The richest man in Babylon still has to work. As long as we have the body and mind, we will be a obliged to keep it alive by feeding it and clothing it. If nothing else, then these basic survival activities are required by all of us in order to keep body and soul together.
Therefore, we all have to work. In fact most of us are driven not only by the basic instincts and survival needs, but also by other urges and creative impulses that inspire us and push us along in order to be fulfilled.
It is the nature of the mind which is led by the five senses in its pursuit of the objects of gratification.
In today'society, as throughout history, the vast majority of us are obliged to work very hard just to survive. This appears to be how the structures of the financial system are designed. The masses are enslaved by the elite few and we toil in labor from dawn till dusk to scrape together our daily bread. That is the nature of the world. It is a hard struggle for existence.
Even the wealthy are obliged to work hard to protect that wealth. Indeed, work does not stop because they have achieved financial success. Naturally the rest of us are obliged to work too, especially when we take on the duties of a family person or householder. Very few are able to walk away from the urges of society, family and love, and retreat to the forest in pursuit of the hermit life.
And even those hermits are still obliged to light their fire and carry their water in order to survive. Therefore, wherever we are, working is required according to our nature and propensities.
This work obliges us to receive the results of our actions, for better or worse. Therefore, in order to purify our actions we can offer up the results of those actions in a mood of sacrifice or gift giving.
With a simple prayer or perhaps a ritual or ceremony, one can focus one's intent towards offering service to the source of all existence. This is a process to purify us of karmic repercussions which occur as the result of work.
Buy engaging our skills and our senses in serving a Higher Cause, regardless of our benefits or absence thereof, there's no work for profit and one can simply work for the good of all in the long run, for posterity as the saying goes.
Bhagavad Gita ch3:8
नियतं कुरु कर्म त्वं कर्म ज्यायो ह्यकर्मणः ।
शरीरयात्रापि च ते न प्रसिद्ध्येदकर्मणः ॥ ८ ॥
niyataṁ kuru karma tvaṁ
karma jyāyo hy akarmaṇaḥ
śarīra-yātrāpi ca te
na prasiddhyed akarmaṇaḥ
SYNONYMS
niyatam—prescribed; kuru—do; karma—duties; tvam—you; karma—work; jyāyaḥ—better; hi—than; akarmaṇaḥ—without work; śarīra—bodily; yātrā—maintenance; api—even; ca—also; te—your; na—never; prasiddhyet—effected; akarmaṇaḥ—without work.
TRANSLATION
Perform your prescribed duty, for action is better than inaction. A man cannot even maintain his physical body without work.
PURPORT
There are many pseudo-meditators who misrepresent themselves as belonging to high parentage, and great professional men who falsely pose that they have sacrificed everything for the sake of advancement in spiritual life. Lord Kṛṣṇa did not want Arjuna to become a pretender, but that he perform his prescribed duties as set forth for kṣatriyas. Arjuna was a householder and a military general, and therefore it was better for him to remain as such and perform his religious duties as prescribed for the householder kṣatriya. Such activities gradually cleanse the heart of a mundane man and free him from material contamination. So-called renunciation for the purpose of maintenance is never approved by the Lord, nor by any religious scripture. After all, one has to maintain one's body and soul together by some work. Work should not be given up capriciously, without purification of materialistic propensities. Anyone who is in the material world is certainly possessed of the impure propensity for lording it over material nature, or, in other words, for sense gratification. Such polluted propensities have to be cleared. Without doing so, through prescribed duties, one should never attempt to become a so-called transcendentalist, renouncing work and living at the cost of others.
Bhagavad Gita ch3:9
यज्ञार्थात्कर्मणोऽन्यत्र लोकोऽयं कर्मबन्धनः ।
तदर्थं कर्म कौन्तेय मुक्तसङ्गः समाचर ॥ ९ ॥
yajnārthāt karmaṇo 'nyatra
loko 'yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ
tad-arthaṁ karma kaunteya
mukta-saṅgaḥ samācara
SYNONYMS
yajna-arthāt—only for the sake of Yajna, or Viṣṇu; karmaṇaḥ—work done; anyatra—otherwise; lokaḥ—this world; ayam—this; karma-bandhanaḥ—bondage by work; tat—Him; artham—for the sake of; karma—work; kaunteya—O son of Kuntī; mukta-saṅgaḥ—liberated from association; samācara—do it perfectly.
TRANSLATION
Work done as a sacrifice for Viṣṇu has to be performed, otherwise work binds one to this material world. Therefore, O son of Kuntī, perform your prescribed duties for His satisfaction, and in that way you will always remain unattached and free from bondage.
PURPORT
Since one has to work even for the simple maintenance of the body, the prescribed duties for a particular social position and quality are so made that that purpose can be fulfilled. Yajna means Lord Viṣṇu, or sacrificial performances. All sacrificial performances also are meant for the satisfaction of Lord Viṣṇu. The Vedas enjoin: yajno vai viṣṇuḥ. In other words, the same purpose is served whether one performs prescribed yajnas or directly serves Lord Viṣṇu. Kṛṣṇa consciousness is therefore performance of yajna as it is prescribed in this verse. The varṇāśrama institution also aims at this for satisfying Lord Viṣṇu. "Varṇāśramācāra-vatā puruṣeṇa paraḥ pumān/viṣṇur ārādhyate..." (Viṣṇu Purāṇa 3.8.8) Therefore one has to work for the satisfaction of Viṣṇu. Any other work done in this material world will be a cause of bondage, for both good and evil work have their reactions, and any reaction binds the performer. Therefore, one has to work in Kṛṣṇa consciousness to satisfy Kṛṣṇa (or Viṣṇu); and while performing such activities one is in a liberated stage. This is the great art of doing work, and in the beginning this process requires very expert guidance. One should therefore act very diligently, under the expert guidance of a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa, or under the direct instruction of Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself (under whom Arjuna had the opportunity to work). Nothing should be performed for sense gratification, but everything should be done for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa. This practice will not only save one from the reaction of work, but will also gradually elevate one to transcendental loving service of the Lord, which alone can raise one to the kingdom of God.
Ref: Bhagavad Gita As It Is, translation and commentary by Swami A. C. Bhaktivedanta, original MacMillan 1972 edition.
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