Cause has been to India to the original Seva Cafe, and has seen first hadn the impact it has had on a lot of people there…people volunteer there, eat there, and it is really impacting a lot of people.

We walked into that environment, and thought that this is great…it is great for India, but it is needed everywhere. People are searching for these kinds of things, and so we thought why not bring to where we live, right here in Long Beach? People ask us, where did the original idea come from…yes, there is a Seva café in Ahmedabad, India…that is where we saw it, that is where we got the idea, and we brought it here…but when we ask the people at the Seva Café in India, where the concept came from, what they say is that the first Seva Café existed when someone invited someone into their home and said: Let me feed you, let me serve you with Love. That is the original thing that we are trying to get back to.

The fact that for me personally, we see so many people come into the Seva Café, and I see it be so successful, so packed…it is a double edged sword. Part of this is great, people are getting this kinds of inspiration in their lives, which is a great thing, but the other side of that is that this is really missing from their lives, that is why they need to be here…why are we not giving and receiving love like that with our neighbors? Why are we not like that with our families? Why is that genuine place of service not with us all the time? Why do we need a place like the Seva café, which runs 5 – 10 on Saturdays, where we go to find love?

To me it is great that people are getting this kind of inspiration but on some level it is somewhat disturbing…ideally, the Seva café shouldn’t need to be in existence, because hopefully people are getting that nourishment spiritually through free giving, or not in this environment…that is exactly what we are trying to teach people, that is what we tell the guests, the volunteers: How do you change the world? How is the Seva Café really helping the world? It is not a soup kitchen. It is through each and every person that walks through the door. We want to plant that seed of service, that seed of giving in them, let them know that this gift has been offered to them and as they walk outside the Seva Café doors there is an opportunity waiting for them. Then the Seva Café doesn’t need to exist in those four walls, it needs to exist in the hearts of each and every single volunteer and guest that arrives. That is what it is really it is designed to do. To invert the Seva Café into itself, take these 4 walls and have it implode where it is everywhere outside, not just inside.

Tell me more about Seva Café in India. What is the original concept? How did you get the idea to translate it, how long did it take to recreate here?

The Seva Café in India has been around for a year and three months and we have been around for the last 6 months, with an organization called Be The Cause. Every year, we go to a different country to serve hands on. We have been to south Africa, we have been to Kenya, This year we were in Peru and Equador. Last year, we went to India, and we had heard about the Seva Café before we left, and already in our mind, we were germinating this idea that this is such an amazing concept and that it can be applied anywhere and everywhere. So when we went to India, we checked it out. And what we see is that it is needed everywhere. It is there for the guests, to challenge their notions of what it is to give and receive and to change our relationship with the food that we eat. But it is there to cultivate that space of service within the volunteers.

The Seva Café in Ahmedabad operates 7 days a week, and it is intense. They have a sign, that is very true to the Indian culture, the sign and saying is “Guest is God” and they have that plastered on the wall there, and this is the mantra running through the volunteers at the Seva Café. As the guests come in through the door, they are to be treated as divinity. And by treating them as they are divinity, as they are God, serving them as God, you are really transforming yourself. The people who are walking through the door, are giving you an opportunity to become pure in that moment.

We here at the Long Beach Seva Café, we don’t have that sign, we are trying to stay away from religious connotations because America is a different world than India, that is fore sure. But one of the things that is apparent, is that there is gratitude for the guests walking in. All the volunteers who are there for a few days get this. We are not serving the guests, they are serving us. They are giving us that opportunity. So there is gratitude. Every time the door opens and someone walks in, there is gratitude. I am not giving them anything, they are giving me the opportunity to become a better human being in this moment.

What do you serve at the Café? Who decides what kind of food to serve?

We try to keep it to a healthy diet, and we serve a vegetarian meal. We have sandwiches, soups, desserts, coffee drinks. It is the same recipe every time. The volunteers and the core team of 7 or 8 people talk as a group and decide what we want on the menu. The Seva Café is not just about food, and just nourishing a person’s stomach. We are trying to nourish something far more important than just a stomach. We don’t want people to be there only for the food…even though it is amazing, all gourmet, high quality ingredients….the food brings people back, but the love is what keeps them there.

It is not about finances, right? So it is sustained by the donations? What have you found in relying on the goodness of others in terms of the survival of this?

