The reward for doing any act of service, no matter how small, is the inner transformation that you may experience right then and there.
Nipun Mehta
Acts of Service
Topic: Serving Others
The reward for doing any act of service, no matter how small, is the inner transformation that you may experience right then and there.
Nipun Mehta was born on March 26, 1975, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Raised by parents who were deeply involved in community service, Nipun was instilled with a spirit of giving from a young age. This early influence would later guide his life's work. He moved to the United States with his family at the age of 12, and there he received his education. A tech-savvy teenager, he taught himself computer programming and web design, skills he further cultivated while studying Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley, from which he graduated in 1995.
After graduation, Nipun worked at Sun Microsystems. However, instead of pursuing a conventional career in Silicon Valley, he founded ServiceSpace in 1999, an organization initially set up to provide free technical services to nonprofits. While still in his twenties, Nipun started to question the conventional definition of success and began seeking spirituality and service to humanity.
In this spiritual journey, Nipun found himself drawn towards various wisdom traditions. Nipun was raised in the Hindu faith and his wife Guri was brought up in the Sikh tradition. Though he has often expressed appreciation for Buddhist principles such as compassion, mindfulness, and selfless service, these are part of a broader vision that informs his worldview. Indeed, his philosophy is not limited to a single tradition. The universality of wisdom and compassionate action across traditions deeply resonates with him, reflecting in his work with ServiceSpace.
Over the years, ServiceSpace transformed from a purely technical support provider to an expansive platform that encourages individuals globally to engage in small acts of service. Its projects range from a daily positive news service to a gift-economy restaurant. Today, Nipun serves as the founder and inspirer-in-chief at ServiceSpace, continuing to propagate the idea that the smallest acts can ignite significant transformations.
His passion and dedication have led him to embark on remarkable endeavors, such as a walking pilgrimage across India with Guri—his wife and counterpart in love—advocating a message of compassion and gratitude. His journey has allowed him to forge friendships with many contemporary luminaries who share his commitment to service and inner transformation. These relationships have only further enriched Nipun's understanding of the boundless potential for goodness in every individual, a belief that remains central to his life vision and the mission of ServiceSpace.
Mehta, Nipun, and Jacob Needleman. "Acting from the Heart: Point Reyes Dialogues." The Fetzer Institute, 2008.
Nipun Mehta
Theme: Serving
About This Nipun Mehta Quotation [Commentary]
Nipun Mehta’s words, “The reward for doing any act of service, no matter how small, is the inner transformation that you may experience right then and there,” highlight the deeply personal nature of service. Rather than focusing on the external results of our actions, Mehta emphasizes the immediate inner change that unfolds in the act itself. In a world often preoccupied with measurable outcomes, his words remind us that the most meaningful rewards are often internal and intangible.
Mehta’s insight draws attention to how even the simplest acts of service can awaken a shift within us. Whether offering a kind word or helping a stranger, each act carries the potential to open the heart and deepen our sense of connection. This “inner transformation” happens in the present moment, not as a distant goal, but “right then and there”—through the very experience of giving.
Ultimately, Mehta’s reflection invites us to approach service as a practice of inner growth. The value lies not in recognition or external success but in how each act transforms the one who serves. By embracing small moments of kindness, we discover that service itself becomes the reward, revealing a deeper well of compassion and joy within us.
Acting From the Heart: Nipun Mehta and Jacob Needleman [Dialogue Excerpt]
Jacob Needleman: My dialogue partner today is Nipun Mehta—a man, who just looking at him, makes me happy. We’re going to talk about what we think is important in this world, in this time and how we’re trying to participate in it. I thought I would start with a wonderful quote that was attributed to the great American philosopher William James. It’s meant a lot to me and somehow it reminds me of you and what you’re doing. James says, “I am done with great things and big things, great institutions and big success, and I am for those tiny, invisible, molecular, moral forces that work from individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets, or like the capillary oozing of water, yet which if you give them time, will rend the hardest monuments of man’s pride.” What do you think of that?
Nipun Mehta: I’m happy to be here, Jerry. I love that quote, as you might guess. I think it really puts the emphasis on inner transformation. The reward for doing any act of service, no matter how small, is the inner transformation that you may experience right then and there. It’s not the outer impact—which is real, but a material and reductionist impact—but something that changes your inner being, your mind, and stays with you forever. I think that’s what James was getting at.
Jacob: I think so, too. You have a way of acting through the heart, through actions of the heart. I work with ideas, and although I try to speak from and to the heart with ideas, you are doing it through actions. Can you say a little bit about the specific kind of actions that you find transformative, with which your whole life now is engaged and encouraging?
Nipun: I don’t think I’m as intellectually gifted as you. But I said at some point, it’s not enough to read a book and get an intellectual understanding of swimming, you have to go and touch and feel the water. I had this inner drive toward direct experience. So, what is compassion? What is good will? What is care? I had some idea of it; I had some understanding of it. I think there is something innate there, but I really wanted to understand it at a deeper level. So I tried it. I would do small acts that would give me that experience mostly to learn, and to experiment and to grow. That became the foundation of the work I do in the world, which fundamentally is acts of love. It’s not just thinking about it, but really experiencing it that has helped me a great deal.
—Mehta, Nipun, and Jacob Needleman. “Acting from the Heart: Point Reyes Dialogues.” The Fetzer Institute, 2008; [Excerpt].
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