Friday, April 6, 2007

there is a bit more to just "work is worship"!

I am responding to the post below, written by my friend rambabu. Instead of putting a comment I thought of expressing my opinion by way of a small post. There are many many people that I have come across in life, both men, and women, who steadfastly believe in this age old saying “work is worship”. To some extent I also regard my work as worship.

However I have seen that some people are too rigid in following this principle of work is worship, that they don’t see anything beyond their work. And since they feel that their work is the ultimate worship, they slowly turn into atheists.
After carrying out some practical observations, I have seen a few men in the family as well as amongst people known to me. Till retirement age, work is worship for them. And one fine morning, work stops. Their only anchor in life, which was their work, is no more. They had never visited a temple, participated in a satsang, or bowed their head before a saint. These people are severely affected as soon as their work stops, and they are on a shaky ground. The first thing that grips them is the fear of death. And once this fear begins to live with them, their health is affected rapidly, the confidence levels going down pretty quick. At this juncture it is meaningless to advice such people to turn towards meditation, or prayers, or any other form of worship, as they have never known any other form of worship for all their lives.

Contrary to this, there is another category of people – the women folk!! Most women don’t stop working at the age of 58 or 60. so you will always find them more stable even at the age of 65 or 70 than their male counterparts. The reason is simple. For their entire lives they have carried out the daily pooja in their homes, as well as taken care of their responsibilities towards their homes. and secondly, since they dont really "retire", they dont have to relate to a condition of what to do for the whole day.

I do not know if the readers will agree with this, there are exceptions of course, but look around in and around your homes, friends, relatives, and you might agree to the same. To conclude, I would ask all men to engage in some form of spiritual worship in addition to their work, which of course is worship!! stability of mind is most needed at a later age i guess...

6 comments:

Aditi said...

yes sir, here i do agree with you, i'm myself like a workaholic and in very few case take out time for other activities... may be i learn something from it, not going to spiritual practice, temple etc. but now i'll try to learn how to sleep whole day without work (he he he), this is what i'll have to do when i'm above 60

Aditi said...

but i disagreed with your views on Indian cricket and i replied it on my post. do visit it again and comment.. bye

J.KANNAN said...

Let me begin my comment like this:-
Some people to full extend consider “Work is Worship”
Some people to some extend consider “Work is Worship”
And yet
Some people to some extend consider Work is” WORKSHOP”
The last category of people has their on reasons and it’s not apt for me to consider here for discussion
For those who find this comment rational a big applause to all of them?
And for those who have any apprehension may bring out and express for clarification.

As you work, during the course of your life, you see and observe many things provided you interact with human beings (be it children, youth, middle agers, old agers irrespective of their gender). There is hardly any work which does not have the scope to involve human interaction.

Working and turning into atheist has nothing to do according to me as work is not a belief to become an atheist and its real and to become an atheist is a belief one is making it to work as per his likes and this is also not voluntarily done as I have seen many quit in the mid-way as good sense prevailed in them having belief in God.

There are exceptions always, and as expressed by Anand Bai under the category of”Work is Worship” in totality. As a matter of fact the work never stops- It is the man who STOPS TO WORK... If works stops one fine morning for many, can we just imagine what would be the results and outcome?

All of us should be aware that one a day we have to retire from work and for those with their own business have to hand over the mantle to the successors and so on and those who think that’s the end of their work life-had it, and for them at this stage onwards WORK BECOMES WORKSHOP mentally as they are forcibly driven to think so. As thoughts and attitude in a changed way creeps in mind. That’s natures game and to avoid from this game one has to plan your days,weeks,months,years and decades well in advance and stage by stage so that at all times of your age “work is still worship & not a work-shop.”
As a matter of fact I have found more working people visit temple B4 going for the work, and this I have noticed for decades in Kerala, Tamilnadu,Karanataka,Delhi, Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh etc wherein I have traveled and stayed for considerable period. See for example in Mumbai, Mahalakshmi & Prabhadevi Vinayak Temple, you will find people on their way back home, worship at these temples in larger numbers. There are similar temples all over the places I had visited and people do visit and pray either B4going to office or on their way back

Now lots of people do attend satang, discourses, bhajans etc during week ends wherein you find people of 60+ in majority along with youngsters, and to add to the convenience, Most of the TV Channels in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam etc are transmitting such programme to be viewed from home.

In life work never stops unless one has firmly determined not to work and move about aimlessly or sleep unnecessarily. For retired ones, have more responsible work, taking care of their children’s investments, their interests, interest of their grand children, taking care of the needs of their DIL’s and SIL’s etc. etc. apart from enjoying the work of being with their grand children. Take care of the garden, pathway in the home/flat etc. Is it all not work.?Don’t think work is only when you get monetarily paid. By doing this type of work after you retire, you get paid in happiness and contentment.

The % percentage as referred by Anand Bai is very megre and we need not be concerned about it as it is their way of living!

Now at last coming to womenfolk as long as they spend their lives as house wives, they can even work briskly even at +70. For working women its just impossible for various physical and mental reasons and one has to accept this fact with a justified mind.

And as far as the stability of the mind is concerned, it is required at all stages at equal level till old age state, unlike Strength of mind which may vary from time to time and age to age due to various factors.

JK

Aditi said...

hello sir, did u start earning from your adsense, my average is not even 0.5$ per day...

J.KANNAN said...

Dear Aditi,
'Am yet to set it right and rightly in my blog whch is being done by my friend. Thereafter only I can seriously involve in it. My knowledge in computter is "ZERO".I apply trial and error method which at times works. In fact my blog lay out is OUT as I mishandled it. Now its being set right by my friend. Its not getting published as I write para wise and Sl No. wise.

JK

Praveen said...

yes ,I agree with you,,,,but for me work and prayer both are part of my life