Summary: Explains with repeated emphasis that the process of meditation can continue through all work and action and is not limited to merely the sitting. Reads from ‘The Prophet’ by Gibran and explains the section on Work.

Can work not be meditation? Or is sitting the only way to meditation? In fact the whole of your life and your activities can be meditation. Today there was an inquiry about the schedule of the day – ‘since meditation is not happening’. I think we have spoken enough already that work is the dynamic form of meditation if you apply yourself consciously. And how much meditation happens in the sittings anyway? So of course, if you make the work joyful to begin with and skilful, and most importantly as it has been mentioned throughout the ages – work is worship, therefore to make it so, a worship unto God, an offering unto God: then that is meditation. But usually, nay always, work is considered to be ‘labour’.

What we do in the sitting is to sit to meditate; what we do in our activities is to work to meditate. Meditation is the essential nature of your being. It is just because you have not arrived there, you do not know meditation. You may achieve certain spaces because of somebody’s presence, but that is not meditation – they are just spaces, experiences. Meditation is a state of harmony, whether you are in here sitting or you are out there working; whether you sit or you do.

And to sit and become enlightened and pass away, that is a passive and static realisation of the Reality. But there is also the dynamic side of the Reality; and each one enhances the other, and both together make for a complete and comprehensive meditation – which is the whole of your being. Sitting is only a means to arrive at meditation, so also all else that you do. It is how you do it that leads you to meditation. And to be able to sit, to use the means of sitting for meditation, takes quite some time. It is better to begin with work. It took many lifetimes for even the Buddha to be able to have long spells of sitting for meditation. To be present is meditation: to be present in the moment, in the movement of all activities, to be conscious, to apply yourself as skilfully and diligently as possible. Worship will come much later.

Attitude – application and attitude – this enhances your sitting. It brings a fulfilment. In fact, work is a very easy means to reach to meditation, to reach to a state of tranquillity. And when those tranquil moments happen, nourish them. In fact then you can sit easily. So sitting is not the only way to meditation. It is meant only for very advanced seekers to be able to sit for long enough time to get any benefit out of that sitting. So when the opportunity and the provision is there for activity then respond joyfully, skilfully. Through the skill and through the joy then reach to your being in meditation. You may say you lose yourself to the work and therefore you cannot be present. But when you sit also, you lose yourself to sleep or you lose yourself to thought! You always lose yourself until your consciousness awakens and you are present twenty-four hours. In the meanwhile apply – in whatever situation. When the opportunity for sitting is there, be there completely; and when the opportunity of meditation is there through work-action, apply yourself completely. Meditation can happen anywhere. So remember, remind yourself when you are in activity to be conscious, to be present. This is the mantra – to be present. Let it go on in your head: be present, be present. Usually there is not enough time left from the gossip and the chatter.

Of course to be effervescent and rejoicing is the very salt of life but meditation must be the goal and objective. So one can say, do not lose yourself to work but also do not let the work be lost because of your attitude and your poor application and your not giving it its true worth. What you do is the extension of your being, so how you do it is how you treat yourself – simple. If you do a good job, you have given credit to your being – and to none other! If you have done a job badly you have discredited yourself – and none other.

So we are repeatedly mentioning: the place of work too can be a place of meditation. It may not be just yet for you have to apply, just like when you sit in here you have to apply. Of course would it not be easy if it were all effortless, if it would just drop down from heaven: ‘Oh Lord, won’t you bless me?’ But even to be blessed you must apply yourself for that blessing.

Krishna tells Arjuna in the Gîtâ that even He works when he has no need to. In fact when you work, one’s limitations, one’s incapacities become so visible. Of course if one is only approaching nirvâṇa – the Buddhistic approach – then what matters? Although how much of nirvâṇa one can contain, that too is dependent on how much of a container you are. This dish (holds up a tiny metal dish) can contain water; this vessel (holds up a large mug) also contains water. Of course one may say, ‘It is the same water; it is the same nirvâṇa!’ But there is a difference. And you are the vessels. It is the vessel that evolves – water is water. And for the vessel to evolve it has to pass through the dynamics of life – manifestation. Do you want to remain a shallow dish? Up to you. Or do you want to be a deep and a vast vessel? That too is up to you. So is work a worship? Or is it painful labour to be avoided – so that you would not even want to think about it as meditation? So supposedly meditation is not happening…

(Giridharji starts reading from ‘The Prophet’ by Khalil Gibran): ‘Then a ploughman said, “Speak to us of Work.” And he answered, saying: “You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth. For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life’s procession that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the Infinite.” ’

Not as a retreat but as advancement – there is a difference. The nirvanic approach can be a retreat and therefore all these philosophies trying to explain away this manifestation either as an illusion and therefore unreal, only a dream dreamt through the glasses of ignorance and therefore unreal, or as suffering, so to escape into the nirvanic oblivion.

