Sevalaya was inspired by three leading lights of India - Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda and Mahakavi Bharathi. The common thread in the philosophy of all these 3 great men is "Serve the needy".

One of Mahakavi Bharathi's poems which talks about Saraswathi pooja says the following:

"Just uttering some mantras, keeping books in front of Saraswathi's photo and offering sandal and flowers is not real Saraswathi pooja. If you open schools in areas where there are no schools and ensure that there is not a single town in this country school-less, is real Saraswathi pooja. Educating one poor person is a better deed than constructing 1000 'annadhana salas' and 10,000 temples"

This poem is the foundation for our 'Mahakavi Bharathiar school'. Today more than 150 orphan children get free and Quality education from this school. Apart from this another 250 poor children from nearby villages come to this school.

Swami Vivekananda says that if someone is hungry, then food is the only God for that person. Even if a dog goes without food in this world, then there is no point in having any religion. Such powerful thoughts are the basis for the 'Swami Vivekananda hostel' in Sevalaya. As 'Vivek' means 'wisdom', we have also named our library 'Swami Vivekananda library.

Mahatma Gandhi said that India lives in its villages. If we can improve the standard of living in the villages, then we would have done some real service. Hence all the activities of Sevalaya are carried out in a small village called 'Kasuva'. Gandhi has also spoken a lot about Indian medicine and nature cure. Hence our medical centre is called 'Mahatma Gandhiji health centre.

Name of the organisation
'Sevalaya' means 'Temple of Service'. Swami Vivekananda calls the poor man as 'Dharithranarayana'. Service done to poor and destitute is actually the prayers offered to the God. Bharathi also says that he who can't bear the sufferings of others, is a 'punniya murthy' (blessed soul). As service activities are going on to such Dharithranarayanas, the place is named as 'Sevalaya'.

Symbol of the organisation
The Symbol shows that someone is watering a plant. Who is watering is a non-issue. Any seed sown in the land, needs conducive environment to grow. On the other hand, the tree is already hidden inside the seed. The environment is not creating the tree. The environment is only helping the tree, which is already inside the seed, to come out and grow. Swami Vivekananda has said that education should bring out the divinity, which is already in man. Such an education is man making and character building education. However, he also says that we can't even teach an ant. Hence at Sevalaya, we believe that we are only providing conducive atmosphere for the children to grow, so that whatever is hidden inside the seed, will come out and grow.

Slogan
'Love all; Serve all' is our slogan. We have to serve whoever is in need of our service, irrespective of which caste, religion or country he or she belongs to. Also the service should be done with love, remembering that we should thank that person for giving us an opportunity to serve.