Class material
covered in VUSG (Vedanta US Study Group)
on Aug 27, 2018
Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda- Vol 1 – Karma Yoga (Downloaded from internet)
Chapter 6:
Non-Attachment is Complete Self-Abnegation
…According
to Karma-Yoga, the action one has done cannot be destroyed until it has borne
its fruit; no power in nature can stop it from yielding its results. If I do an
evil action, I must suffer for it; there is no power in this universe to stop
or stay it. Similarly, if I do a good action, there is no power in the universe
which can stop its bearing good results. The cause must have its effect;
nothing can prevent or restrain this. Now comes a very fine and serious
question about Karma-Yoga — namely, that these actions of ours, both good and
evil, are intimately connected with each other. We cannot put a line of
demarcation and say, this action is entirely good and this entirely evil. There is no action which does
not bear good and evil fruits at the same time. To take the nearest
example: I am talking to you, and some of you, perhaps, think I am doing good;
and at the same time I am perhaps, killing thousands of microbes in the
atmosphere; I am thus doing evil to something else. When it is very near to us
and affects those we know, we say that it is very good action if it affects
them in a good manner. For instance, you may call my speaking to you very good,
but the microbes will not; the microbes you do not see, but yourselves you do
see. The way in which my talk affects you is obvious to you, but how it affects
the microbes is not so obvious. And so, if we analyze our evil actions also, we
may find that some good possibly results from them somewhere. He who in good action sees that
there is something evil in it, and in the midst of evil sees that there is
something good in it somewhere, has known the secret of work.
ATTENDEES: Nandini, Priti, Bhama
© Nandini Mitra Banerjee Aug 27, 2018
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