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If you are destined to work you cannot leave it you will be forced to engage in it. If you are destined to cease working, work cannot be had even if you hunt for it. Make no effort either to work or to renounce work. Enquire, “Who works?” Remember, “Who am I?” The work will not bind you. M.: The feeling “I work” is the hindrance. They are God’s activities.ĭ.: My work demands the best part of my time and energy often I am too tired to devote myself to Atma-chintana (Contemplation on the Self). Just as those movements are confounded with your own, so also the other activities. Is it true? Is it not a fact that you remained as you were and there were movements of conveyances all along the way. When asked, you say that you travelled here all the way from your town. You left home in a cart, took train, alighted at the Railway Station here, got into a cart there and found yourself in this Asramam. M.: Why do you think that you are active? Take the gross example of your arrival here. Up to that state of spontaneity there must be effort in some form or another.ĭ.: Our work-a-day life is not compatible with such efforts. Otherwise happiness will not be complete. Even then the Self should spontaneously become evident.
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M.: Effort is necessary up to the state of realization.
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Similarly it is with other kinds of work.
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You notice how the work, i.e., walking, goes on without your attention to it. After a time, however, you find yourself at your destination. You do not attend to every single step that you take. What does it matter whether you attend to the work or not? Suppose you walk from one place to another place. But the body and its activities, including the work, are not apart from the Self. M.: Because you identify yourself with the body, you consider that the work is done by you. Attending to the Self includes attending to the work.ĭ.: The work may suffer if I do not attend to it. So all the actions will go on whether you engage in them voluntarily or not. Now I ask you: Are you apart from the Self? Can the work go on apart from the Self? Or is the body apart from the Self? None of them could be apart from the Self. Should one keep part-attention on the physical work? This raises doubt whether work can safely be left to itself. In the life of Sri Chaitanya it is explained that while he sought Krishna (the Self) during his lectures to students, he forgot where his body was and went on talking of Krishna. Greenlees: Bhagavan said yesterday that, while one is engaged in search for “God within”, outer work would go on automatically. When That is forgotten, all miseries crop up when that is held fast, the miseries do not affect the person. Find out ‘Who am I?’ The pure ‘I’ is the reality, the Absolute Existence-Consciousness- Bliss. M.: Constant search for ‘I’, the source of the ego. It may be difficult in the earlier stages for a beginner, but after some practice it will soon be effective and the work will not be found a hindrance to meditation. Even one who is still practising the path of Wisdom (jnana) can practise while engaged in work. His actions are only involuntary and he remains a witness to them without any attachment. Even when he acts he has no sense of being an agent. For a realized being the Self alone is the Reality, and actions are only phenomenal, not affecting the Self. (Excerpts from Talks with Ramana Maharshi)ĭ.: Is work an obstruction to Self-realisation? Easy Practical Lessons in Selfless Actions Work not hindrance to Meditation