Work Without Desire —
Do Your Best & Give it to God

17. Work Without Desire —
Do Your Best & Give it to God

The saints stress nonattachment so that one strong point of material attachment may not prevent our attaining the entire kingdom of God. Renunciation doesn't mean giving up everything; it means:

giving up small pleasures
for eternal bliss.

You must learn to work without desire,
and to live in this world without attachment.

As soon as you are caught by desires or attachment, you will have all the evil that is coming to you. ... Those who want to be liberated must do likewise, engaging in serviceful, joyful, nonattached activity. Most people willingly work hard for money, but they won't make even a little effort for their salvation. We must work for God. (dr)

Unfulfilled desires are the root cause of reincarnation. You don't have to be a king in order to have complete fulfillment. Nor do you end desires by giving up everything and becoming a poor man. You have your own self-created destiny with its lessons to be learned, and you must play well that part for which you were sent here. If everybody on the stage wants to be a king or queen, there will be no play. An actor with even a minor part can ruin the entire production by a poor performance. Every role is important; everyone should interact harmoniously for the success of the play. The Lord has been trying to make a good drama out of His creation, but I am afraid that most actors have bungled it. (jt)

Desire is what holds you in mortal bondage. If you want a big home on a hill with a view, a nice income, a good marriage and family, you may wear yourself out striving to get these things, then perhaps your spouse leaves you for somebody else, or you get sick, or your business fails—that is the nature of human happiness. (jt)

Do your best,
and
give it to God.

Expectation of recompense for doing good is meanness, is littleness. Give and forget. (jt)

Resurrect yourself from the littleness of life,
the little things that disturb you.

"He who is conscious of the omnipresence of God
does not injure the Self by the self.
That man reaches the Supreme Goal."
[ XIII:27-30]

He is a liberated man who sees only the Lord in all creatures and in all creation. ["Whatever you do to others you do it to yourself."]

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