The Secret of Work by Swami Vivekananda
Today I would like to present you The Secret of work by Swami Vivekananda. A versatile genius of India, Swami Vivekananda was born in Kolkata on 12th January 1863. His original name was Narendranath Dutt. He was very eager to see God face to face.
In 1881 he became a disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and received enlightenment. He was named Swami Vivekananda when he became a monk. Swami Vivekananda was India's representative at the parliament of world religions in Chicago in 1893. His call to the nation was, "Arise, awake, and stops not till the goal is reached."
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| The Secret of Work |
🔖 Topics Of Content:
What is the secret of work?
The complete works of swami Vivekananda In the present article The Secret of Work. He explains the nature of work, the things that guide the conduct of human beings, and the direct method of curing the miseries of the world.
Before starting the article, all of your questions in your mind Do you feel happy while working? Do you work as a master or as a slave? How do you think the problems of the world can be solved? Do you believe that human suffering can be solved by selfless work? Is the secret of success based on the nature of work? Now, you find out the answers to all these questions at the end of the article.
Lets understand the secret of work given by Swami Vivekananda through the points given below:
Types of Helps
Vivekananda speaks about three kinds of help, Physical help, intellectual help, and Spiritual help. The miseries of the world cannot be cured by physical help only until man's nature changes, because the physical needs are endless. So as long as these physical needs arise so long as the miseries are felt and no amount of physical help cure them completely.
So what is the solution to this problem? The only solution is to make mankind pure. Then the question has arisen that how it can be? The answer is by providing intellectual help and spiritual help. So let the men be pure and spiritually strong and educated. Then only the miseries in the world will be stopped.
For example, a child wishes to have a cycle, provided. Wishes to have a bike, provided. Then he wishes to have a car, provided. Is there any end to his physical need? No. So man's nature should be changed.
Let's take the present situation corona as an example. The government may convert every house in the country into a charity house means shelters and may fill the land with hospitals and Covid centers but in the morning, people stand in kilometers line in front of wine shops. So, now what is the use of government providing physical help? The misery of man will continue to exist. So, when the man's character changes then only the miseries will be solved.
Good Work and Bad Work
Swami Vivekananda reminds us of the sayings from Bhagavad Gita. In Bhagavad Gita again and again we read that we must all work incessantly, which means continuously. We cannot separate the works good and bad because every work must necessarily be a mixture of good and evil. Yet we are commanded to work continuously.
Good and evil will both have their results on us. Good actions will show good effects and the same way bad action bad effects. But anyway good and bad both are bondage of the soul. This means they show the effects on our mind either positively or negatively.
Remove Attachment to the Work
We should not attach ourselves to work, and then only we can keep away our soul from the bondage. The central idea in the Gita is to work incessantly but without any attachment to the work. Swami Vivekananda compares our mind with a lake.
So like a ripple in a lake, every wave that rises in the mind does not die out entirely but leaves a mark and there is a possibility of that wave coming out again. So, this possibility of the wave reappearing is called Sanskar.
Good and Bad Impressions
Our actions either good or bad leave continuous impressions in our mind. The character of a person is determined by the total of these impressions. If good impressions prevail, the character becomes good, and if bad then it becomes bad.
If a man continuously hears bad words, thinks bad thoughts, does bad actions his mind will be full of bad impressions and the resultant must be evil and that man will be bad. Similarly, if a man thinks good thoughts and does good works, the total of these impressions will be good.
A man of character can be compared to a tortoise. As the tortoise tucks its feet and head inside the shell, and even if you kill it and break it in pieces it will still not come out. In the same way, if a man controls his inner forces nothing can draw them against his will. I think it might interest you to know the story that why Lord Vishnu took the incarnation of Tortoise.
Liberation or Full Freedom
Freedom from the bondage of good as well as from evil. So when we have this liberation, a golden chain is as much a chain as an iron one. For example, if we have a thorn in our finger, we use another thorn to take it out.
After taking the thorn we throw both of them aside because there is no need of keeping the second thorn, both are thorns after all. So the bad tendencies are to be counteracted by the good ones and the bad impressions on the mind should be removed by the fresh waves of good ones. But after that, the good tendencies have also to be conquered.
Thus the attached becomes unattached. We should have to work but we should not allow the action to produce a deep impression on our mind. Let the ripples come and go, let huge actions proceed from the muscles and the brain, but let them not make any deep impression on the soul. We should have to remember only one thing that this world is not our habitation. It's only one of the many stages through which we are passing.
Work like a Master
Swami Vivekananda speaks about how we should work? He says that "we should have to work like a master and not as a slave." We should have to work incessantly, it doesn't mean to work like a slave. He says that 99% of the people in the present-day world are working like slaves and the result is misery.
So whenever we feel misery, it's all selfish work. Work through freedom, work through love, means it's a very difficult word to understand. Without freedom we won't get love, we never feel love. There is no true love possible in slavery. So whenever we feel freedom then definitely we work with love.
If you buy a slave, and tie him down in chains and make him work for you, how does he work? He will work like a dredge but there will be no love in him. Every act of love brings happiness. There is no act of love that doesn't bring peace and blessedness as its reaction. Real existence, real knowledge, and real love are permanently connected with one another.
Vivekananda gives one example of unattached work. Once Krishna says to Arjuna, "Look at me Arjuna if I stop from work for one moment the old universe will die. I have nothing to gain from work. I am the one lord but why do I work? Because I love the world. So God is unattached because he loves, that real love makes us unattached. Attachment comes only when we expect a return.
Working like slave results in selfish attachment, but working as masters of own mind gives rise to the bliss of non-attachment. So, work continuously without expecting anything in return with love and liberation.
Strength and Being Kindness
Most people talk about right and justice but in the present-day world, we find these two words right and justice are mere babies talk. Vivekananda believes that might and mercy are the two things that guide the conduct of men. So might means having the strength and in the same way, mercy means being kind.
The exercise of might is invariably an act of selfishness. Mercy is heavenly. To be good, we all have to be merciful. Even justice and right should stand on mercy. The only way that might and mercy can be put into practice is by treating our work as worship.
Here we give up all the fruits of our work unto the Lord and worship him. Thus we have no right to expect anything from mankind for the work we do. The lord himself works incessantly and is ever without attachment. So finally swami Vivekananda saying that we should have to work incessantly but without any attachment to the work and treating our work as worship.
At the beginning of the article we have started with some questions, so now let us see whether you get answers to all the questions from this article or not. Share your thoughts with us.
Read More:
⇒ Complete History of Banking in India
⇒ Why did Swami Vivekananda Die So Young?
⇒ How do you build a mindset like David Goggins?
FAQs about The Secret of Work
Do you feel happy while working?
Yes surely we have to feel happy when we work without any attachment.
Do you work as a master or a slave?
We should have to work as a master with love and liberation without any attachment to the work.
How do you think the problems of the world can be solved?
So the problems of the world can be solved only by providing spiritual knowledge and spiritual help but not by physical help.
Do you believe that human suffering can be solved by selfless work?
Yes, surely the sufferings can be solved by selfless work without expecting any return from them.
Is the secret of success based on the nature of work?
Yes, whatever the work it is whenever we treat our work as worship we surely taste the fruits of the success.
