|
On Karmayoga (A Letter) You want to do something.
It seems it has become impossible for you to remain quiet. But you cannot make
up your mind as to what you should do. You seem to think that whatever work you
do would be commonplace and trivial and would have no inner support. You find
no work after your heart. But I am afraid you have started from a wrong idea.
Bear in mind that the most essential thing in one's life is 'to be' and not 'to
do'. First, be something, then action will come of itself.
Action is the expression of becoming or the natural effect of the fullness of
your becoming. What you will do and how far you will go depends solely on what
you have become and how far you have grown. To become is to build yourself up within. It is a common but big mistake of the
world to judge a man by his action, as if the measure of manhood lay in what
one has done. No doubt, the world has no other standard of judgment, for it can
see only the appearance. It has neither the capacity nor the time to look
within. But mind you, you are a sadhak. You cannot acquit yourself that way. It
matters little whether outwardly you remain idle or do something or even
something utterly useless. Never try to judge yourself nor your progress, your
capacity or even the greatness of your work. For these things are very subtle.
They remain in seed-form in your own, heart. Gradually they grow unobserved by others,
even by yourself. You
may raise here an objection and say that it is from us that you have learnt
about Karmayoga, about how man
Page – 304 shapes
himself through work. The more one uses one's energy, the more it increases. In
action alone one can become what one-truly is. Quite true.
But I have never asked you to refrain from action. You breathe in and breathe
out, you eat, you study, you play, you mix with
people. You work for your family – what else are these if not work? You will
say that all this is no work at all. Everybody does all this. What is the
difference then between an ordinary man and a great personage? But remember
Karmayoga does not mean that you must do something quite astonishing, wonderful
and unique. It is not that you cannot do Karmayoga if you do not fight like
Arjuna on the battlefield. Even if you do what others do, your own Karmayoga
will not suffer in the least. Everything depends on your attitude, how you look
upon the world, with what kind of urge you are getting on with your life. True
Karmayoga demands that you should remain in your present circumstances, within
all your surroundings, that you should remain within
your present conditions and should perform the chain of Simply to work at random
does not mean Karmayoga.
Page – 305 In our spiritual discipline Karmayoga is the field of manifestation.
By means of Jnanayoga you will build there the edifice of your higher life. The
aim of sadhana is to establish the divine qualities in oneself and transform
oneself. And for that one has first to change one's thought, mind and feeling.
And thought is changed mainly by thought, by meditation, by will and Tapasya.
The impact of active life may be of help in changing thought and feeling, but
that would be only a help. Try to turn your eyes on your own life and
activities. View the outside world with your inner thought and feeling. Try to
observe what thought and feeling, what inner status gives rise to your work
and governs your life. Is your work to be the effect of only your desires, your
emotions and of your nervous excitements? If not, then see from your inner poise and feel from behind
everybody and everything what divine urge, what inner divine impulse is trying
to emerge. Get to know and nurse it into being. Remove all waste matter from
all sides and be guided by the fulness of its light and force. To be at work,
whatever its nature, and to remain self-poised in the
light and force of knowledge – this is true Karmayoga. When you acquire this,
at least a bit of it, then only there will come to light in the proper way what
God wants to create with your collaboration.
Page – 306
|
