Worldly Excellence is No Less Acceptable to
God than Spiritual Excellence
Divine Life
Society Publication: The Call of Sri Krishna: The Gospel of
Super Excellence by Swami Krishnananda
(Talk given
by Swami Krishnanada on Janmashtami, Sri Krishna’s Birthday)
One
important lesson of our scriptures which we have overlooked is their call to a
life of glory. There are many passages in the Vedas in which the Rishi prays
for greatness. "O Lord, make me lustrous." "May I be the most
glorious." "May the sun and the moon and the earth and the sea, and
the sky and the heaven made by Thee, be always favourable to us for achieving
greatness."
The
Bhagavadgita has a whole chapter – Vibhuti Yoga – in which Sri Krishna exalts
the best or most outstanding specimen in each class of beings by identifying
himself with it. For example, he says: "Among immovables I am the
Himalaya; among rivers, the Ganga; among trees, the holy fig; among cows, the
divine cow of plenty; among sages, Vyasa; among heavenly songsters, Chitraratha;
among generals, Skanda; among rulers, Yama; among celestial sages, Narada;
among warriors, Rama; among men, the King. I am the glory of the glorious, the
victory of the victorious, the goodness of the good-natured. I am life in all
beings and austerity in ascetics."
In
this way Sri Krishna has commended the celebrities in all walks of life but not
the mediocre of routine workers. This is the Gospel of super excellence – a
clarion call to all aspirants to acquire greatness and glory by their golden
deeds. As if to leave no room for doubt, the same previous lesson was taught by
Sri Krishna, while showing his cosmic form to Arjuna: "Therefore, stand
up! Win for thyself renown! Conquer thy foes! Enjoy the wealth-filled
realm!"
Modern
thinkers have made a strong plea for the cultivation of super excellence. Thus
Emerson wrote: "If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon,
or make a better mousetrap than his neighbour, though he builds his house in
the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door."
Similarly
Swett Marden said: "There is a fitness in doing a thing superlatively
well, because we seem to be made for expressing excellence."
In
his book, Excellence, J.W. Gardner, President of the Carnegie
Foundation, writes: "Excellence implies more than competence. It implies a
striving for the highest standards in every phase of life."
Seva
Dharma requires hard work, but mixed with brains. All work must be done
efficiently. According to the Gita, efficiency in work is one of the
definitions of Yoga (II/50) and the devotee who is dear to Sri Krishna is
daksha or dexterous in whatever he does (XII/16).
Efficiency has two sides – spiritual and temporal. The essence of spiritual
efficiency is selflessness or other centredness, to do the work as an offering
to God or for the good of fellow beings, keeping the eye on the interests of
those whom the work is intended to serve rather than one's own. Strikes,
demonstration, go-slow and work-to-rule campaigns and the clamour for more pay
for less work are as anti-social and unspiritual as the practice of getting
richer and richer by exploiting employees or customers.
The performance must also be satisfactory in the
worldly sense.
First and foremost, it must be of good quality, neat and clean, free from
errors and blemishes. Secondly, speed must be added to accuracy. The work must
be completed in time. Usually a good worker is also a fast worker and slowness
is a sure sign of incompetence. Nothing big can be achieved without promptness.
Another
important factor in efficiency is economy in labour, money and material.
A capable person can work for long hours without feeling fatigued. He uses his
time and energy, in fact all resources, to the best advantage. He never
attempts things which his assistants can do for him. He multiplies his powers
by winning the cooperation of others.
Finally,
the highest ingredient of efficiency is inventiveness and originality.
The really efficient man is not simply a routine worker, doing things as they
were done in the past. Rather he breaks new ground, makes new, better and
cheaper things, simplifies procedures and makes improvements everywhere. He
leaves his organisation better than he found it.
But
the Lord of Infinite Glory is not satisfied with ordinary skill; He expects
superbness from His devotees.
Very
noble are those who practise Karma Yoga and work efficiently for the general
good. By their efforts, they maintain the world order. Even more valuable are
the few who practise Vibhuti Yoga, serve as exemplars, heroes, leaders or
luminaries, and make significant contributions to the knowledge, wealth or
well-being of mankind.
The
development of talent, which has been so much stressed in the Vedas and the
Gita, is a basic principle of the doctrine of evolution. Man starts as a seed
with several kinds of powers hidden in him. They must be brought out and put to
good use. This is essential for the happiness and progress of the individual as
well as mankind.
