Glurgg.. and Karma Yoga Golden Rules
I am only taking two courses this quarter, and yet my nose is under the water! I do come up for air in the weekends, in a lovely and diverse Bahai' Study Group followed by a Karma Yoga Study Group, without which life would be colorless and uninspiring.
Other than that, I am deeply buried under a mountain of work that only seems to be piling up higher. I am appreciating the regimentation at Intel on living by the calendar - it's mighty useful right now.
Our Karma Yoga sessions are deeply thought provoking and what I find fascinating is the philosophy is based on common sense and not God. I am finding some awesome golden rules that are good tests of how we do our work.
Here's one: we may be stressed out during our work, running all over the place, trying to achieve our goals. How do we know that we are internally connected?
Do we still have our sense of humor when something goes wrong?
If we are unable to laugh and move on and are bogged down by "I/He/She screwed up" issues, something is seriously wrong about the way we work.
Another great one: How do we know we are in love?
Are we in pain when the other does not act in accordance to our wishes?
Thats a great one- love is supposed to liberate and not tie one down.
"True love can never react so as to cause pain either to the lover or to the beloved.
Suppose a man loves a woman; he wishes to have her all to himself and feels extremely jealous about her every movement; he wants her to sit near him, to stand near him and to eat and move at his bidding. He is a slave to her and wishes to have her as his slave. That is not love; it is a kind of morbid affection of the slave, insinuating itself as love. It cannot be love, because it is painful; if she does not do what he wants, it brings him pain. With love there is no painful reaction; love only brings a reaction of bliss; if it does not, it is not love; it is mistaking something else for love. When you have succeeded in loving your husband, your wife, your children, the whole world, the universe in such a manner that there is no reaction of pain or jealousy, no selfish feeling, then you are in a fit state to be unattached."
-- From The Secret of Work by Swami Vivekananda
Other than that, I am deeply buried under a mountain of work that only seems to be piling up higher. I am appreciating the regimentation at Intel on living by the calendar - it's mighty useful right now.
Our Karma Yoga sessions are deeply thought provoking and what I find fascinating is the philosophy is based on common sense and not God. I am finding some awesome golden rules that are good tests of how we do our work.
Here's one: we may be stressed out during our work, running all over the place, trying to achieve our goals. How do we know that we are internally connected?
Do we still have our sense of humor when something goes wrong?
If we are unable to laugh and move on and are bogged down by "I/He/She screwed up" issues, something is seriously wrong about the way we work.
Another great one: How do we know we are in love?
Are we in pain when the other does not act in accordance to our wishes?
Thats a great one- love is supposed to liberate and not tie one down.
"True love can never react so as to cause pain either to the lover or to the beloved.
Suppose a man loves a woman; he wishes to have her all to himself and feels extremely jealous about her every movement; he wants her to sit near him, to stand near him and to eat and move at his bidding. He is a slave to her and wishes to have her as his slave. That is not love; it is a kind of morbid affection of the slave, insinuating itself as love. It cannot be love, because it is painful; if she does not do what he wants, it brings him pain. With love there is no painful reaction; love only brings a reaction of bliss; if it does not, it is not love; it is mistaking something else for love. When you have succeeded in loving your husband, your wife, your children, the whole world, the universe in such a manner that there is no reaction of pain or jealousy, no selfish feeling, then you are in a fit state to be unattached."
-- From The Secret of Work by Swami Vivekananda
# posted by somik @ 8:53 AM 
2 Comments:
Hi Somik, good post! My reactions are listed below.
Q1: Do we still have our sense of humor when something goes wrong?
My answer: Oh yes! I do! I'm the first one laughing when I slip or fall down! In fact, recently in a client meeting I fell down. No one laughed ...but me that is!(I guess they were trying to be "polite" but I sincerely wish they would have laughed! I would have thought them to be human!) I felt so left out!
Q2: How do we know we are in love?
My answer: I don't. I'm still looking for the answer. Most of the time I realise that it was love after it's all blown over! Yeah, in that sense it is kind of inconvienient! :)
Q3: Are we in pain when the other does not act in accordance to our wishes?
My answer: This is a very pertinent question. See, people are people. They will have wishes and opinions that will not always neatly coincide with ours. I agree that love should liberate rather than tie people down. So, my reaction (I can't talk about anybody else, can I?) is to just let them be. I hate conflicts and confrontations so maybe it has something to do with me being me. But sometimes, I try talking to them so that they can atleast see what I'm trying to say. (This does not work with my family, btw!)I think - be it friends, family, special someone- you should just agree to disagree. It's a healthier way to deal with things. It leaves room for future disagreements too. :)
PS: Sorry, for the long comment. I couldn't help reacting to these questions!
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