Work For🔗

God

Authored by

THE SPH NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

You must fix your mind upon Me alone.

If you are not able to work even this way, surrendering unto Me, give up all the results of your actions to Me without ego.

Kṛṣṇa gives various possibilities to Arjuna, one after another. His compassion for Arjuna's spiritual evolution knows no limits. He never gives up on Arjuna. 'If you cannot do this, do that. And if you cannot do that, at least do this,' Kṛṣṇa continues. In the last four verses, He continuously gives options to Arjuna. Kṛṣṇa says, 'Fix your mind upon Me alone.

Live in Me.' Then He felt that He had to give Arjuna an option, in case Arjuna could not succeed. 'If you cannot fix your mind upon Me, steadily practice and practice again,' He advised. He relented further, 'If you cannot do this repetitive practice, if this is too much for you, then work on My mission. Whatever you do, do it for Me.' Kṛṣṇa now says, 'If you are unable to do even this, which is work for My sake, then just abandon your ego and turn over the results of your actions to Me, sarva-karma-phala tyāgaṁ tataḥ kuru yatātmavān (12.11).'

Kṛṣṇa relents from His standpoint that Arjuna should work only on those activities that are Kṛṣṇa's. He feels that there may be conditions that may prevent Arjuna from devoting all his time only to those activities that are Kṛṣṇa's. See how relevant Kṛṣṇa's advice is, even by today's standards. None of us can hope to sit idle and be taken care of. We must do something to occupy ourselves. In our day-to-day reality of life, not all may be able to work on God's mission alone, all the time.

We may be able to spend only some time on activities that are selfless activities that benefit humanity overall, and activities that are spiritual.

It is an illusion of our minds that we decide the results of our actions. It is pure fantasy to believe that we decide the result of our actions. We cannot even guarantee that we will survive our next breath. Our life is not in our hands. What arrogance, therefore, to imagine that activities in the outer world are subject to our control! There is a power higher than us that decides the results of our actions. Once we realize this and start believing in the wisdom of that higher power, strange and mystical things happen to us.

We just need to let the Universe, Kṛṣṇa, the Divine, decide what is best for the rest of humanity and us.

SPIRITUAL VS WORLDLY

MATERIALS REQUIRED

Mobile phone with camera

PROCEDURE

Discuss with the children the difference between spiritual activities and worldly activities. Get the children to act these activities. Click two photographs depicting contrasting themes: first picture to capture them doing a spiritual activity and second picture captures them doing a worldly activity. Share the images with the group.

INFERENCE

We must engage in spiritual activities as much as possible, as such actions raise the level of our consciousness and that of all others around us.

Let us discuss the following scenario to understand how we can apply Krishna's teaching about surrendering the results of our action in real life.

Approach 1: Every now and then Rugwed looks at the large number of unread pages in his book and counts the few days left to go for his Exam. He feels so overwhelmed that Rugwed finds it difficult to focus on what he is reading.

PROCEDURE:

Approach 2: Rugwed sets daily milestones to cover the syllabus in the available time and focus only on meeting his daily targets. He says to God “Let the result be what you think is best for me”.

Approach 3: Rugwed often visualizes what will happen if he fails the exam. He thinks of all the direct and indirect consequences of not passing the exam. In order to motivate himself, Rugwed tries to imagine the appreciation he will receive if he gets good grades and the humiliation he will have to face if he fails. Fear and greed push Rugwed to keep reading.

INFERENCE:

BOOK XII, VOLUME IX