Karma Yoga

[Guest guest]

Dear Holy Family,

 

Prior to becoming known as a world teacher, Swami Vivekananda spent

years wandering the length and breadth of India as an unknown monk, and

much of what he observed during this period of travel influenced his

later teachings. One very striking incident, which one can safely assume

burnt deeply into his soul, happened as follows:

 

During his travels, the Swami once entered an area which had been

suffering from a prolonged drought. The further he penetrated into this

tormented area, the more desperate was the condition of the people.

Finally he came to a place where whole families and villages were at

death's door from starvation and many of the weak, the old and the

young, were dying.

 

As a world teacher-to-be, the Swami already had a profound

identification with humanity and the human condition, and sight of so

many simple rural people bravely and without hope resigned to death was

breaking his heart. As was pondering the terrible plight of so many,

with the full realization that as a penniless sannyasin he had nothing

to offer them, he encountered a gentleman going from home to home

collecting money for some cause.

 

The Swami at once asked the man what he was collecting for, and the man

replied that he was a member of the association to build hospitals for

old and sick mother-cows, and that he was collecting money for that

noble purpose.

 

The Swami asked the gentleman if he did not see that great numbers of

human beings were in the last stages of starvation, and would it not be

appropriate to use the money he had collected so far to set up a food

distribution center now, and take care of the cows later? Whereupon the

man replied that according to the scriptures we suffer as a result of

our own karma. Those who are starving now are merely suffering from

their own past sins, and it is not our place to interfere in the divine

plan, and further, that the same scriptures declare that the cow is our

mother and it is our duty to honor and care for her.

 

The Swami understood the gentleman's belief system very well, and he

also knew that nothing he could say could change the man's point of

view, so he merely replied that " it is true that only mother cow could

give birth to such intelligent sons as yourself " . Whereupon, the

gentleman went away beaming with the praise he believed he had just

received from a holy man.

 

As the Swami continued his wandering he noted that India contained

thousands of wandering sadhus whose sole activity was walking from one

place of pilgrimage to another. He concluded that if he got the

opportunity he would harness some of that energy to care for and uplift

the masses of his country whose only crime was that they were poor. And,

as he often said later, " You can't preach religion to empty stomachs " .

 

And, in the course of time, the Swami did indeed set up a monastic order

with two branches, one devoted to contemplation and scriptural study and

another dedicated to selfless service, karma yoga. And great saints,

seers, and sages have been produced from both branches, and continue to

be.

 

The Swami then came West. Here, he established only monastic

institutions for contemplation and scriptural study. He, being greatly

impressed with the great wealth of the West, as well as with the state

of rajas of the people, saw that the need here was not for service, but

rather to become sattvic, to go inward, to purify the buddhi, the

spiritual understanding, and possibly thereby to prevent such

misunderstandings of the teachings of karma, reincarnation, etc, which

had occasionally appeared in India over time.

 

The great truths which we receive from out scriptures and Gurus are not

cut in stone. Every one of them must be understood in context, and

sometimes the context is changing by the minute. Those of us who are

graced to live under the direct influence and guidance of a guru will

make a thousand mistakes, and we will be corrected a thousand times.

Those of us who do not have that great blessing must proceed very

carefully and prayerfully-and do the best we can. It is truly a razor's

edge.

 

Respectfully,

 

Tanmaya