"Each
soul is potentially divine," said Swami Vivekananda. "The goal is to
manifest this divine within by controlling nature, external and internal."
The possibilities for the development of talent are
almost unlimited.
Even the most learned, if they only feel humble and sincerely try, can gain
deeper insights and climb to greater heights of wisdom. Similarly, age is no
bar to the growth of talent. While physical development stops in middle age,
intellectual development can go on even in ripe old age. Two ways to keep the
mind alert and growing even in the evening of life are to apply it to tough
problems and to continue learning something new all the time.
Worldly excellence
is no less acceptable to God than spiritual excellence. Both are necessary for the
maintenance and advancement of the world. Both are in fact one, according to
the Vedanta. Advaita can be expressed in mechanics, in engineering, in
art, in letters as well as in philosophy and meditation. But it can never be
expressed in half measures. The true Advaitin is the master of the
world. He does not know a good deal of his chosen subject; he knows all there
is to be known. He does not perform his particular task fairly well: he does it
as well as it is possible to do it.... The highest achievements of the mind are
a Sadhana.... The man who has followed any kind of knowledge to its highest
point is a rishi."
Deep interest invigorates the mind, awakens its dormant powers and
is the key to super excellence, invention and discovery.
Hard work is another condition of superiority. The aspirant must master the
knowledge and technique pertaining to his particular job; in fact, he must be a
keen and lifelong learner, ready to pick up new ideas and new ways wherever he
can find them. He must cultivate the habits of thoroughness, accuracy and
reliability; he must take pains to check, revise and polish his work until it
acquires as perfect a finish as possible within the limits of time available.
Inspiration only comes as a result of hard study,
deep reflection and patient search for the solution. Scientific discoveries are
generally preceded by a large number of different experiments, trying first one
thing and then another. Edison, the wizard of inventions, made about ten
thousand tests with different chemical combinations before he found the right
one for his storage battery. Looking for a suitable material for the filament
of his incandescent lamp, he tried more than 6,000 samples of bamboo from every
corner of the earth before he found the one that made the Edison electric lamp
ready for commercial use.
Similarly,
good writing requires not only profound knowledge but also enormous labour in
writing, painstaking revision and rewriting. Carlyle took great pains over his
works and, before writing a page of his famous history books, he would consult
all the well-known books on the subject. Tolstoy rewrote his War and Peace
seven times. Adam Smith took ten years to write his Wealth of Nations,
while Gibbon spent twenty years over his masterpiece, Decline and Fall of
the Roman Empire.
The
story of the discovery of radium is a saga of patient toil in the midst of
appalling poverty. It took the Curies four years to isolate a very small
quantity of radium from tons of ore. All day and for months they worked
together in a damp, rotting shed which they called their lab. For much of this
time, Mrs. Curie had to stand stirring a boiling mixture in an enormous pot
with an iron rod which was as long as she was tall. The roof of the shed leaked
and they did not have enough money to get it fixed. When the rains came,
streams of water fell between these two workers and their work. Their labour
was indeed tapasya of a very high order.
Super excellence means constant improvement and
innovation,
thinking in straight lines instead of curves, introduction of simpler
procedures, time and labour-saving devices, better and cheaper goods, making
two blades of grass grow where one grew before. There is nothing in the world
which cannot be improved. The best is yet to be made – whether in books or
automobiles, radios or nylons, medicines or men.
The
ideal of all-round excellence is very difficult to attain. Only rare persons
can become versatile geniuses. But everyone can acquire mastery in some little
branch of knowledge or skill. Everyone can do at least some phase of his work
superlatively well by developing his strong point or specialising in the part
of his work in which he is most interested. And once this is done, superiority
in one part of his life will stimulate superiority in other parts. Whatever a
man's vocation, let him not be content to remain mediocre; let him lift himself
from the commonplace to the outstanding.
We should recapture the spirit of the Vedas and the
Bhagavadgita. We should exalt work. We should discover and encourage talent
wherever we can.
We must produce not only great saints, philosophers and yogis, but also top
class men in every walk of life. We need eminent scientists, selfless rulers,
farsighted statesmen, dedicated administrators, educationists, doctors,
lawyers, engineers, inventors, sportsmen, artists, explorers, writers,
industrialists, managers, seers, dreamers, as well as organisers and leaders. No
great man has done his duty until he has made at least ten persons worthy to
take his place.
"Arise!
Awake! Stop not till the goal is reached!"
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