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Worksheet 8

 

Work As God Works

 

Self-Inquiry & Self-Reflection:

(a) Mark the three teachings that are the most interesting and

noteworthy to you at this point.

(b) Ponder: Why are these teachings coming to me now? Note the

responses that come to you.

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In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna says:

 

“Listen to these very important points about enlightened work…

 

___ 1) Do your worldly duty, but without any attachment to it or any desire for its fruits.

 

___ 2) Keep your mind always on the Divine – your Atma, your Divinity within.  Make it as automatic as your breathing.

 

___ 3) Do your worldly work without attachment and for the best interests of all.

 

___ 4) Enlightened people, who know Atma, the Self within, are the best servants of society. The ignorant (defined as unaware of Atma) cannot lead society.

 

___ 5) Eminent people must put forth their best virtues in the public interest—then, ordinary people will try to rise to that level. Whatever a great man or woman does, others also do.

 

___ 6) Consider Me: as the Divine, there is nothing I do not have and nothing for Me to gain in this or the other worlds, yet I continue doing. If I were to stop, people would follow My example, causing cosmic chaos and the destruction of humanity.

 

___ 7) Ignorant (unaware) people work only for their own benefit, toiling as though tightly harnessed to karma.

 

___ 8) Enlightened people work for the benefit of the world, ever helping humanity toward a truth-based life of dharma.

 

___ 9) Do not bewilder the ignorant ones who are hungry for selfish action. Let them continue to work but show them by example that work can be made sacred when done in the right spirit with one’s heart fixed on Divinity.

 

___10) The unaware person who identifies with the body, erroneously thinks, ‘I am the doer.’ This is egoism. The ‘I’ performs no actions at all!

 

___11) All actions are performed by worldly nature, not by Atma (the ‘I’). Atma is beyond all action, all karma.

 

___12) Senses are a part of nature. When your senses attach themselves to objects and attractions in the world, it is merely nature attaching to nature, not your ‘I’ (Atma) acting. It is only the ego ‘I’ doing this or that.

 

___13) Be an Enlightened one, just stand apart and watch the play of nature.

 

___14) There is no harm in some people performing their duties with a desire for the fruits of it. Work with attachment has its place in humanity’s evolution.

 

___15) Do not refrain from action – as that will confuse the minds of the unaware people who are entangled in karma.”

 

– Krishna

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Copyright 2006 Jack Hawley,  All Rights Reserved       (Enhanced Web Version 2017)