MEDITATE WHILE YOU WORK (42)

[Guest guest]

MEDITATE WHILE YOU WORK : A NEW PATH FOR A NEW AGE (42)

Swami Ashokananda

 

Swami Vivekananda left the Belur Monastery to revisit the West

in 1899, and it was during that second visit that he wrote a deed

of trust in which he handed over the monastic order and everything

pertaining to it to another disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami

Brahmananda. So (although the trust deed was not legally executed

until 1901), practically speaking, when he left the Belur Monastery

to revisit England and America, he gave up leadership of the Order.

Now, seen against this fact, the little discourse that he gave to the

members of the monastery on the eve of his departure becomes highly

significant. The monks had given him a farewell address, and then

he spoke to them. And this last message to them was: 'Remember, our

ideal is vairagyam and service.' Vairagyam means 'dispassion' -

consciousness is no longer involved in the body and the mind or in

the sense objects. He said, 'Maintain that vairagyam, and then pour

your hearts into service of others.' (Complete Works 4:446-448).

Others ? God Himself! The visible God. Remember, practically speaking,

that was the last message he gave as President of the Order to the

assembled monks.

Often I have pondered upon this message; it contains all the

scriptures and all the prophets: Have no attachment to sense objects,

be conscious of the divine within and without, and pour our your

heart in service. There cannot be any higher religion than that. There

cannot be a quicker method of spiritual illumination that that. There

cannot be any greater means of self-fulfilment and service to others

than that. I think it is a more complete spiritual ideal than we have

ever known before.

 

(This concludes my series of postings of this lecture of Swami Ashokananda

from the book Meditation, Ecstasy & Illumination:An Overview of Vedanta

http://www.vedanta.com/getpage.cfm?file=titles/10000015.html&userid=88912652

I have posted the entire lecture at

http://www.employees.org/~girishv/meditate-work.html)