Work Through Love, and Freedom

Part 1 is here

You should work like a master and not as a slave; work incessantly, but do not do slave’s work.  

We are continually making this mistake; we are regarding nature as ourselves and are becoming attached to it; which binds us down and makes us work not from freedom but like slaves. Ninety-nine per cent of mankind work like slaves, and the result is misery; it is all selfish work. 

So when we ourselves work for the things of the world as slaves, there can be no love in us, and our work is not true work. Selfish work is slave’s work;

Work through freedom! Work through love! The word “love” is very difficult to understand; love never comes until there is freedom.

Every act of love brings happiness; there is no act of love which does not bring peace and blessedness as its reaction. Real existence, real knowledge, and real love are eternally connected with one another, the three in one: where one of them is, the others also must be; they are the three aspects of the One without a second — the Existence – Knowledge – Bliss. 

True love can never react so as to cause pain either to the lover or to the beloved. True love is unattached and selfless. 

Krishna Says “I am the one Lord, but why do I work? Because I love the world.” God is unattached because He loves; that real love makes us unattached. Wherever there is attachment, the clinging to the things of the world, you must know that it is all physical attraction between sets of particles of matter

To attain this unattachment is almost a life-work, but as soon as we have reached this point, we have attained the goal of love and become free; the bondage of nature falls from us.

Do you ask anything from your children in return for what you have given them? It is your duty to work for them.  In whatever you do for a particular person, a city, or a state, assume the same attitude — expect nothing in return.

If you can invariably take the position of a giver, in which everything given by you is a free offering to the world, without any thought of return, then will your work bring you no attachment. Attachment comes only where we expect a return.

There is another way in which can be put into practice; that is, by looking upon work as “worship” in case we believe in a Personal God. Here we give up all the fruits of our work unto the Lord, and worshipping Him thus, we have no right to expect anything from mankind for the work we do. 

The selfless and unattached man may live in the very heart of a crowded and sinful city; he will not be touched by sin.

Karma-Yoga means; even at the point of death to help any one, without asking questions.Never vaunt of  your gifts to the poor or expect their gratitude, but rather be grateful to them for giving you the occasion of practicing charity to them.

Thus, to be an ideal householder is a much more difficult task than to be an ideal Sannyasin; the true life of work is indeed as hard as, if not harder than, the equally true life of renunciation.

Reference: Original Lecture here