Vivekananda Mailing List-10/27/02

[Guest guest]

Man works with various motives. There cannot be work without motive.

Some people want to get fame, and they work for fame. Others want

money, and they work for money. Others want to have power, and they

work for power. Others want to get to heaven, and they work for the

same. Others want to leave a name when they die, as they do in China,

where no man gets a title until he is dead; and that is a better way,

after all, than with us. When a man does something very good there,

they give a title of nobility to his father, who is dead, or to his

grandfather. Some people work for that. Some of the followers of

certain Mohammedan sects work all their lives to have a big tomb

built for them when they die. I know sects among whom, as soon as a

child is born, a tomb is prepared for it; that is among them the most

important work a man has to do, and the bigger and the finer the

tomb, the better off the man is supposed to be. Others work as a

penance; do all sorts of wicked things, then erect a temple, or give

something to the priests to buy them off and obtain from them a

passport to heaven. They think that this kind of beneficence will

clear theme and they will go scot-free in spite of their sinfulness.

Such are some of the various motives for work.