Page 1 of 4 1234 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 31

Thread: Why should I work?

  1. #1

    Why should I work?

    Namaste all,
    I'm a B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) student. And I've been in depression for quite some time now. I started reading Bhagavad Gita one year back. But I'm still confused. I have been a good science student but now I don't feel like studying anything because men are doing nothing else than exploiting our continuously diminishing energy resources and is using it for something which doesn't lead to us a higher truth. They use it for creating new weapons, exploring outer space which cannot reduce the suffering of birth, disease, old age and death as mentioned in our holy Gita. Arjuna was encouraged to fight against adharma. But what about us who are encouraged to build more and more material things and do nothing for establishing dharma. I've thought a lot about it myself that whatever the result is, my duty is to do my job but that doesn't create any spark inside me to stand up and start studying. Studies are becoming a burden day by day.
    Please help me with some answers that could kindle a spark within me like arjuna to get back to the enthusiastic life which I once had at the beginning.
    Thank you.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    September 2006
    Age
    71
    Posts
    7,705
    Rep Power
    223

    Re: Why should I work?

    hari o
    ~~~~~~

    namasté


    What you have above all is choice. You get to choose. Perhaps a shift in attention to bio-medical where things are made to improve another's life ( bionic arms, legs, eyes, synthetic skin).



    Because you are human, God has given you power to think and decide what is good and bad. Therefore, you can do the best possible kind of action. You should never consider yourself weak or a fallen creature.
    Whatever may have happened up till now may be because you didn’t know, but now be careful... after getting a human body, if you don’t reach God, then you have sold a diamond at the price of spinach.
    Svāmī brahmānanda sarasvatī was Śaṅkarācārya of Jyotirmath from 1941-1953.

    praṇām




    यतसà¥à¤¤à¥à¤µà¤‚ शिवसमोऽसि
    yatastvaṠśivasamo'si
    because you are identical with śiva

    _

  3. #3
    Join Date
    January 2007
    Location
    duhkhalayam asasvatam
    Posts
    1,450
    Rep Power
    92

    Re: Why should I work?

    Pranam

    My advise to you would be to stay focus, finish your education, it is very important in this rat race. you may choose what your conscious tell you.
    Gita says Gahana karmana gati, you can not remain inactive, do your duty that is what Gita teaches us.

    It is good you are worried about the state of the world

    Jai Shree Krishan
    Rig Veda list only 33 devas, they are all propitiated, worthy off our worship, all other names of gods are derivative from this 33 originals,
    Bhagvat Gita; Shree Krishna says Chapter 3.11 devan bhavayatanena te deva bhavayantu vah parasparam bhavayantah sreyah param avapsyatha Chapter 17.4 yajante sattvika devan yaksa-raksamsi rajasah pretan bhuta-ganams canye yajante tamasa janah
    The world disappears in him. He is the peaceful, the good, the one without a second.

  4. #4
    Jainarayan's Avatar
    Jainarayan is offline ॠनमो भगवते वासà¥à¤¦à¥‡à¤µà¤¾à ¤¯
    Join Date
    June 2011
    Location
    NJ, USA
    Age
    66
    Posts
    1,674
    Rep Power
    1694

    Re: Why should I work?

    Namaste.

    Quote Originally Posted by yajvan View Post
    hari o
    ~~~~~~

    namasté

    What you have above all is choice. You get to choose. Perhaps a shift in attention to bio-medical where things are made to improve another's life ( bionic arms, legs, eyes, synthetic skin).
    I could not agree with this more. Those are wonderful suggestions. There is little better or more satisfying, in my view, than doing something to better others' lives, be those lives human or animal.

    If I could do it all over again I might become a police officer ("To Protect and Serve); or a veterinarian; or some other profession like those.

    I almost envy the o.p. for the choices he has ahead of him. If I only knew then what I know now!
    śivasya hridayam viṣṇur viṣṇoscha hridayam śivaḥ

  5. #5

    Re: Why should I work?

    Namasté cybernetics

    Pleased to meet you, and I'm sorry to hear of your unease.

    Why did you chose your particular field? Has this been a dream for you from a young age; maybe it was an intellectual decision? Or your parents unfulfilled dreams?

