Work In Devotion – In Gita Verse 3.28 One who is in knowledge of the Absolute Truth, O mighty-armed, does not engage himself in the senses and sense gratification, knowing well the differences between work in devotion and work for fruitive results.
Krishna explains to Arjuna that there are two categories of people, one who is self-unconscious and another is self-conscious.
What is the difference – a self-unconscious person thinks that he is the centre and everything moves around him. The other category of people who are self-conscious, self-realise they know that the Universe is centre and I am moving around it, I am on the periphery, as I have body.
Remember in Bhagavad Gita Verse 3.22, I wrote even when Krishna takes form, body he also acts as per what Universe has given him assignment. He drops all his desire and judgement, he will act in devotion for the universe. For him also the Universe is centre and he is moving around it, on the periphery.
What does devotion mean?
Devotion means that you are beginning to experience the divine in matter, that you are beginning to perceive the unmanifest in the manifest, that the formless has begun to be glimpsed shimmering in form.
Devotion means that whatever is visible to you, a shadow of the invisible has also begun to appear within it. If you stop at what is visible, devotion will never be born in you. You must listen for the sound of the invisible approaching, you must hear the footsteps of that which cannot be heard. Your senses have to become ecstatic, they have to be thrilled with the joy of that which is beyond all your senses. You begin to perceive the invisible through some hitherto unfamiliar medium – and the name of this medium is devotion. That which cannot be seen directly, which cannot be perceived by the eyes, that too can be seen. The invisible can become visible. The miracle of making the invisible visible is called devotion. Devotion is a kind of alchemy, a kind of science.
Perhaps you have never even thought about what happens when you fall in love. When you fall in love, do you see only the bones, the flesh and the marrow of your lover? If that is all you see, then one day you might just as well fall in love with a corpse. No, you have had a glimpse of something else too. Your eyes have begun to enter deep within that person; the inner image of that person has begun to surface. This is what it means whenever you fall in love – whether you understand it or not. The divine has called you from some window.
So the first glimpse of the divine always comes through your lover. And one who has never loved can never know devotion, because devotion is love in full flood. Love is like a light shower of rain, devotion is a flood – but the basic natures of both love and devotion are the same. Love has limits, devotion has no limits. Love ends: it is here today, maybe not tomorrow; it comes for a moment and is then lost. It is ephemeral. The world is like the last morning star. Once devotion comes, it stays. Then there is no way to get out of it. Once you have entered it, you have entered it forever. It is not possible to turn back. In love it is possible to turn back, because love is always a little hazy, a little superficial. Devotion goes very deep.
So you must understand devotion through love. Love is the first lesson in devotion. You are a husband: you love your wife. You are a father: you love your son. You are a wife: you love your husband, you love your friends. Wheresoever there is love, use it to search further.
Krishna tells Arjuna unless right now you realise your self-love, your action cannot come from self-consciousness, from devotion towards the universe. Your act will be for the fruits but not as the Universe in the centre and you are in the periphery, moving. Your role changes every moment and according to your present moment’s role act from your self-realisation, devotion.
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