A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

"THE IDEAL OF A UNIVERSAL RELIGION. 321some sort of activity, whose mind cannot be concentratedtheujk>n plane of thought alone, and who have but oneidqa, concretised in work, visible and tangible. Yet theremust be a science of that too, Each one of us is working,but the majority of us fritter away the greater portion ofour energies, because we do not know the secret ofwork. Where to work and how to work is the secret,how to eir>ploythe most part of our energies, how tobring them all to bear on the work that is beforeus ;and along with that comes the other great objection with all work work must cause pain, and allmisery and pain come from attachment. I want to dowork, I want to do good to a human being, and it is 90 to 1that that human being that. I have helped will be ungrateful, and go against me, and the result is pain. That willdeter mankind from working, and spoil a good portion oftheir work and of the energy of mankind, this fear andthis misery. Karma Yoga teaches how to work for work ssake, unattached, without caring who is helped, and whatfor. The Karma Yogi works through his own nature,because it isgood to work, and has no object beyond that.His station in this world is that of a giver, and he neverreceives. He knows that he is giving, and does not askanything back, and therefore he eludes the grasp of miseryThe grasp of pain which comes, is the reaction fromattachment."There is then Bhakti Yoga, for the emotional nature,the lover. He wants to love God, he wants all sorts ofrituals, flowers, and incense, beautiful buildings, forms andall these things. Do you mean to say they are wrong ?One fact I will tell you. It is better for you to remember,in this country especially, that spiritual giants have beenonly produced by those sects which have got a very rich21