There are different types of obedience:
1. Obedience of soldiers — from patriotic motives [for one’s country]. If a commander orders “Shoot!” the bullet is fired by the soldier without giving a second thought. Like the old saying: “Theirs is not to reason why, theirs is but to do or die.”
2. Obedience of a paid servant. The more and the quicker his pay, the greater is his “Yes sir,” to his employer.
3. Obedience of a slave in bondage. His is compulsory obedience. We have heard that in olden days when slaves were bought and sold, theirs was a miserable life. They did their work because they were lashed and because they had no other recourse but to obey under compulsion.
4. Obedience of a lover [of God]. This is the real type of obedience. His is the willing obedience — no fees or consideration, no expectation of return or reward, but love alone.
-www.lordmeher.org, p4224
Dec, 1957; Guruprasad