Work and its secret

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WORK AND ITS SECRET

 

(Delivered by Swami Vivekananda at Los Angeles, California, January

4, 1900)

 

If we examine our own lives, we find that the greatest cause of

sorrow is this: we take up something, and put our whole energy on it -

perhaps it is a failure and yet we cannot give it up. We know that

it is hurting us, that any further clinging to it is simply bringing

misery on us; still, we cannot tear ourselves away from it. The bee

came to sip the honey, but its feet stuck to the honey-pot and it

could not get away. Again and again, we are finding ourselves in that

state. That is the whole secret of existence. Why are we here? We

came here to sip the honey, and we find our hands and feet sticking

to it. We are caught, though we came to catch. We came to enjoy; we

are being enjoyed. We came to rule; we are being ruled. We came to

work; we are being worked. All the time, we find that. And this comes

into every detail of our life. We are being worked upon by other

minds, and we are always struggling to work on other minds. We want

to enjoy the pleasures of life; and they eat into our vitals. We want

to get everything from nature, but we find in the long run that

nature takes everything from us -- depletes us, and casts us aside.

 

Had it not been for this, life would have been all sunshine. Never

mind! With all its failures and successes, with all its joys and

sorrows, it can be one succession of sunshine, if only we are not

caught.

 

That is the one cause of misery: we are attached, we are being

caught. Therefore says the Gita: Work constantly; work, but be not

attached; be not caught. Reserve unto yourself the power of detaching

yourself from everything, however beloved, however much the soul

might yearn for it, however great the pangs of misery

 

you feel if you were going to leave it; still, reserve the power of

leaving it whenever you want. The weak have no place here, in this

life or in any other life. Weakness leads to slavery. Weakness leads

to all kinds of misery, physical and mental. Weakness is death. There

are hundreds of thousands of microbes surrounding us, but they cannot

harm us unless we become weak, until the body is ready and

predisposed to receive them. There may be a million microbes of

misery, floating about us. Never mind! They dare not approach us,

they have no power to get a hold on us, until the mind is weakened.

This is the great fact: strength is life, weakness is death. Strength

is felicity, life eternal, immortal; weakness is constant strain and

misery: weakness is death.

 

The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 2 [ Page : 2 ]