Desire is the cause and work is its effect

[sridatta]

SERVICE TO GOD ALONE CAN BECOME SELFLESS

[Dr. Nikhil asked: In the Gita, the Lord told that He does the work to keep the people involved in work (Lokasangrahamevapi…) since people take a great man as an example (Yadyadacharati…). The same message should be taken by all so that work can be done without any selfish motive. Such work can be treated as the work done without its related desire. Given below is Shri Swami’s response.]

Creation and God Are Two Different Phases: The work will never exist without its related desire. Desire is the cause and work is its effect. There can be desire without work as in the case of impossibility to do a work. But, once work is seen, its concerned desire must exist. Gold is the cause and ornament is its effect. There can be raw lump of gold without ornament. But, there cannot be ornament without gold. Therefore, there cannot be work without its related desire. In the above example of doing the work for the sake of others, it is also based on the desire only. The Lord does the work with a desire to help His children, the human beings (Aham beejapradah pitaa… Gita). The Lord does not have any other desire.

Therefore, the Lord is confined to the worldly work (Pravrutti) only since Nivrutti (work of God) cannot exist in His case. God created this entire universe and the cause for such work of creation is said to be the desire for entertainment (Ekaki… Veda). Therefore, the work of this entire creation is also based on its related desire, which is the entertainment. The work done by a human being to make his children active cannot be claimed as the work done without selfish motive. The work done for the sake of him alone need not be treated as selfish. The work done for the sake of him can be treated as more concentrated selfishness and the work done for the sake of his children can be treated as the work done with lesser selfishness. Here, the difference between God and the human being can be recognized.

God need not do any work for the sake of Him since there is nothing that is not achieved by Him (Nanavaptam… Gita). But, in the case of the human being, it always needs something to be achieved. Due to this difference, the highest selfishness is absent in the case of God. Only the lesser selfishness exists and hence, the second type of work alone can be seen in His case. In the case of human being, only few human beings are its children.

Therefore, there is difference between his children and outsiders. When the human being does some work for the sake of outsiders, such work can be treated as the work with least selfishness. In the case of God, the least selfishness becomes absent since all the human beings are His children only. When the human being does some work for the sake of outsiders, such work cannot be treated as the work done without selfishness because the human being loves more its co-human beings than the other living beings. If the human being does some work for the sake of all living beings, even then, such work cannot be treated as the work without selfishness. The reason is that all the living beings are in one phase only, called as the creation.

The basic attachment existing in the common phase is the basic selfishness. The other phase is only the creator or God. Therefore, the work done for the sake of God alone is the work without any selfishness. Since God does not have another God, the only left over different phase for God is the creation. Therefore, the work done by God for the sake of a different phase, called creation, can be justified as the work without any selfishness. Therefore, the selfishness attributed to God on His work for the sake of His children gets nullified. In the case of a human being doing work for the sake of other human beings, such nullification is not possible since all the human beings are related in one phase only, which is called as the creation.

The Lord created this universe mainly for His entertainment. If the Lord does not guide the human beings existing in the creation in a proper direction, the human beings may get destroyed (Utsedeyurime… Gita) and this subsequently may destroy the basic aim of the entertainment. In the case of the human being, there is no such secondary basic reason, which is other than the blind selfishness. Even in the case of the service to outsiders, most of the people do such work only for fame. Politicians cash even such fame for the sake of getting victory in the elections. There may be some good people, who do the service for outsiders without such selfish benefit. Even for such people, heaven is announced as reward, which is a temporary fruit. The reason is that such work does not cross the boundary of the single phase, which is the creation.

If the service crosses the boundaries of the single phase and gets extended to the other phase, the God, the permanent fruit is awarded. You may say that such service is impossible, since, the other phase can never be served, which is the unimaginable God. The service exists only between two imaginable media. This objection is ruled out since the unimaginable God comes as God in imaginable medium, called as the contemporary human incarnation. The service done to contemporary human form alone can be received by God directly and also God can give the right knowledge resulting in the right direction.

The service done to inert statues and photos, which also exhibit the human forms only, is good for the beginners to develop the training to do service through sacrifice. The training does not give any fruit since the service is not received by God directly. The statues existing in human form indicate that you should catch the human form of God only. You should do the service for deserving only. The main criterion for the deservingness of service is that your service should be received by the receiver. When the service is not received by the receiver, the waste service done by you is based on the blind ignorant sacrifice only and it can be treated useful in the sense that it develops the attitude of sacrifice in general in the phase of initial training.

[Tcg]

[Replying to sridatta in post #1]

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