Swami Vivekananda says devotion to duty is the highest form of the worship of God

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ON KARMA-YOGA

Volume 5, Notes from Lectures and Discourses

 

Duty of any kind is not to be slighted. A man who does the lower work is

not, for that reason only, a lower man than he who does the higher work; a

man should not be judged by the nature of his duties, but by the manner in

which he does them. His manner of doing them and his power to do them are

indeed the test of a man. A shoemaker who can turn out a strong, nice pair

of shoes in the shortest possible time is a better man, according to his

profession and his work, than a professor who talks nonsense every day of

his life.

 

Every duty is holy, and devotion to duty is the highest form of the worship

of God; it is certainly a source of great help in enlightening and

emancipating the deluded and ignorance-encumbered souls of the Baddhas — the

bound ones.

 

However we may try, there cannot be any action which is perfectly pure or

any which is perfectly impure, taking purity or impurity in the sense of

injury or non-injury. We cannot breathe or live without injuring others, and

every morsel of food we eat is taken from another's mouth; our very lives

are crowding out some other lives. It may be those of men, or animals, or

small fungi, but someone somewhere we have to crowd out. That being the

case, it naturally follows that perfection can never be attained by work.We

may work through all eternity, but there will be no way out of this

intricate maze: we may work on and on and on, but there will be no end.

 

The man who works through freedom and love cares nothing for results. But

the slave wants his whipping; the servant wants his pay. So with all life;

take for instance the public life. The public speaker wants a little

applause or a little hissing and hooting. If you keep him in a corner

without it, you kill him, for he requires it. This is working through

slavery. To expect something in return, under such conditions, becomes

second nature. Next comes the work of the servant, who requires some pay; I

give this, and you give me that. Nothing is easier to say, " I work for

work's sake " , but nothing is so difficult to attain. I would go twenty miles

on my hands and knees to look on the face of the man who can work for work's

sake. There is a motive somewhere. If it is not money, it is power. If it is

not power, it is gain. Somehow, somewhere, there is a motive power. You are

my friend, and I want to work for you and with you. This is all very well,

and every moment I may make protestation of my sincerity. But take care, you

must be sure to agree with me! If you do not, I shall no longer take care of

you or live for you! This kind of work for a motive brings misery. That work

alone brings unattachment and bliss, wherein we work as masters of our own

minds.

 

The great lesson to learn is that I am not the standard by which the whole

universe is to be judged; each man is to be judged by his own idea, each

race by its own standard and ideal, each custom of each country by its own

reasoning and conditions. American customs are the result of the environment

in which the Americans live and Indian customs are the result of the

environment in which the Indians are; and so of China, Japan, England, and

every other country.

 

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Om namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya

Prasanth Jalasutram