(Reading): ‘For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life’s procession that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the Infinite.’

The Infinite is not only in one direction: if you retreat you find the Infinite; if you advance you find the Infinite too! Maybe you should seek both, then you may be able to comprehend the Reality in its comprehensiveness.

(Reading): ‘When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison? Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune. But I say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth’s furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born. And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life, and to love life through labour is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret. But if you in your pain call birth an affliction and the support of the flesh a curse written upon your brow, then I answer that naught but the sweat of your brow shall wash away that which is written. You have been told also that life is darkness, and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary.’

Because when you are tired that conditions you and therefore the work that has made you tired is ‘no good’ – that is how you would speak. This would be your conclusion, your verdict. This is nothing but something which is ‘echoed by the weary’ out of their weariness. With many things: someone passes a judgement about something – that is his subjective experience, it is not the absolute truth. Somebody else may have a different view of it because his experience is different. It is relative. But because it is convenient or being in the same boat, same consciousness, it matches with your own, so you consider that to be the Reality.

(Reading): ‘And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge, and all urge is blind save when there is knowledge. And all knowledge is vain save when there is work.’

So all knowledge is vain if there is no work, if you do not apply it, if you do not live it, if you do not express it.

(Reading): ‘And all work is empty save when there is love; and when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God. And what is it to work with love?’

Even when you work, when you are working by yourself it is meditation. That work is a means, a tool to be present with yourself. It is a very intimate moment.

(Reading): ‘And what is it to work with love? It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth. It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.’

Even a house that you build, if you remember that it is meant for someone you love or whoever it may be, to do it out of love, to do it skilfully, to do it joyfully, just to see the sheer beauty of what you put out, is meditation. At least it is a break from the sitting, where you end up just nodding away your head after a while!

(Reading): ‘It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.’

Maybe we have not known how to love; that is why we cannot experience love in what we do. And what kind of enlightenment will it be without devotion, without love?

(Reading): ‘It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit,’

It is an extension of your being.

(Reading): ‘And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching.’

Watchfulness, to be present – and you fulfil the dream that is Life. The whole of existence is watching you. God is watching you. Are you aware? Then you are being conscious.

(Reading): ‘Often have I heard you say, as if speaking in sleep, “He who works in marble and finds the shape of his own soul in the stone is nobler than he who ploughs the soil.’’ ’

We differentiate, we discriminate because something is more pleasing to us than another. But it is how you go about anything, that is what matters. Because you are “to charge all things you fashion with the breath of your own spirit.’’ Extend yourself in whatever you do.

(Reading): ‘And he who seizes the rainbow to lay it on a cloth in the likeness of man, is more than he who makes the sandals for your feet.’

We discriminate. And yet it is one Spirit expressing Itself in so many ways.

(Reading): ‘But I say, not in sleep, but in the overwakefulness of noontide, that the wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass.’

Just as the wind speaks to the tallest tree and the smallest blade of grass in the same way… it is the same Spirit that lives through every act, every form of work, every being.

(Reading): ‘And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving. Work is love made visible.’

And that brings you to fulfilment and then to meditation.

(Reading): ‘And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take the alms of those who work with joy. For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger.’

It may feed the body but not the spirit. Ranaji’s family, when they used to send food for me, for them it was meditation. It gave them an opportunity to be of service. And so when they cooked for me it was different from when they cooked for their family. Because they were doing it for me they were more watchful, more present. They made sure. How? They did not do it as any other mundane activity. They took extra care. It was devotion for them, devotion in practice. There was full alertness. I did not tell them to do that. They did it on their own. Meditation can happen anywhere. You can take any moment, any opportunity, any situation and turn it into meditation – or a process reaching to meditation. But today what is the understanding? Do whatever you want to do, be however you want to be and then do a few techniques and presto – nirvâṇa! It is a shallow container – shallow, hardly any water it can contain.

(Reading): ‘And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine.’

And if you grudge what you do then it distils a poison. You can see how biased one can be. When one does things for oneself it is always treated specially; when the same thing is for someone else – who cares?

(Reading): ‘And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.’

Of course one can only begin from where one is, but that is why I say: application and attitude. Life is to be approached through application and attitude. That brings you to being conscious. You know there have been so many enlightened ones in the past who never sat and meditated like this. Raidas for example. He was a cobbler by profession, and his work was his meditation, and he arrived. With every movement he remembered God; he remembered, he made himself present – and he arrived.

