Inner Fulfillment

· Part 5: A Labor of Love ·

The idea that I shall have to labor to live is very dishonorable, so ancient scholars searched for a position where we can live without labor, where we can live easily, without pain. They started a campaign to discover, or invent, such a position.

Sometimes, naiskarma (a life without karma) receives much appreciation within the society. People want to live without troubling themselves to labor. For example, capitalists consider man-labor so impertinent that they want to eliminate it by using computers and so many machines in place of it. Ancient scholars tried very hard to discover a social position for all souls in which they can live without labor, without karma (naiskarma), and they came to consider that self-satisfaction (atmaramata) could be achieved by complete withdrawal. To back up this conception, they considered that Buddha and Sankara came to give us relief by pointing out that there is a stage of samadhi similar to what we feel in a sound sleep. They describe that if we can reach that plane of no labor, we will be able to live happily, without any trouble. Sukadev Goswami agreed, “Yes, naiskarma can be found there,” but he gave a new form of naiskarma in Srimad Bhagavatam, “You say that work is painful, that work is dissipating; you say that labor is a waste of energy, but now I am going to give you an ideal of life where there is no dissipation—you will labor but without dissipation of energy.”

Service to the Lord is not labor. It is a giver, a sustainer. It does not deplete vitality but sustains one more and more. Pure service is life-giving, not life-taking—not vitality-killing but vitality-supplying. It is true for the eternal plane, especially the Goloka area, where everything is a labor of love. Without labor, the residents of Goloka will think themselves to be fasting, and when engaged in labor, they will think themselves to be well fed. Service is nourishing. Service is not depleting, or killing. Therefore, our attempt should not be so much for knowledge, for trying to know everything, but it should be directed towards how we can utilize ourselves in the highest function, which is service.

Service, service, service. Do not be afraid that service is going to deplete your energy. Service is life-giving. It is feeding you properly. Service! We are to understand that slavery to Krishna is a most dignified position and everything against that ideal is meanness. The only standard of life for a gentleman is to understand and accept the position of subordination to the Absolute Truth. To admit what is proper and real, and on that basis make one’s life advanced, is not meanness. To understand one’s proper position and duty and to discharge it—to accept what is truth—is what a gentleman’s life is. What is considered to be meanness will be removed very soon, and what is really beneficial to our welfare will increase.

You are at present in an adulterated conception of your own life. The mind, intelligence and exploiting energies of different kinds are all adulteration. So, all kinds of adulteration will be eliminated from your existence. When your existence is purified, your real self within will come out in its pristine glory, and you will find that you have a happy devotional connection with the Supersoul, the super-knowledge. You will come in touch with knowledge proper—a clear, personal type of knowledge—with its paraphernalia and systematic existence.

Whatever you are attracted to at present in this mundane plane will be transferred, and affection proper will be discovered. At present, your affection, attraction, and love are misdirected, but they will find their proper place and position. The special characteristic of that plane is that you will have a real place and position where these faculties of affection and attraction will find special support, a proper place to which they will be directed. This is devotion.

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CONTENTS

Preface

(1) Searching for the Solution

(2) The Vision of Goodness

(3) Happiness in Higher Thought

(4) The Happiest Form of Life

(5) A Labour of Love

(6) Homeward Bound

(7) The Land of Beauty

Epilogue: The Key to it All

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