Teachings
What Endears Us To God (Part 9)
A Devotees Attitude toward the World
None can remain without work for even a moment; for the gunas born of Prakriti make everyone act in spite of themselves, says the Gita (3.5). Even the bare maintenance of the body will be impossible without work. (Gita, 3.8) Only a man of Self-realization has no duty to speak of. (Gita, 3.17) Everyone else has to work-physically and mentally-as prompted by their karma. Sri Krishna teaches us how to work without attachment, offering our actions and their fruits to God.
Sri Krishna describes a devotee dear to Him as a daksha (Gita, 12.16), which means one who is prompt, resourceful, efficient, and dexterous. Sri Shankaracharya explains that such a person is able to promptly and rightly understand duties as they present themselves to him. Two important points emerge from this verse: (1) Efficiency in work and devotion to God are perfectly compatible. (2) Procrastination regarding work, indifference to work in the name of devotion, or a sloppy work habit under the guise of spirituality have no place in a devotee's life. Such ways of doing work are born of tamas, or ignorance. A person who is careless in work will also be careless in meditation, since both are based on the same untrained mind.
The Gita (3.9) teaches that the world is bound by action unless it is done as worship. A devotee does not take up selfish projects, but performs all his actions with a worshipful attitude. He looks upon himself as an instrument in the hands of God. Swami Ramakrishnananda was an embodiment of devotion to Sri Ramakrishna. He explains how to forget oneself in doing work as worship: "The true devotee never thinks of himself. He is so full of the thought of God that his own self is forgotten. This body is only an instrument and an instrument really has no existence of its own, for it is wholly dependent on the one who uses it. Suppose a pen were conscious, it could say, 'I have written hundreds of letters,' but actually it has done nothing, for the one who holds it has written the letters. So because we are conscious, we think we are doing all these things, whereas, in reality we are as much an instrument in the hands of a Higher Power as the pen is in our hands and He makes all things possible."
Sri Krishna promises in the Gita that he relishes offerings, however small or insignificant, when these are made with single-minded devotion by a mind free from worldliness: "Whoever offers Me, with devotion, a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or water-that I accept, the pious offering of the pure in heart." A devotee offers his action, the sense of doership, and the fruits of action to God. He thus frees himself from bondage of actions, which bear good or evil results. (Gita, 9.28)
A devotee does his duties, looking upon them as worship, without yielding to despondency or weakness. In Swami Vivekananda's words, "Every duty is holy, and devotion to duty is the highest form of the worship of God....By doing well the duty which is nearest to us, the duty which is in our hands now, we make ourselves stronger."
By strengthening his faith in God's protecting power under all circumstances, a devotee becomes free from anxiety about the uncertainties of life. Says Swami Ramakrishnananda, "When worries and perplexities rise in your mind, you have ceased to believe in God, and that he is caring for us. If we have real faith in God, we can never grow anxious."
(To be continued)