WORK, A MEANS AND NOT AN END

Addressing a group of enthusiastic social reformers, the Master said: M You talk glibly of doing good to the world. The world to which you desire to do good—is it so small a thing? In the next place, pray, who are you to do good to the world ? First, go through devotional practices and see God. Then it is that inspiration and power will come to you, and you may talk of doing good. Not till then."

A devotee: Sir, do you mean to say that we are to give up all work until we have seen God ?

The Master: No, my dear sir. Why should you give up all work ? Meditation, chanting of hymns, repetition of His holy names', and other devotional exercises— these you must go through.

The devotee: I mean work connected with the world. Should we give up all worldly affairs ?

The Master: You may attend to them too, just as much as you cannot do without, in order to live in this world. But you should, at the same time, pray to the Lord with tears in your eyes for His grace, and for strength to do your duties without the expectation of any reward or fear of punishment in this world or the next.

You cannot get rid of work, because Nature will lead you on to it. That being so, let all work be done as it ought to be. If work is done unattached, it will lead to God. To work without any attachment is to work without the expectation of any reward or fear of any punishment in this world or the next. Work so done is a means to the end, and God is the end.

Work is a means, if done unattached; but the end of life is to see God. Let me repeat that the means should not be confounded with the end—that the first stage on a road should not be taken for the goal. No, do not regard work as the be-all and the end-all, the ideal of human existence. Pray for devotion to God. Suppose you are fortunate enough to see God. Then what would you pray for ? Would you pray for dispensaries and hos» pitals, tanks and wells, roads and alms-houses ? No, these are realities to us so long as we do not see God. But once brought face to face with the Divine vision, we see them as they are—transitory things no better than dreams. And then we would pray for more light—more knowledge in the highest sense, more Divine love—the love which lifts us up from man to God, the love which makes us realise that we are really sons of the Supreme Being of Whom all that can be said is that He exists, that He is Knowledge itself in the highest sense, and that He is the eternal fountain of love and bliss.

Referring to a devotee of his, the Master once said: " Sambhu Mallick once talked of founding hospitals and dispensaries, schools and colleges—of laying roads, sinking wells and digging tanks for the good of all. I said to him: ' Yes, but you must be unattached while doing good to others, and you must be careful to take up only such works as come in your way—such works, again, as appear to be of pressing need. Do not seek them—do not seek more work than you can well manage. If you do, you will lose sight of the Lord."