Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 7

(A Letter)

You want to do something. It seems it has become impossible for you to remain quiet. But you cannot make up your mind as to what you should do. You seem to think that whatever work you do would be commonplace and trivial and would have no inner support. You find no work after your heart. But I am afraid you have started from a wrong idea. Bear in mind that the most essential thing in one's life is 'to be' and not 'to do'. First, be something, then action will come of itself. Action is the expression of becoming or the natural effect of the fullness of your becoming. What you will do and how far you will go depends solely on what you have become and how far you have grown. To become is to build yourself up within. It is a common but big mistake of the world to judge a man by his action, as if the measure of manhood lay in what one has done. No doubt, the world has no other standard of judgment, for it can see only the appearance. It has neither the capacity nor the time to look within. But mind you, you are a sadhak. You cannot acquit yourself that way. It matters little whether outwardly you remain idle or do something or even something utterly useless. Never try to judge yourself nor your progress, your capacity or even the greatness of your work. For these things are very subtle. They remain in seed-form in your own, heart. Gradually they grow unobserved by others, even by yourself.

You may raise here an objection and say that it is from us that you have learnt about Karmayoga, about how man

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shapes himself through work. The more one uses one's energy, the more it increases. In action alone one can become what one-truly is. Quite true. But I have never asked you to refrain from action. You breathe in and breathe out, you eat, you study, you play, you mix with people. You work for your family – what else are these if not work? You will say that all this is no work at all. Everybody does all this. What is the difference then between an ordinary man and a great personage? But remember Karmayoga does not mean that you must do something quite astonishing, wonderful and unique. It is not that you cannot do Karmayoga if you do not fight like Arjuna on the battlefield. Even if you do what others do, your own Karmayoga will not suffer in the least. Everything depends on your attitude, how you look upon the world, with what kind of urge you are getting on with your life. True Karmayoga demands that you should remain in your present circumstances, within all your surroundings, that you should remain within your present conditions and should perform the chain of works that surrounds your present life, and through all these activities you have to recognise your own being, your own dharma, draw out of it and develop your own field of action. To do all this you need not leave the house, you need not move about looking for some work after your heart. It will not be possible for you to find the work of your choice until inner attitude changes. I don't mean that you must for good remain tied to the same physical activities as at present. What I mean is that to change work, to change the surroundings is not the one thing needful. Of course, these things may serve some purpose and may be useful to some extent, but so long as you do not find anything solid within yourself, and make it part of your inner being, this kind of eagerness to launch upon ever-new activities is merely a sign of restlessness and impatience, and these are nothing else than smoke and foam.

Simply to work at random does not mean Karmayoga.

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In our spiritual discipline Karmayoga is the field of manifestation. By means of Jnanayoga you will build there the edifice of your higher life. The aim of sadhana is to establish the divine qualities in oneself and transform oneself. And for that one has first to change one's thought, mind and feeling. And thought is changed mainly by thought, by meditation, by will and Tapasya. The impact of active life may be of help in changing thought and feeling, but that would be only a help. Try to turn your eyes on your own life and activities. View the outside world with your inner thought and feeling. Try to observe what thought and feeling, what inner status gives rise to your work and governs your life. Is your work to be the effect of only your desires, your emotions and of your nervous excitements? If not, then see from your inner poise and feel from behind everybody and everything what divine urge, what inner divine impulse is trying to emerge. Get to know and nurse it into being. Remove all waste matter from all sides and be guided by the fulness of its light and force. To be at work, whatever its nature, and to remain self-poised in the light and force of knowledge – this is true Karmayoga. When you acquire this, at least a bit of it, then only there will come to light in the proper way what God wants to create with your collaboration.

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