Daily Readings
Be Free in Action
Spiritual Message for the Day – Be Free in Action by Sri Swami Sivananda
Baba Times Digest© | 7 September 2014 19.11 EST | New York Edition
Be Free in Action
Divine Life Society Publication: Secret of Karma Yoga by Sri Swami Sivananda
Every thought and every deed of yours will generate certain tendencies which will affect your life here and hereafter. If you do good actions with a selfless spirit, you will soar high into the regions of bliss and peace. As you sow so shall you reap.
Good actions generate good thoughts. Wrong actions bring pain, misery and unhappiness. Everyone of us is governed by the law of action and reaction. Your present personality is the total result of your previous actions and thoughts. Your future depends upon your present action. Man moulds his own destiny.
Actions by themselves do not bind a person. It is the attachment and identification in regard to the work that binds us and brings pain and misery. It is the motive that binds you. It is the motive that liberates you.
Work, but work with detachment. In every act kindle the light of divine love. Always remember your essential divine nature and act in the world in a spirit of divine dedication. This world is ruled by the Lord's eternal laws. In the east, the great law of cause and effect is called karma. In the New Testament the same truth is expressed in the words: "Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap".
Actions produce samskara (mental impressions) that coalesce and form tendencies. Tendencies develop into habits and character. Evil deeds generate bad character.
Actions, without the idea of agency, without expectation of fruits, without attachment to the action, and being balanced in success and failure, will not bind you. Selfless actions purify your heart and lead to the attainment of wisdom of the self.
Karma Yoga is skill in action. It is a great art. You have to take as much interest in each act that you perform daily, as an artist takes in his dearly loved paintings. Note how, after keen deliberation, the artist puts the brush. His entire mind is centred on the work in hand; his entire being is focussed on the painting he works, forgetting his very own self. This should be your attitude. Take this interest in all that you do and at the same time be detached from all your actions. Then you will not be bound to samsara (the wheel of birth and death).
Excerpts from: Be Free in Action - Secret of Karma Yoga by Sri Swami Sivananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit: The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore
If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at: generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org
SEND FEED BACK ON THIS ARTICLE \\ Email to BT Digest Editor( dlsusa.org@gmail.com)
If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit: The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore
If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at: generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org
SEND FEED BACK ON THIS ARTICLE \* Email to BT Digest Editor* ****( dlsusa.org@gmail.com)**