Drop out of the rat race
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“My colleague who lazes around everyday got a promotion and I didn’t! The world is so unfair” I complained to my Master.
He smiled and exclaimed “Oh, so you have so easily given your colleague the power to control your happiness? He gets a promotion and you feel cheated. Tomorrow if he gets fired from office, will you celebrate? Instead of comparing yourself with him and cry, why don’t you compare yourself with the thousands of unemployed people who are struggling to get jobs and feel grateful for what you have?”
“But, I really deserved to be recognized. I feel as though all my efforts have been wasted” I continued as though I had been deaf to what my Master had just uttered. He patiently looked on, as though waiting for me to first finish all that I had to rant. I continued “I am frustrated with all this favoritism and there is no reward for true work in this world!” I now looked up at my Master waiting for Him to say something that would put me at ease.
My Master smiled and said “When you honestly, sincerely do your work every day with no expectations from it, the very satisfaction that you get out of it is the true reward. The problem is you are always caught up with impressing the world and not your own self! If you just think deeply, these external rewards, promotions, recognitions are all shallow and superficial.” I listened as my Master continued “If you are doing your job with a reward in mind, be very clear, you are not sincere to the act of ‘doing’ in the first place. The problem arises because you do not enjoy the path and are too bothered about what people say; the stamps that they put on you”.
I interrupted “Master, then is it wrong that I too want a promotion, just as anybody else?”
He added “What is it with man and running in a rat race? Remember that even if you win a rat race, you are still a rat! When all your time and efforts are channeled for accumulating societal titles, ranks, you are left with no time to enjoy whatever you are doing. You will simply miss the enjoyment of the very process of what you are doing. Not just the enjoyment, your efficiency is hampered because every second you are worried about the end result. Each worry is like a drain in energy and you feel tired, fatigued and unable to concentrate well. Drop out of this blind rat race and learn to live for your own self”
“Let me tell you one more thing, when you work honestly, your promotion will surely come. What you deserve and what you need, the Universe will always give. If you sit back and look carefully, you will realize that the Universe has always given you what you have needed. Not only that, it is intelligent enough to hold back certain things for your own good. So, just do your best and leave the rest for the Universe to handle.”
This seemed to raise more questions in me. “Master, how do I know I have done my best? If I stay in office today till 7pm, I can still leave feeling guilty that I didn’t stay till 8pm and so on.”
The Master seemed to understand my concern. He clarified “It is not the quantity of time, but the quality. If you have done your best, you will simply know. If whatever time you have spent with your work, you have been 100% aware and focused, that is what is meant by doing your best. Doing your best at work does not mean you stay in office 24 hours. It just means putting your entire concentration into whatever you are working on at any point in time. That is why they say that work is worship".
“One more thing, when you work with total awareness, you will realize that work is no more painful. It is a joy to work. By work here, I don’t just mean your salaried job; it refers to every single act during the day. It becomes a meditation. It infuses so much happiness into your Being, and you will continuously be enjoying without being bothered about what the world has to comment. If you inculcate this habit of infusing awareness into each of your acts, you will suddenly transcend into another plane, another dimension of your Self that is blissful, peaceful. You will reach the state of Nithyananda!”