Vivekananda Mailing List-1/1/2003-Happy New Year & Kalpataru Day

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Volume 1 Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda

 

Karma-Yoga

 

CHAPTER IV

 

WHAT IS DUTY?

 

It is necessary in the study of Karma-Yoga to know what duty is. If I

have to do something I must first know that it is my duty, and then I

can do it. The idea of duty again is different in different nations.

The Mohammedan says what is written in his book, the Koran, is his

duty; the Hindu says what is in the Vedas is his duty; and the

Christian says what is in the Bible is his duty. Are find that there

are varied ideas of duty, differing according to different states in

life, different historical periods and different nations. The term

" duty " , like every other universal abstract term, is impossible clearly

to define; we can only get an idea of it by knowing its practical

operations and results. When certain things occur before us, we have

all a natural or trained impulse to act in a certain manner towards

them; when this impulse comes, the mind begins to think about the

situation. Sometimes it thinks that it is good to act in a particular

manner under the given conditions; at other times it thinks that it is

wrong to act in the same manner even in the very same circumstances.

The ordinary idea of duty everywhere is that every good man follows the

dictates of his conscience.