It does not mean you should not have your sitting – of course you should. But when you are not sitting, doing something else, even that can be made into a meditation – this is what we are saying. So it is not that when sitting is not happening meditation is not happening. Meditation can happen anywhere, anytime. It is up to you. One can say yes, sitting is not happening – but you sit and eat anyway! When you eat, you sit – so ‘sitting’ is happening there… there you may be in the kitchen sitting and eating; here you may be sitting and sleeping! You have twenty-four hours in a day. It is up to you how you apply yourself to those twenty-four hours. Yes, I must admit that when you sit and apply yourself to meditation there is no other activity surrounding you on the outside, so in a way you eliminate distractions, disturbances – up to a point. But how do you eliminate the distractions and disturbances from within? Again there too you have to apply yourself.

So I just want to clarify once again what meditation is. Just because there has been a change in the form of activity, the process of meditation need not ever stop – it is up to you. Even while putting yourself out, working or doing, you can have a moment of ‘stop’. The opportunity is there. Think about it. How many times did you remember to do that? More often it would be: ‘Ah! When will we stop?’ (Laughing) ‘When do we stop this labour?’ This is what must have come to the mind because for you work is only labour and not yet meditation. Of course if you like your work like our Pb. here… you have to drag that fellow out of that room!

Pb.: You are telling everyone that work is also meditation. But to me you told me I can work as much as I like, but until I sit and meditate I will not go anywhere!

Because they prefer sitting for meditation than working for meditation; and you work because you cannot sit and you get lost in your work, then it is not meditation. How can you then be conscious in your work and about work? Do you remember to have moments of stop in between?

Pb.: It happens.

But do you also try to make it happen by applying yourself?

Pb.: It happens that I try. And it happens only when I try.

So it can happen at the gate while you are painting; it can happen in the toilet while you are cleaning; it can happen on the roof while you are sliding down…! It can happen in the kitchen when you are stirring the pot; it can happen when you are gossiping, but you get so animated in your gossiping you don’t remember much else. It can happen when you are decorating the flowers in the morning for the meditation room, sweeping the floor; it can happen when you are taking a shower or in the toilet. It can happen when you sneeze… ever thought of that, Mji?

(To B.): I had given you a mantra last time. Do you remember or have you forgotten already?

B.: I think therefore I am.

Yes. This is your situation now, situation of all. Really it should be: ‘I am therefore I think,’ and that is the correct situation to be in. You must practice and endeavour to be situated in ‘I am’ and therefore think and yet not be lost to a thinking situation which is how it is now. Having understood how it really should be but accepting your present condition, when the mind is working you would have to think like this, remember like this: ‘I think – therefore I am, I think – therefore I am, I think – therefore I am.’ So this way you come back to ‘I am’. But what happens is, you think, and you are thought! What you must say is, ‘I think – therefore I am, I think – therefore I am,’ and come to be situated in ‘I am’. Otherwise when you think you lose yourself to thought. So this mantra: keep doing it all the time to come back to ‘I am’, and try to be fixed there in meditation and from there observe thoughts if there are any.

B.: The last few days have not been very good for me. I was really struggling with myself, with my mind, my negativity – everything.

I think therefore I am – this is what you have to do.

Did you try out the rhythmic breathing?

B.: Not really. The only things that I enjoy doing are playing the sitar, cooking…

For meditation one has to apply oneself, otherwise it is like a yo-yo swinging from one thing to another. For one to arrive at meditation one has to work with oneself. Playing the sitar, enjoying it, you may become a good sitarist. Enjoying cooking, you may become a good cook – but meditation is a whole different ball game with a greater objective. Meditation is not just enjoyment in that sense; meditation takes you beyond that kind of transient enjoyment, because this enjoyment is still only the opposite of the unpleasant un-enjoyment. Meditation takes you beyond both, where there are no opposites, to the unconditional joyfulness and bliss of the Self and God, and yet you can live the opposites in harmony. Otherwise it is a swing from one to the other. And then you are just like a yo-yo – helpless. Also just as you enjoy certain things, you can also learn to enjoy things that you don’t presently, anything for that matter, through practice and application. Surely there must have been many a time when you may not have enjoyed the sitar playing, especially when you were still a beginner, because you could not manage to produce any music. There must have been many a moment of frustration besides giving headaches to others in the vicinity hearing your screeching, and therefore you had to apply and practice, there too for a long time before you could start enjoying it. And this would be so for cooking or anything else. Without application and practice you cannot arrive at any success, and success brings enjoyment. That is why meditation is a saviour; but to arrive at meditation you need to apply yourself. You have to work with yourself patiently. Therefore you have to be patient with yourself and with others, your surroundings and with life while you continue to help yourself. How? By working with yourself. That does not mean you cannot cook or you cannot play the sitar. What I am saying is to make them not just a means for relaxation and joy but also a worship and meditation as an offering unto the Divine: applying yourself again and again even if you begin with one moment, ultimately joining one moment with the next making a garland of devotion.

Arya Vihar

29 Aug 1999