कुर्वन्नेवेह कर्माणि जिजीविषेच्छतं समाः ।
एवं त्वयि नान्यथेतोऽस्ति न कर्म लिप्यते नरे ॥ २ ॥
kurvanneveha karmāṇi jijīviṣecchataṃ samāḥ |
evaṃ tvayi nānyatheto’sti na karma lipyate nare || 2 ||
iha – in this world ; karmāṇi – works ; kurvan – doing ; eva – verily ; śatam – hundred ; samāḥ – years ; jijīviṣet – one should wish to live ; evam – thus ; tvayi – in thee ; nare – to a man ; itaḥ – than this ; na – not ; anyathā – otherwise ; asti – it is ; karma – action ; na lipyate – cleaves not ;
Translation:
If a man wishes to live a hundred years on this earth, he should live performing action. For you, who cherish such a desire and regard yourself as a man, there is no other way by which you can keep work from clinging to you.
Commentary:
Swamiji gives his commentary on this mantra in his ‘God in everything’ lecture, which we will quote here verbatim:
So, do your work, says the Vedanta. It first advises us how to work – by giving up – giving up the apparent, illusive world. What is meant by that? Seeing God everywhere. Thus, do you work. Desire to live a hundred years, have all earthly desires, if you wish, only deify them, convert them into heaven. Have the desire to live a long life of helpfulness, of blissfulness and activity on this earth. Thus working, you will find the way out. There is no other way. If a man plunges headlong into foolish luxuries of the world without knowing the truth, he has missed his footing, he cannot reach the goal. And if a man curses the world, goes into a forest, mortifies his flesh, and kills himself little by little by starvation, makes his heart a barren waste, kills out all feelings, and becomes harsh, stern, and dried-up, that man also has missed the way. These are the two extremes, the two mistakes at either end. Both have lost the way, both have missed the goal.
So work, says the Vedanta, putting God in everything, and knowing Him to be in everything. Work incessantly, holding life as something deified, as God Himself, and knowing that this is all we have to do, this is all we should ask for. God is in everything, where else shall we go to find Him? He is already in every work, in every thought, in every feeling. Thus knowing, we must work – this is the only way, there is no other. Thus, the effects of work will not bind us.
We have seen how false desires are the cause of all the misery and evil we suffer, but when they are thus deified, purified, through God, they bring no evil, they bring no misery. Those who have not learnt this secret will have to live in a demoniacal world until they discover it. Many do not know what an infinite mine of bliss is in them, around them, everywhere; they have not yet discovered it. What is a demoniacal world? The Vedanta says, ignorance.
We are dying of thirst sitting on the banks of the mightiest river. We are dying of hunger sitting near heaps of food. Here is the blissful universe, yet we do not find it. We are in it all the time, and we are always mistaking it. Religion proposes to find this out for us. The longing for this blissful universe is in all hearts. It has been the search of all nations, it is the one goal of religion, and this ideal is expressed in various languages in different religions. It is only the difference of language that makes all these apparent divergences. One expresses a thought in one way, another a little differently, yet perhaps each is meaning exactly what the other is expressing in a different language.
Swami Vivekananda Says [Source] –
What you only grasp intellectually may be overthrown by a new argument; but what you realise is yours for ever. Talking, talking religion is but little good. Put God behind everything — man, animal, food, work; make this a habit.
Ingersoll once said to me: “I believe in making the most out of this world, in squeezing the orange dry, because this world is all we are sure of.” I replied: “I know a better way to squeeze the orange of this world than you do, and I get more out of it. I know I cannot die, so I am not in a hurry; I know there is no fear, so I enjoy the squeezing. I have no duty, no bondage of wife and children and property; I can love all men and women. Everyone is God to me. Think of the joy of loving man as God! Squeeze your orange this way and get ten thousandfold more out of it. Get every single drop.”
God and Worldly Duties
(Source: Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna)
M. (humbly): “How ought we to live in the world?”
MASTER: “Do all your duties, but keep your mind on God. Live with all — with wife and children, father and mother — and serve them. Treat them as if they were very dear to you, but know in your heart of hearts that they do not belong to you.
A maidservant in the house of a rich man performs all the household duties, but her thoughts are fixed on her own home in her native village. She brings up her master’s children as if they were her own. She even speaks of them as ‘my Rama’ or ‘my Hari’. But in her own mind she knows very well that they do not belong to her at all.
The tortoise moves about in the water. But can you guess where her thoughts are? There on the bank, where her eggs are lying. Do all your duties in the world, but keep your mind on God.
If you enter the world without first cultivating love for God, you will be entangled more and more. You will be overwhelmed with its danger, its grief its sorrows. And the more you think of worldly things, the more you will be attached to them.
“First rub your hands with oil and then break open the jack-fruit; otherwise they will be smeared with its sticky milk. First secure the oil of divine love, and then set your hands to the duties of the world.
“But one must go into solitude to attain this divine love. To get butter from milk you must let it set into curd in a secluded spot: if it is too much disturbed, milk won’t turn into curd. Next, you must put aside all other duties, sit in a quiet spot, and churn the curd. Only then do you get butter.
“Further, by meditating on God in solitude the mind acquires knowledge, dispassion, and devotion. But the very same mind goes downward if it dwells in the world. In the world there is only one thought: ‘woman and gold’.2
“The world is water and the mind milk. If you pour milk into water they become one; you cannot find the pure milk any more. But turn the milk into curd and churn it into butter. Then, when that butter is placed in water, it will float. So, practise spiritual discipline in solitude and obtain the butter of knowledge and love. Even if you keep that butter in the water of the world the two will not mix. The butter will float.
Related Bhagavad Gita Verses:
- Children, not the wise, say that Jnana yoga and karma yoga are distinct: He who is truly established in either of them obtains the fruit of both. (5.4)
- That state (Moksha) reached by men of Knowledge is also reached by men of Action (Karma yogis). He who sees the oneness of Jnana and Karma, really sees. (5.5)
- O Arjuna! But renunciation is difficult to attain without the yoga of action. The sage who is harmonised in Yoga quickly goes to Brahman. (5.6)
- He who acts placing all actions in the eternal Brahman, giving up attachment, is unaffected by sin like the lotus by water. (5.10)
- Therefore, at all times, constantly remember Me and fight. With your mind and intellect absorbed in Me, you will surely come to Me. (8.7)
- Indeed, it is not possible for the embodied being to give up all actions completely; He who renounces the desire for the fruits of action is called (the true) Tyagi (renouncer). (18.11)
Unless you meditate, you cannot control the mind, and unless the mind is controlled, you cannot meditate. But if you think ‘First let me control the mind and then I shall meditate,’ you will never succeed. You must steady your mind and meditate at the same time.
– Swami Brahmananda (Eternal Companion p. 255)
Admin Notes:
- Action purifies the mind and Knowledge gives the experience of Brahman. This happens simultaneously by degree, not one after the other.
- With the help of four yogas, we are only dissolving the little self. Renunciation is the basis for all the Yogas.