Duty and Service

 

Quote from the true charm and power of Vedanta

 

Duty and Service

 

The spirit of true service, however, never dawns in the heart without self abnegation and non-attachment. If we would do for others, we must be willing to forget our own little self, our physical comforts, our individual happiness. Only as all our action are based on the principle of working not for results, but through love, do we learn to help others truly . a worthy  lover  of making is like a flower, which gives its fragrance whether we place it on our head or trample it under our feet . His nature is to give without any regard for his won personal gain our loss.

 

The story is told of a holy man in India who, going one day to a well to drink found a scorpion struggling in the water. The sight touched his loving heart and lifting the poor creature from the well, he pressed it against his breast to warm and revive it. But no sooner had the scorpion regained its strength then it stung him. The saint placed it gently on the ground and in a moment it feels back into the well. Forgetting that it had done him any injury, again he rescued it and held it against his heart, but the scorpion stung him as before. Still a third time he drew it from the water and gave it the same loving care, wholly unmindful of the harm done to him. He had reached the ideal preached by Buddha and Christ of loving even his enemies for all self –love had merged into the great love which embraces every living creature .

 

Performing effortless action is true yog

 

By KV Raghupathi

 

The word ‘yog’ is understood in several ways. One meaning predominantly attributed to it is ‘action’. Yog is an action. It is described in the Bhagwad Gita as ‘Karmeshu kausalam yog’. Action is simply understood as our emotional, neurological and mental response to a situation. It happens either with volition or with no volition. When it happens with volition, it is thoughtful action; if it happens without volition, it is called choiceless action. However, thought precedes action. Thought is crucial to performing actions. When the same action is constantly repeated, a habit is formed. Habits thus formed by constantly repeated actions describe our character.

 

Without getting into the complexity of action, let us first understand how action is performed. Action is done in two ways: one is with effort and the other without effort. Effortless action is true yog.

 

 

How is it achieved? We all perform actions with effort. This is the beginning of action; action is done with ‘me’ consciousness. Action thus performed, with ‘me’ consciousness, is not yog because it involves effort. Yog emphasises swift action without giving much credence to I-thought.

 

When we want to excel in one skill, we need to put in a lot of effort in the beginning. In time, it becomes effortless. This is called efficiency. Take teaching as an example. Teaching a particular subject requires effort in the beginning, such as preparing notes, rehearsing before stepping into a classroom, self-evaluating, and so on. As we teach the same subject, assisted by our constant learning that enhances our knowledge, we gain efficiency in time. We need not take lecture notes to the classroom, we need not prepare seriously. We might as well walk into the classroom empty-handed and deliver the goods. Or we may take along lecture notes but not look at them now and then while teaching as we did in the beginning. This way efficiency is achieved. Effortless action is nothing but achieving efficiency. When we gain this efficiency in whatever we do, we are in a state of yog. Our bodies and minds get totally involved in whatever we do with no effort. That is, we do not feel tired or become a spent force.

 

The whole creation is moving in this direction – effortless action. The only difficulty is that we are not aware of it.

 

Effortless action also means responding to a situation spontaneously, without thinking too much about it. Otherwise, it would bind us to karma, which is inescapable. Instead, we wait for the situation to unfold before us and when it does, we act like a cat on the wall that lies in wait for a rat to come out of its hole. Once the rat appears and is close enough, the cat jumps and catches it. This is true action. There is no effort involved.

 

 

IF HE EXIST

 I drive joy there was a doctor in Benaras who spent 7 minutes in the morning and evening for mediation on God. Knowing this, his colleagues and friends laughed at him. One day they argued that he was wasting 7 precious minutes on something, which he had been misled into believing. The doctor replied, “Well, if God does not exist, I agree that I am wasting 7 minutes a day. But, if He exists? I am afraid you are wasting your entire lifetime. I prefer to waste 7 minutes rather than a lifetime. Why should you grudge me the 7minutes joy that I derive 4m.-

 

ILLUSTRATED REVIEW : 7th heaven moment Arsenal no 7 scored a goal,   Sa won by 7 wk, Bangaldesh won first odi scoreing 314/7 , Indian women made 277/7, 7 colour rainbow found in London on holi,