    There is a right time for everything, and generally speaking things happen as they should, in order for us to learn. The order being the key word here. If we try to do things in the wrong order we may feel friction.

    Tell us a little more about your predicament, not the worlds predicament; your own. We can move on to the worlds predicament once we know more of where you are now. Above all don't worry, perfectly normal to be feeling this way, to my mind it is a good sign; a sign that you have compassion and a heart.

    praNAma

    mana

  6. #6
    Join Date
    September 2007
    Location
    Canada
    Age
    70
    Posts
    7,191
    Rep Power
    5038

    Re: Why should I work?

    Quote Originally Posted by cybernetics View Post
    Namaste all,
    I'm a B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) student. And I've been in depression for quite some time now. I started reading Bhagavad Gita one year back. But I'm still confused. I have been a good science student but now I don't feel like studying anything because men are doing nothing else than exploiting our continuously diminishing energy resources and is using it for something which doesn't lead to us a higher truth. They use it for creating new weapons, exploring outer space which cannot reduce the suffering of birth, disease, old age and death as mentioned in our holy Gita. Arjuna was encouraged to fight against adharma. But what about us who are encouraged to build more and more material things and do nothing for establishing dharma. I've thought a lot about it myself that whatever the result is, my duty is to do my job but that doesn't create any spark inside me to stand up and start studying. Studies are becoming a burden day by day.
    Please help me with some answers that could kindle a spark within me like arjuna to get back to the enthusiastic life which I once had at the beginning.
    Thank you.
    Vannakkam cybernetics: Others have given wonderful answers. I'll try to add a bit ... Your profession is by no means the only one that has the dilemma of how to use it within dharma. Criminal law, for example, in many countries, means defending someone to the best of your ability, EVEN if you know the person is guilty. So don't feel alone.

    I see two things here. One is that the technology doesn't have to be used either way. in the origin, gunpowder was only to create beautiful fireworks. So the inventor couldn't be held responsible for its later adharmic himsa use. You shouldn't feel responsible for someone else's decision. The second is just supporting what Yajvan had already said, except to say that there are loads of other dharmic uses within mechanical engineering, not just in biomedicine. What about a better water pump for poverty stricken areas. A better water filter? Uses in renewable energy like smaller more effficient solar panelling, or better wind or tidal turbines turbines. There are many areas that could use some improvement. Smart people like yourself are needed to invent and better stuff. Many of us don't have such unique gifts. best wishes.

    Aum Namasivaya

  7. #7

    Re: Why should I work?

    Thanks to all of you. I can't tell you how pleased I am after reading these wonderful answers and I think that I have come to the right place.
    But actually I thought myself about it a lot the very same night I posted the question. And I got relieved to much extent.
    I think, where we are headed is not in our hands it's just the result of our past deeds. If God has made us to suffer for all the years to come (as we all know this is Kali Yuga) then we should accept that as prasad and think it as an opportunity to purify ourselves.
    But the principles of Bhagavad Gita are eternal. So there is still no other way than to work under Krishna Consciousness. What we can do is earn money from this material world and without worrying much about ourselves utilize it for spreading Krishna Consciousness. But spreading Krishna Consciousness is misunderstood by most of us. They do charity but charity, as it is written in Bhagavad Gita, is a rather a punya karma which does not free us from this material cycle of life and death.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    December 2007
    Age
    63
    Posts
    3,218
    Rep Power
    4728

    Re: Why should I work?

    Quote Originally Posted by cybernetics View Post
    Namaste all,
    I'm a B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) student. And I've been in depression for quite some time now. I started reading Bhagavad Gita one year back. But I'm still confused. I have been a good science student but now I don't feel like studying anything because men are doing nothing else than exploiting our continuously diminishing energy resources and is using it for something which doesn't lead to us a higher truth. They use it for creating new weapons, exploring outer space which cannot reduce the suffering of birth, disease, old age and death as mentioned in our holy Gita. Arjuna was encouraged to fight against adharma. But what about us who are encouraged to build more and more material things and do nothing for establishing dharma. I've thought a lot about it myself that whatever the result is, my duty is to do my job but that doesn't create any spark inside me to stand up and start studying. Studies are becoming a burden day by day.
    Please help me with some answers that could kindle a spark within me like arjuna to get back to the enthusiastic life which I once had at the beginning.
    Thank you.
    The question is "Why should I work ?" & not why man is creating new weapons etc. Bhagwan Krishna says in Gita that "Involving in action is better than inaction. If you do not act, even the journey of this body (i.e. life) will not be possible. Therefore, you work".

