WORK FOR WELFARE, NOT FOR SELFISH ENDS
Look not for monetary success. Work unselfishly but leave monetary considerations to the system to work out and that, too, in a human way, for the present pursuit of Mammon is the vilest chase that man has subjected himself to and need not be a part of his motivation for activity. This is specially meant for those who have made moneymaking their dream project, their sole aspiration, the very purpose of earthly existence. These ones need to take cognisance of the fact that their ambitions run contrary to the terrestrial programme of collective welfare and will backfire on them sooner or later despite their apparent success for the while.
The human species is gregarious by nature and whatever is in the best interests of this basic plan tending to aggregate good will hold and whatever stands in the way of mass welfare will be cast aside by society for the furtherance of this fundamental evolutionary drive. And, here, by evolution is not being meant Darwinian evolution alone which is limited in scope and erroneous in its reading of the human situation and its formulations thereof, but the greater evolutionary drive of all life from base matter to the highest Brahman, the movement of the atom unto the Atman.
Therefore, make purification of the mind-stuff (chittashuddhi) the basic programme of your life and adopt work (karma) as the means to achieving it. And this is best done by engaging in unselfish activity where the work performed is offered as oblation to the divine sacrifice going on in the cosmos, to the sacrificial fire that burning at the base of the spine of animate existence and to the vaster bio-spherical sacrifice that rolls the wheel of the dharma that holds all life.
By unselfish activity is meant engaging in such labour as conduces to self-welfare and collective welfare, too, that which does not injure the prospects of others while furthering one's own apparent good, work which is incessantly performed without hope of material return beyond basic subsistence and where any return beyond such minimum requirement is held in trust for the welfare of all. There must no sense of vile ownership of wealth which comes as the fruit of such principled labour and whatever builds up overtime must be freely distributed for upholding programmes of collective good and not kept in the miser's chest for one's progeny to inherit. This is a tall order for selfish man but this is what has to be achieved to graduate from the animal to the human plane in due course.
This practice of unselfishness is not merely a theoretical proposition that has no apparent practical relevance. Had it been so, sages and saints throughout the world down the ages would not have stressed the importance of this attitude in human living, the Lord Himself would not have prescribed this in His 'Song Celestial' (Bhagavad Geeta) as the sine qua non for all human action that is geared to truth, beauty and goodness. This unselfish work in its imperfect mode has been practised widely for thousands of years by vast numbers of people in India which has resulted in this land of Aryavarta being raised to the rank of the 'Punyabhumi' (the land of virtue). Here people have practised righteous living for millenia so much so that to be in harmony with the ethical principles of living has been called the dharma of all Hindus (Indians, by modern connotation). Vice has gained the upper-hand periodically but virtue has overcome it in the battle of attrition that followed, led by the Lord who incarnated in every Age to redress the lost balance of life. That the Lord has chosen Punyabhumi Bharatvarsha to incarnate Himself so many times is the proof that this motherland of ours has practised her austerities in unselfish living hard enough ever for her to deserve such a divine birth each time.
So, work without attachment, fervently, incessantly to gather in the masses within the ambit of good (lokasangrahartham), within the sphere of dharma, and consider it your privilege that you have been designated with this responsibility, allotted this role for creating the circumstance for the free expression of the human spirit, the free evolution of man en route to his higher goal of eventual freedom. Unto that end, my friend, work, and work with all energy, free of the shackles of expectancy by way of return. The return shall unfailingly come, that of your liberation from the ignorance of the Self which is the seat of all this phenomenal dream and which, yet, remains supremely unaffected by such delusions, for separate (svatantra) it ever is.
Written by Sugata Bose
Look not for monetary success. Work unselfishly but leave monetary considerations to the system to work out and that, too, in a human way, for the present pursuit of Mammon is the vilest chase that man has subjected himself to and need not be a part of his motivation for activity. This is specially meant for those who have made moneymaking their dream project, their sole aspiration, the very purpose of earthly existence. These ones need to take cognisance of the fact that their ambitions run contrary to the terrestrial programme of collective welfare and will backfire on them sooner or later despite their apparent success for the while.
The human species is gregarious by nature and whatever is in the best interests of this basic plan tending to aggregate good will hold and whatever stands in the way of mass welfare will be cast aside by society for the furtherance of this fundamental evolutionary drive. And, here, by evolution is not being meant Darwinian evolution alone which is limited in scope and erroneous in its reading of the human situation and its formulations thereof, but the greater evolutionary drive of all life from base matter to the highest Brahman, the movement of the atom unto the Atman.
Therefore, make purification of the mind-stuff (chittashuddhi) the basic programme of your life and adopt work (karma) as the means to achieving it. And this is best done by engaging in unselfish activity where the work performed is offered as oblation to the divine sacrifice going on in the cosmos, to the sacrificial fire that burning at the base of the spine of animate existence and to the vaster bio-spherical sacrifice that rolls the wheel of the dharma that holds all life.
By unselfish activity is meant engaging in such labour as conduces to self-welfare and collective welfare, too, that which does not injure the prospects of others while furthering one's own apparent good, work which is incessantly performed without hope of material return beyond basic subsistence and where any return beyond such minimum requirement is held in trust for the welfare of all. There must no sense of vile ownership of wealth which comes as the fruit of such principled labour and whatever builds up overtime must be freely distributed for upholding programmes of collective good and not kept in the miser's chest for one's progeny to inherit. This is a tall order for selfish man but this is what has to be achieved to graduate from the animal to the human plane in due course.
This practice of unselfishness is not merely a theoretical proposition that has no apparent practical relevance. Had it been so, sages and saints throughout the world down the ages would not have stressed the importance of this attitude in human living, the Lord Himself would not have prescribed this in His 'Song Celestial' (Bhagavad Geeta) as the sine qua non for all human action that is geared to truth, beauty and goodness. This unselfish work in its imperfect mode has been practised widely for thousands of years by vast numbers of people in India which has resulted in this land of Aryavarta being raised to the rank of the 'Punyabhumi' (the land of virtue). Here people have practised righteous living for millenia so much so that to be in harmony with the ethical principles of living has been called the dharma of all Hindus (Indians, by modern connotation). Vice has gained the upper-hand periodically but virtue has overcome it in the battle of attrition that followed, led by the Lord who incarnated in every Age to redress the lost balance of life. That the Lord has chosen Punyabhumi Bharatvarsha to incarnate Himself so many times is the proof that this motherland of ours has practised her austerities in unselfish living hard enough ever for her to deserve such a divine birth each time.
So, work without attachment, fervently, incessantly to gather in the masses within the ambit of good (lokasangrahartham), within the sphere of dharma, and consider it your privilege that you have been designated with this responsibility, allotted this role for creating the circumstance for the free expression of the human spirit, the free evolution of man en route to his higher goal of eventual freedom. Unto that end, my friend, work, and work with all energy, free of the shackles of expectancy by way of return. The return shall unfailingly come, that of your liberation from the ignorance of the Self which is the seat of all this phenomenal dream and which, yet, remains supremely unaffected by such delusions, for separate (svatantra) it ever is.
Written by Sugata Bose
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