Question

obsevations of The Secret of work by Swami Vivekanand

Answer 1

Answer: Swami Vivekananda, the most well-known of disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, is well know for his extensive exposition of the four types of Yoga – Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Raja Yoga. The lecture titled “The Secret of Work” belongs to his extensive commentaries on the Yoga of Action (Karma Yoga). This blog post serves as the first in a series of posts that will explore this Vivekananda lecture.

1. Explanation: Helping others physically, by removing their physical needs, is indeed great; but the help is greater according as the need is greater and according as the help is far-reaching. If a man’s wants can be removed for an hour, it is helping him indeed; if his wants can be removed for a year, it is more helpful; but if his wants can be removed forever, it is surely the greatest help that can be given him. Spiritual knowledge is the only thing that can destroy our miseries forever; any other knowledge satisfies wants only for a time. It is only with the knowledge of the spirit that the faculties of want are annihilated forever; so, helping man spiritually is the highest help that can be given.
2.   …the real life of man consists of knowledge. Ignorance is death, knowledge is life. Life is of very little value, if it is a life in the dark, groping through ignorance and misery. …The misery that I feel when I am hungry is satisfied by eating, but hunger returns; my misery can cease only when I am satisfied beyond all want. So, that help which tends to make us strong spiritually is the highest, next to it comes intellectual help, and after that, physical help.
3. Until man’s nature changes, these physical needs will always arise, and miseries will always arise. The only solution of this problem is to make mankind pure. Ignorance is the mother of all the evil and all the misery we see. Let men have light, let them be pure and spiritually strong and educated. Then alone will misery cease in the world, not before. We may convert every house in the country into a charity, we may fill the land with hospitals – but the misery of man will continue to exist until man’s character changes.