Work and spirituality

Writings by Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda wrote in his Complete Works Volume 1, that "If a man works without any selfish motive in view, does he gain anything?  Yes, he gains the highest.  Unselfishness is more paying, only people have not the patience to practise it.  It is more paying from the point of view of health also.  Love, truth and unselfishness are not merely moral figures of speech, but they form our highest ideal, because in them lies such a manifestation of power.   In the first place, a man who can work for five days, or even for five minutes, without any selfish motive whatever, without thinking of future, or heaven, of punishment, or anything of the kind, has in him the capacity to become a powerful moral giant.  It is hard to do it, but in the heart of our hearts we know its value and the good it brings."

On page 34 Swami Vivekananda further writes: " But we have to begin from the beginning, to take up the works as they come to us and slowly make ourselves more unselfish every day.  We must do the work and find out the motive power that prompts us; and almost without exception, in the first years, we shall find that our motives are always selfish; but gradually this selfishness will melt by persistence, till at last will come the time when we shall be able to do really unselfish work.  We may all hope that some day or other, as we struggle through the paths of life, there will come a time when we shall become perfectly unselfish; and the moment we attain to that, all our powers will be concentrated, and the knowledge which is ours will be manifest."

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Writings by Sri Chinmoy    

Sri Chinmoy has written many things about work and his life is an example of dedicated service.

Sri Chinmoy considers work a form of meditation. Refer to his talk Meditation in Action. 

In 1969, Sri Chinmoy gave an excellent talk about the role of action titled Action and Liberation. 

I also like what he has to say about the necessity for work in his talk:  Duty Supreme.

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          Work

To work under compulsion

Is to eventually revolt.

To work because that is the only thing

That can give us satisfaction

Or bring about our perfection

Is to become conscious and constant friends

Of our eternal Pilot Supreme.

                                                Sri Chinmoy

                                                  from the book: Dedication Drops