We are only relying on the goodness of others. We have been around for 6.5 months, and in the beginning a few of our friends got together, we said whatever it takes, we are doing this for 3 months, if we have to put out of our pockets, we will. Despite that, 1 week before we started, a random person comes by my place and leaves $1000 anonymously, with a note: “This is for the experiment…” To this day, we don’t know who that person is, and we haven’t dipped into our pockets, and we haven’t touched the $1000 dollars. We have paid for electricity, rent, food expenses, everything and all costs, have been self-sustaining through donations by guests. We have even made a $3,000 donation to a charity in India.

I have to be honest: in the beginning, we were doubtful, and many told us we were out of our minds. Maybe in India it could work, but not here… Now, it is not even theoretical anymore. People ask us, your theory on serving with love is great, your theory on believing there is good in everyone is great…but are these theories practical? I see it every Saturday.

We rent the Royal Cup Coffee House for the day. The owner is very generous, we pay $290 for the place, and we pay for all the food. Within that $290 includes a buffer for his benefit. It is not a losing venture from his angle. It is good for everyone.

We are in the process of changing venues and are looking for a new venue to expand into. We definitely want to make the spot sustainable. Someone giving us a home for a week or two isn’t sustainable. We are willing to pay for the rental of the facility, of course. We are looking for a place that has a relaxed atmosphere, wher we can conduct and refine this experiment, and to bring in the types of food that we want to serve, which is gourmet vegetaria. Currently we operate only on Saturday, but we would like to find a place where they are willing to do Friday, Saturday, and even Sunday brunch. Because it is needed, people are missing it in their lives.

You have mentioned a few profound stories that came out of Seva Cafe. You mentioned that it is not a soup kitchen. Have you had many homeless people come? Or have you seen the other side of the spectrum in terms of wealthy people come?

Our mentality is that we are not there to judge people. That keeps us from being in a place where we need to be. So we don’t look at a who is wealthy or poor. When an envelope is left for a guest, we have no way of tracing who left it. I have opened envelopes, for someone who had a soup and salad, and who left a couple of hundred dollars. You do have that happening. There is one incident where a homeless guy came in and ate for a week, and didn’t wait for an envelope, he took off and left.

This is not a free meal, this is not a soup kitchen, you are part of a circle of giving that exists.

So if a guest leaves without an offering, does that violate the idea of Seva Cafe?

It is totally fine. There is no violation. We are asking for an individual to think about what is going on. And by walking away and reflecting on your actions is payment more than what could be left in an envelope. It is not free in an experiential sense. There is some transaction of energy, and that is what we focus on. This envelope is there as an opportunity to give, and if you don’t leave anything in there, we are still here to serve. This envelope has to serve as a reminder of the gifts we are always receiving. As you walk outside Seva Café, the envelope is still with you. For you to give back, for you to complete that circle of giving, that opportunity is arising in every moment. People come in off the streets, I have serious converstations with them, about things they can do to make the world a better place, to make their lives healthier,and that that to me is great. The homeless guy who left without giving, came back a few weeks later. I saw him outside, he is old enough to be my father. He is at a table. I walk up to him, and I hold his hand, and I try to explain simply what the Seva Café. I say to him “We live in a place where there is so much pain and suffering, and all we are trying to do is put some love in the world.” The man starts crying. He says you dont have to tell me about pain and suffering, I see it everyday on the streets. I think to myself, what can I do for this person. Let me get him some food. Before I got up to leave, I explained to him…the food you are receiving is a genuine gift from someone you have never met. And at the end of the meal you are going to have the opportunity to leave a gift fro someone else.

I wanted him to understand, that we are equals. He is not underneath me, He is not getting a handout, I'm not better than him. We are all in this together.Iif there is any say so, he has the same say so as I do. The waiter brings him sandwich, soupe, and water. He eats and leaves. I go up to clear the table, to clean up the plate, glasses, bowl. I look on the table, and the man has left 93 cents on the table. When I talked to him earlier he told me that is all the money that he had on him. Everything he had, he left on the table to pay for some one eles’s meal. He is a homeless guy who we judge all the time. Something happened to him in that moment, he is taking what he has, whatever he has, and he left it for another human being. So this is powerful stuff.

If you would like to help the Seva Cafe in finding a new venue or would like to volunteer or visit, contact www.bethecause.org

Robin Sukhadia
Mr. Hyphen 2006/2007