Pariprasna
What is the recompense of work without interest or attachment?
MAHARAJ: Interest is of two kinds, personal interest and impersonal interest. Personal interest, as in business, is always motivated by considerations of personal gain. Under this inducement, man can do much for the advancement of society, provided he is guided by a proper sense of discipline and a code of honour. Give and take is the norm to be followed here. It is the generally prevailing law of life.
Impersonal interest is applicable only to people who have risen to a higher level of thought and living, who feel that life is not worth living if it offers opportunity only to live for oneself and to work only for personal gain. They want a higher sanction for human effort than mere interest born of personal gain. Now the ideal of work without attachment is applicable only to such persons.
In the questions raised above it is assumed that everyone can adopt this ideal or is capable of adopting it, or is asked to adopt it. That is not correct. A person who can temperamentally feel inclined to work only when work fetches personal gain, is incapable of serving humanity with detachment or out of compassion. Give and take is the only law for him.
To one who feels it is not worth living only for the narrow self, interest can be created in work only from higher considerations born of one’s identification with wider groups, causes or ideals. Thus service of a community, service of one’s country, service of humanity, and service of God have provided such souls of higher evolution with motives for action. It is wrong to think that in such actions there is no interest and there is no zeal in work. Great zeal and energy have been shown by workers in the service of great causes though they do not gain anything personal through it. Detachment does not mean indifference but zeal without consideration of personal gains.
But complete detachment combined with efficiency in the most genuine sense is possible when service or work of any kind becomes a part of one’s devotional life. The conviction that all the world belongs to God and that we are His humble servants entrusted with certain duties, must become the most dominant note in our life. We must also feel that all the energy we get mentally and physically is from God and that success and failure are attendant on His will and that we are merely His instruments. If we are fully entrenched in this conviction, born of devotional experience,
51 The Vedanta Kesari
PA G E S P O N S O R : S R I S . A N I L K U M A R , C H E N N A I
QUESTION: How is service of humanity possible without keen interest in such service and how can such interest arise without attachment to work? So is it not likely that the acceptance of the doctrine of work without attachment will remove all incentive to real and efficient service of others?
February 2020
Srimat Swami Tapasyananda Ji (1904 – 1991), was one of the Vice-Presidents of the Ramakrishna Order. His deeply convincing answers to devotees’ questions raised in spiritual retreats and in personal letters have been published in book form as Spiritual Quest: Questions & Answers. Pariprasna is a selection from this book.
