Career or the Propagation of Spiritual Knowledge?

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

[Dr. Nikhil said: Swami, I am unable to concentrate much on the propagation of Your spiritual knowledge due to the pressure of my job. The concepts of Your spiritual knowledge are really amazing and deserve propagation. The results of propagation are not seen due to my insufficient attention on the propagation.]

Swami replied: Job is the basic stage on which both the dramas of worldly life (Pravrutti) and spiritual life (Nivrutti) can be enacted. If one has good lot of property, then, such way of thinking can be justified. If one is away from the family life like Shankara, Vivekananda etc., it also becomes justified. But, having entered into family life, one should not go back. Arjuna withdrew from the war in the beginning itself and did not withdraw from the war after it started.

Moreover, worldly life is essential for an ordinary soul, even though the soul is interested in the spiritual life. Worldly life (like doing job etc.) becomes an item of different variety, which is needed now and then in the spiritual activity. While you are eating the sweets, hot dish is also necessary now and then to provide a different taste. The point is whether you are eating sweets continuously using hot dish side by side or whether you are eating hot dishes continuously by using sweet dish as a side dish. This means whether your main activity is worldly life using spiritual life as side dish or whether you are having spiritual activity continuously using worldly life as side dish. Of course, the worldly activity is very much essential to support you and hence you must be mainly in the worldly activity using spiritual dish side by side. But, in course of time, the worldly activity becomes very easy and routine due to your long experience and this is called as yoga (yogaha karmasu kaushalam— Gita). Till you become talented in the worldly activity, you have to concentrate on the worldly activity mainly.

In any stage, try to do your best for the propagation of spiritual knowledge which is God’s work. You need not bother about the result of your work because, God is not bothered about the result of your work. In any fraction of second, God can achieve the result just by His will. Hence, God is not aspiring for your result. He sees only whether you are having full sincerity and full dedication to His work as far as possible. Only for testing your interest, sincerity and dedication to His work, He has assigned the work to you and not for any result. His service is not like target oriented marketing job. His service is only dedication oriented. Hence, you shall never worry about the result of your work in the case of God. If God Rama wished, Ravana will be turned into ash and Sita will stand by His side in a fraction of second. All the drama of building the bridge on the sea was done by Him to test the dedication, devotion, sincerity and interest to Him existing in the hearts of angels. As you know, the angels were born as monkeys to serve God. The occasion is only an opportunity to prove the sincerity of the angels towards God and not building the bridge on the sea at all.

Among knowledge (Jnana Yoga), devotion (Bhakti Yoga) and service (Karma Yoga), knowledge is the most important. The right path in which your vehicle is moving is the most important aspect like Jnana Yoga or knowledge. The journey of the vehicle is Karma Yoga and the speed of the vehicle is Bhakti Yoga. If the path is wrong, both the journey and speed of the vehicle become total waste. Every time God is incarnating to remind the right path, from which often devotees slip because of wrong guides. Preaching the right spiritual knowledge is the main program of any incarnation of God. The director of an institute gives right direction to the staff so that the institute can progress in right way. Hence, director is the most important and top most holder of the post. In every generation, God is incarnating because the direction given by Him is misinterpreted and twisted by wrong preachers. God mentions this in Gita (Sa kaaleneha mahataa, yogo nashtah paramtapa) whenever the devotees slip from the correct path due to wrong interpretations, God incarnates Himself to revise about the correct direction (Tadaatmaanam srujaamyaham– Gita). God said in the Gita that the propagation of correct spiritual knowledge will give Him immense pleasure (Jnaanayajnena Teenaaham…). God praised everywhere in the Gita about the propagation of correct spiritual knowledge (Nahijynaanenasadrusham…, Sarvamjnaanaplavenaiva…, Sarvam Kaarmaakhilam…, Jnaanaagnih…, Shreyaandravyamayaat… etc.), which is very much needed in every generation. Every time and everywhere, everybody is putting lot of effort on devotion, sacrifice and service.

Hence, there is no need of propagating devotion, service and sacrifice. Only missing correct direction is to be propagated. Shankara, Ramanuja, Madhva, Ramakrishna, Ramanamaharshi, Vivekananda, Jesus, Buddha, Mahaaviir, Prophet Mohammad etc., worked for the propagation of right spiritual knowledge only and became the top most beloved devotees of God. All these preachers are actually incarnations of God acting in the roles of devotees. A devotee will have more free connectivity to another devotee. If the incarnation expresses itself as God, the free connectivity will be suppressed. Hence, all the incarnations of God always act as devotees to become ideal examples for the human devotees. Rama is the top most incarnation because He never exposed Himself as God and behaved as an ideal human being without doing any miracle.

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