The Secret of Work

1. The Secret of Work A Summary from the lecture of Swami Vivekananda

2. Different levels of help • Spiritual Help • Intelluctual Help • Physical Help

3. Spiritual Help • Why is Spiritual help Superior to other helps? • His wants are removed forever. So helping man spiritually is the highest help that can be given. • Spirituality is the true basis of all our activites in life. A spiritually strong man will be strong in every other aspect if he wishes.

4. Intellectual Help • Why is Intellectual help Superior to physical help? • Life is of little value if it is a life in the dark groping through ignorance and misery. We must not make a mistake of concluding that physical help is the only help that can be given

5. Bhagavad Gita on Work • Commands to work incessantly. • But every has both good and evil. • Good and evil produce effects that return in form of good and evil (karma) and are a bondage to the soul. • Solution reached in Gita is : non-attachmentto work

6. Samskara • Samskara- Inherent tendency (nearest translation) • Any wave that rises in the mind does not die out completely, but leave a mark and a future possibility of its reoccurrence. This is called Samskara • The sumtotal of the Samskaras is Character

7. Different levels of Character • Bad (bad impressions working. Compelled to do bad) • Bad + good • Good ( established like a tortoise + control over sense organs and nerve centers) • Desire for liberation ( higher than the above 3) (golden chain is as much a chain as an iron one)

8. The way to go about • Counteract bad tendencies with good ones • Then conquer the good tendencies also • Thus “attached” becomes “unattached” • Work but not let the action or thought produce a deep impression on the mind.

9. Attached-Unattached-Master-SlaveThe Mechanism • “ The whole of nature is for the soul, not the soul for nature “ (Sankhya Philosophy) • We forget this and think we are nature and get attached to it • When this attachment comes work forms deep impressions on the mind • Deep impressions force us to do things good or bad ( So slavery)

10. Gist • Work like a master, not a slave

11. True love • Every act of love brings happiness • Sat-Chit-Ananda – Existence-Knowledge-bliss • Existence- becomes relative we see the world • Knowledge- knowledge of things of the world • Bliss- foundation for all true love known to the heart of a man • So true love can never react as to cause pain to either the lover or the beloved

12. Being unattached- Is it easy?? • When you have succeeded in loving your husband, your wife, your children, the whole world, the universe in such a manner that there is no reaction of pain or jealousy, no selfish feeling, then you are in a fit state to be unattached. • To attain this unattachment is almost a life-work, but as soon as we attain this point, we have attained the goal of love and become free.

13. Attachment comes only when we expect a return • There are two things which guide the conduct of men: might and mercy

14. Looking upon work as “ Worship” • Requirement- belief in personal god • Give up all fruits unto the Lord • No right to expect anything from the mankind for work we do because that is worship. • The two stories of unselfishness

15. Conclusion • Karma Yoga means ; even at the point of death to help anyone without asking questions • Never vaunt of your gifts to the poor or expect their gratitude, but rather be grateful to them for giving you occasion of practicing charity to them