Swami Vivekananda’s Karma Yoga – Br. Shankara

Sunday, June 8, 2014

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Swami Vivekenanda
Swami Vivekenanda
Swami Vivekananda (Swamiji) said:

“We are responsible for what we are; and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.

“… With regard to Karma Yoga, Bhagavad Gita says that it is doing work with cleverness and as a science; by knowing how to work, one can obtain the greatest results.

You must remember that all work is simply to bring out the power of the mind which is already there, to wake up the soul. The power is inside every man, so is knowing; the different works are like blows to bring them out, to cause these giants to wake up.”

In this talk, Br. Shankara discusses four of Swamiji’s ideas about work:

  1. This life is short, the vanities of the world are transient, but they alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive.
  2. External nature is only internal nature writ large.
  3. Condemn none: if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way.
  4. In a day when you don’t come across any problems — you can be sure you are traveling in the wrong path.