Is sacrifice of fruit of work greatest?

(A satsaṅga was done on 27-06-2021 in view of the occasion of marriage of Chi. Veena Datta and it is recorded below.)

[You said that sacrifice of fruit of work involved  already  the work or service by which the fruit of work is earned. Hence, the sacrifice of fruit of work includes work done to earn that fruit and hence, sacrifice of fruit of work is greatest because this involves both sacrifice of fruit and service or work done to earn that fruit. Is this the correct conclusion?]

Swāmi replied:- It is true that service or work is included in sacrifice of fruit because without service or work, fruit of work cannot be earned. This is true, but the service or work done in earning the fruit of work is worldly work only and not God’s work. The word karma yoga is including both sacrifice of fruit of work to God as well as service or the work to God. In sacrifice, you have done worldly work only and not done God’s work. Therefore, you cannot claim that you have done both God’s work and sacrifice of fruit for God’s work. Sacrifice of fruit for God’s work is done by earning the fruit through worldly work. Sacrifice of fruit of work to God and sacrifice of work to God are two different accounts. Since the worldly work done by you is converted in to fruit, it is only one account, which is either work or fruit. You cannot split this one account in to work and fruit because it is either work or fruit. By sacrifice of fruit, we agree that you have done sacrifice of fruit (Karma phala tyāga), but you have not done service or work to God (Karma saṃnyāsa), which is God’s work and not worldly work. Therefore, as a house holder, you have both the channels (Karma saṃnyāsa and karma phala tyāga) of karma yoga opened so that you can do some service and some sacrifice to God in both channels. We are not asking you to do the sacrifice in a channel, which is shutdown to you because it is impossible.

For example, take a rich old man. The old man is unable to do service due to his old age and hence, the channel of karma saṃnyāsa is closed down in his case. The only channel opened in his case is sacrifice of fruit because he is rich. Hence, he can do sacrifice in only one channel called karma phala tyāga. For him, we have to give encouragement by saying that karma phala tyāga is greater than karma saṃnyāsa because sacrifice of lot of energy is equal to sacrifice of very small matter as per equation E=mc². We will also further encourage him by saying that he need not worry about service because service was already involved in earning the fruit of work. We can tell him that half of the fruit of work can be related to the path of karma phala tyāga and the rest half of the fruit of work can be related to the path of karma saṃnyāsa so that we can conclude that one has done sacrifice in both the paths.

Let us take another example of a young healthy person, who is poor. For him only the channel of service is opened since he can sacrifice only work because he is young and healthy. In his case, the channel of sacrifice of fruit of work is shutdown because he is poor or not earning. In order to encourage this young man, we shall say that service or work is equal to sacrifice of fruit and hence, sacrifice of fruit is included in service or work. We shall say to him that had he diverted this spiritual work to worldly work, he could have earned the fruit of work and would have sacrificed it. We shall say to him that half of his service can be translated in to fruit so that he has done both service and sacrifice of fruit. In this way, we shall encourage him by saying that the fruit of work (matter) is equal to work (energy) even though there is quantitative difference. By doing service in excess, considerable sacrifice of matter can also result.

Let us take the case of the old person, who is also poor. Similarly, you can take the case of young person, who is unable to do even work due to some illness and also poor at the same time. For both these cases, both channels are shutdown. Karma Yoga is not applicable to both these cases. In the case of such cases, the channels called Jñāna yoga and Bhakti yoga (theoretical phase) are opened and we shall advise them that God does not need any practical service and sees only the pure mind for bhakti yoga and strong intelligence for jñāna yoga. If the person has sensitive and emotional mind bhakti yoga must be advised for him. If a person has strong intelligence, jñāna yoga must be advised for him. The reason is that bhakti yoga or devotion is related to mind and jñāna yoga or knowledge is related to intelligence.

