All this is determined by Karma, work. No one can get anything unless he earns
it. This is an eternal law. We may sometimes think it is not so, but in the long
run we become convinced of it. A man may struggle all his life for riches; he
may cheat thousands, but he finds at last that he did not deserve to become rich,
and his life becomes a trouble and a nuisance to him. We may go on
accumulating things for our physical enjoyment, but only what we earn is really
ours. A fool may buy all the books in the world, and they will be in his library;
but he will be able to read only those that he deserves to; and this deserving is
produced by Karma. Our Karma determines what we deserve and what we can
assimilate. We are responsible for what we are; and whatever we wish
ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has
been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we
wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to
know how to act. You will say, “What is the use of learning how to work?
Everyone works in some way or other in this world.” But there is such a thing
as frittering away our energies. With regard to Karma-Yoga, the Gita says that
it is doing work with cleverness and as a science; by knowing how to work, one
can obtain the greatest results. You must remember that all work is simply to
bring out the power of the mind which is already there, to wake up the soul.
The power is inside every man, so is knowing; the different works are like
blows to bring them out, to cause these giants to wake up.
Man works with various motives. There cannot be work without motive. Some
people want to get fame, and they work for fame. Others want money, and they
work for money. Others want to have power, and they work for power. Others
want to get to heaven, and they work for the same. Others want to leave a name
when they die, as they do in China, where no man gets a title until he is dead;
and that is a better way, after all, than with us. When a man does something
very good there, they give a title of nobility to his father, who is dead, or to his
grandfather. Some people work for that. Some of the followers of certain
Mohammedan sects work all their lives to have a big tomb built for them when
they die. I know sects among whom, as soon as a child is born, a tomb is
prepared for it; that is among them the most important work a man has to do,
and the bigger and the finer the tomb, the better off the man is supposed to be.
Others work as a penance; do all sorts of wicked things, then erect a temple, or
give something to the priests to buy them off and obtain from them a passport
to heaven. They think that this kind of beneficence will clear them and they will
go scot-free in spite of their sinfulness. Such are some of the various motives
for work.
Work for work's sake. There are some who are really the salt of the earth in
every country and who work for work's sake, who do not care for name, or
fame, or even to go to heaven. They work just because good will come of it.
There are others who do good to the poor and help mankind from still higher
motives, because they believe in doing good and love good. The motive for
name and fame seldom brings immediate results, as a rule; they come to us
when we are old and have almost done with life. If a man works without any
selfish motive in view, does he not gain anything? Yes, he gains the highest.
Unselfishness is more paying, only people have not the patience to practice it. It
is more paying from the point of view of health also. Love, truth, and
unselfishness are not merely moral figures of speech, but they form our highest
ideal, because in them lies such a manifestation of power. In the first place, a
man who can work for five days, or even for five minutes, without any selfish
motive whatever, without thinking of future, of heaven, of punishment, or
anything of the kind, has in him the capacity to become a powerful moral giant.
It is hard to do it, but in the heart of our hearts we know its value, and the good
it brings. It is the greatest manifestation of power — this tremendous restraint;
self-restraint is a manifestation of greater power than all outgoing action. A
carriage with four horses may rush down a hill unrestrained, or the coachman
may curb the horses. Which is the greater manifestation of power, to let them
go or to hold them? A cannonball flying through the air goes a long distance
and falls. Another is cut short in its flight by striking against a wall, and the
impact generates intense heat. All outgoing energy following a selfish motive is
frittered away; it will not cause power to return to you; but if restrained, it will
result in development of power. This self-control will tend to produce a mighty
will, a character which makes a Christ or a Buddha. Foolish men do not know
this secret; they nevertheless want to rule mankind. Even a fool may rule the
whole world if he works and waits. Let him wait a few years, restrain that
foolish idea of governing; and when that idea is wholly gone, he will be a
power in the world. The majority of us cannot see beyond a few years, just as
some animals cannot see beyond a few steps. Just a little narrow circle — that
is our world. We have not the patience to look beyond, and thus become
immoral and wicked. This is our weakness, our powerlessness.
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