Why Serve? : Part-6. Swami Chinmayananda.

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Thursday, January 27, 2022. 06:00.

Address At Leslie Sawhny Anniversary Function On 15th May, 1983

Part-6.

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What is wrong then when the Geeta teaches us that when we are acting in the present, lift our minds from all fields of its dissipation. Dissipation in the mind over the past is called "ego". Dissipation in the mind about the future is called "desire ' for the fruit". Without dissipating the mind's vitality, either with memories of the past or anxieties for the future, plunge yourself into the present field of action with all your dynamism, then the action cannot ever fail. Think. Man is made to win and succeed, not to lose and fail.

But when the selfishness is fattened, the ego gets bloated and everyone becomes anxious to get greater profit than all others, without putting forth any effort. The result is, not only you get disintegrated in your personality and your efficiency grows low, but that the team spirit in the community is broken. To detach myself from the past (the ego) and the future (the anxiety for the selfish self), and to bring my mind into the present and apply it vigorously to the piece of work at hand, is the answer given by those masters who discovered, lived, and were alive - to the mechanics of work. When your work is centered in the present, you outshine your own abilities. When the mind is not wandering into the past or the future, but is where your hands are working, you are at a new level of consciousness, in which work becomes "inspired activity".

Masterpieces are never repeated. No artist can repeat his masterpiece. Such splendid work comes through the artist, he cannot produce a similar one again. The artist will have to confess: "I did it; but I cannot do the same again; it came through me at that time when I was in a special mood."

He was then not himself. He was not himself - his ego. He was not wasting himself remembering the past, nor anxious of the future. He became, as it were, one with the beauty of the theme, and in that inspired mood he accomplished it.

Every one of us, at some inspired moments, does our work joyously. Many of us would like to admit in ourselves that that piece of work "came through me, I did not do it" because it was not an egocentric action; the action bubbled out of him. This is what happens when you live and work in inspired moods. Not only does such a piece of work outshine our own ability, but it is supremely rewarding to the performer. You feel already rewarded by the work itself, the sheer joy that floods through your bosom transcends all imagination. A majority of us do not realize this, and, therefore, we work "for wages". Wages, however much you may get, do not and cannot satisfy us. We feel no satisfaction, because there is no inner sense of fulfillment arising out of all our effort.

Next-Part-7.

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