Like this, the preacher has to advise the receiver based on the circumstances and praise only the opened channels related to the receiver (Arthavāda). We shall not praise the closed channels in such cases to discourage them. The preaching must be according to the psychology of the receiver and the preacher must always encourage the receiver as per the psychology of receiver of the preaching. The preacher simply preaching the true knowledge is only a scholar called guru. The preacher preaching the spiritual knowledge slightly diverted to this side or that side in order to suit the psychology of a specific receiver in the direction of full encouragement is called Sadguru. Śaṇkara, Rāmānuja and Madhva developed slightly different philosophies to suit the psychologies of the receivers present in their times respectively. Sadguru always follows the psychology of the receiver up to some distance and then slowly divert the receiver to the correct path. It is just like catching a powerful running bull and running along with it for some distance initially and finally slowly diverting it to the right path (Dhāvat vṛṣabha nigraha nyāya). If you have to preach the spiritual knowledge to a group containing different psychologies either you have to preach in view of average psychology or mention various paths and say that these paths differ due to the difference in the psychologies.

If the devotee asks God to open the closed channels, God will reply “First you do something in the already opened channels, which proves that you are interested in Me. Moreover, I am pleased with the sacrifice done in the open channels itself! Perhaps, you are not asking to open the closed channels for My sake and I doubt whether you are asking to open the closed channels for your sake!”

The main point is that one can sacrifice service or fruit of service provided the channel for doing it is opened in the case of a specific receiver of the knowledge. If the channel is shutdown, the inability to do the sacrifice in that shutdown channel can’t be blamed. A saint can never be blamed for not doing the sacrifice of fruit of work because he himself is begging for food. Even Saktuprastha was tested by the God in the opened channel only. In a severe drought, he along with his family was fasting from several days. One day he got some little food, which was divided among himself and his family members for eating. Then God came in disguise and begged for food. God begged in the open channel only because Saktuprastha is having some food with him. God did not beg for gold coins from Saktuprastha because even an iron coin is not with him! Hence, God tests only in the opened channel and not in the shutdown channel. So, you cannot defend yourself by saying that you are incapable of doing the sacrifice to God because the channel is closed for you. He tests you in your sacrifice of whatever is possible for you and owned by you. He will not test you in sacrifice of any item that is not possessed and not owned by you. The tests are also to make you aware of your actual position of the degree of intensity of your devotion in the spiritual path and not to tease you for your failure and to enjoy like a sadist. The importance of the tests can be well understood in the institutions conducting daily tests for EAMCET examinations. Parents rush to such institutions conducting daily tests instead of weekly tests. The tests are conducted only in your welfare since you are willing to progress in spiritual path. There is no compulsion in it and nobody invited or forced you to the spiritual path. Of course, God is the divine Father of all the souls having million times more love than ordinary parents. He is very much willing that everybody shall progress in spiritual path. He also attracts the people by demonstrating the miracles as attraction-gifts. Hence, we shall not misunderstand our divine Father in terms of some selfish benefit to Him. A business man may do such things for his selfish benefit like announcing Pongal special offers. God does not aspire anything from you because all the souls are practically beggars before God because He alone is the donor of anything to anybody.

A grandfather tests his grandson by asking a biscuit from him daily. The grandson was asked by his teacher to prepare a list of beggars that come to his home. The grandson wrote the name of his grandfather in the first place writing in brackets that his grandfather is a beggar residing in his home and not coming to home. The boy developed such poor impression on the grandfather because he does not know that every day the packet of biscuits given by his mother to him was bought and brought by his grandfather only in secret way. Similarly, God gives everything to you and comes to test your real love on Him by begging a donation from you. The boy is under the impression that everyday his mother was purchasing a packet of biscuits for him. In such case, why the grandfather is keeping the actual background as secret? The reason for secrecy is that if the grandson knows that actually his grandfather was purchasing the packet of biscuits everyday, the boy himself will offer a biscuit to his grandfather expressing gratefulness. In gratefulness, real love is not existing. We will be grateful to anybody irrespective of his qualities if he helped us. Real love is based on our attraction to the divine personality without aspiring for any fruit in return.