Maharshi's Gospel - Work and Renunciation 6

[Guest guest]

Disciple : Bhagavan said yesterday that while one is engaged in search of

God 'within', 'outer' work would go on automatically. In the life of Sri

Chaitanya it is said that during his lectures to students he was really

seeking Krishna (Self) within, forgot all about his body, and went on

talking of Krishna only. This raises a doubt whether work can safely be

left to itself. Should one keep part-attention on the physical work?

 

Maharshi : The Self is all. Are you apart from the Self? Or can work go on

without the Self? The Self is universal: so all actions will go on whether

you strain yourself to be engaged in them or not. The work will go on of

itself. Thus Krishna told Arjuna that he need not trouble to kill the

Kauravas; they were already slain by God. It was not for him to resolve to

work and worry himself about it, but to allow his nature to carry out the

will of the Higher Power.

 

D: But the work may suffer if I do not attend to it

 

M: Attending to the Self means attending to the work. Because you identify

yourself with the body, you think that work is done by you. But the body

and its activities, including that work, are not apart from the Self. What

does it matter whether you attend to the work or not? Suppose you walk from

one place to another: you do not attend to the steps you take. Yet you find

yourself after a time at your goal. You see how the business of walking

goes on without your attending to it. So also with other kinds of work.

 

 

(From Maharshi's Gospel, published by Sri Ramanasramam and available for

download from http://www.ramana-maharshi.org/ )