To be or not to be

It was a Sunday, many devotees had gathered at the Ashram to help with the work of filling Kumkum (sacred vermilion powder) packets which would be given as prasad to those who attended the Navaratri celebrations the following week. Small groups of devotees sat together, all of them joyously singing bhajans as they worked. As the task was completed and everything was being cleared away, Shri Nimishananda Guruji entered the Darshan Hall. He blessed all the devotees and asked them to be seated. Smiling gently at them, Shri Nimishananda Guruji said, “Even on a Sunday all of you have been put to hard work.”

Sarla said, “Pujya Guruji, if we do this at home it will seem like work. But when we do it in the Ashram it is sheer joy.”

Shri Nimishananda Guruji laughed and said, “That’s what happens when you do the Divine Mother’s work. Since your body, mind and soul are involved totally in what you are doing and all of you are filled with devotion for the Mother, you don’t feel the pressure of the work. As you are getting so much happiness from the task you are doing, you are contented. So you have no other expectations from this work and you are not worried about the results. This is what we call Nishkama Karma. All of you have directly experienced this from many months. When you continue to perform all your work like this every day, no Karma is generated.”

Rajamma, an elderly devotee who often brought delicious snacks to the Ashram and showered her motherly love upon Pujya Guruji whenever she got an opportunity, was seated among the devotees. She shared a warm and special bond with Pujya Guruji. Now she looked at Him and asked, “Pujya Guruji, is that what the scriptures mean when they say “Be in this world but not of this world” ?”

Shri Nimishananda Guruji said, “Exactly. When you perform all your duties feeling that it is Mother’s work and that Mother is doing it through you, the feeling of doership drops away. This is how all the sages lived in the ancient days. Most of them were married men with domestic responsibilities. They were living examples of how to combine domestic life with spiritual sadhana. Their state of enlightenment was perceptible in every aspect of their lives.”

This article has been taken from the book Wisdom Through the Eyes of Nimishananda by His Holiness Shri Shri Nimishananda Guruji