    Now, when Bhagwan Krishna Himself advises us to work, we must follow His advice. OK ?

    OM
    "Om Namo Bhagvate Vaasudevaye"

  9. #9

    Re: Why should I work?

    Dear Friend,
    Three points define the answer to your question
    - Understanding that fact that we are an instrument only
    - Hence, doing nis-svartha[selfless] nish-kaama[without expectation of results] karma
    - Effects of not doing the duty


    now lets take a very simple imaginary story.....imagine there is a bus driver who drives a bus from one point in the city to the city airport, every day very very early in the morning....very early in the morning one or two passengers
    rarely board this bus as most of the people in the city own a car...
    on one Sunday very early morning, this driver, who thinks his daily routine is not exciting, starts to wonder that sky will not fall down in case he goes late on that day or in fact skip the first trip itself, because he sees no actuall motivation in that...
    please note that making the early morning trip is supposed to be his duty....

    now, on the very same day, a doctor in that city, whose car is broken, is waiting for this bus as he needs to catch the early morning flight to go to another city where he has to perform an important surgery to cure a very rich person, who is not only very rich but does a lot of charity without absolutely any publicity and no one knows that he was planning to donate a huge amount of money to the victims of an earthquake... and in order to do that he has to get operated and survive in the very first place...please note the end point of this chain is "completely dharma" as many who are in need are going to be helped by that rich man....

    so, coming back to our bus driver, he has decided not to do his duty, unaware of the effects or consequences...the doctor who does duty according to dharma is waiting for the bus, the rich man's possibility of doing his duty of dharma is depending on the doctor who is ready to do his duty but is waiting for the driver who has no motivation or spark
    to do his duty....

    so, a question arises now....if the bus driver will not drive, will the rich man die?...will those devastated in the earthquake not get any help?....well, this is where the first point comes into picture...
    "Understanding that fact that we are an instrument only"
    as Sri Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita, we are only nimmitha maatra.....instrument alone...every instrument is
    assigned a specific task...every instrument is provided with the capability to carry out the specific task...in case one instrument does not do its specific task, He creates another instrument for that task....incase
    the bus driver does not drive, He makes sure a taxi passes by the street where the doctor is waiting, thus making sure the doctor reaches the airport....the taxi driver becomes the alternative instrument....


    the point that the bus driver completely missed is the second one mentioned..."doing nis-svartha[selfless] nish-kaama[without expectation of results] karma"...the driver, thought "only" about himself and not about the
    passengers...the driver thought only about his lack of motivation, due to lack of attractive fruits of the work...


    that comes to the third point....the bus driver, by being selfish and by not doing his duty, only added the result of inaction to his account, for which he will have to suffer later....this is how one starts accumulating the karma phala..

    my dear friend, you say you are a mechanical engineering student, its quite possible that if you depend completely on His support and
    study hard,which is you duty as a student,
    you could get into a good automobile company and one day you could design a new car...and when this car is released into the market, it may provide employment for thousands of people who manufacture it, sell it, etc[all doing their dharma]...
    it may provide yet another vehicle for those road side mechanics who make their living by repairing and servicing cars, which is under dharma...so by doing you duty as an instrument, offering it to Him, you are already following dharma....

    as Sri Krishna says, doing the karma is only our adhikara....offer everything to Him, what other motivation do you need other than doing your duty for Paramathma....

  10. #10

    Smile Re: Why should I work?

    @everyone
    Actually I'm new to this forum so the positioning of my posts is quite haphazard as there is a lag between the time I write them and the time they are actually made available.. So, please bear with me. And I just saw that most of you people are around 3 times older than me. I feel myself privileged to have a discussion with so much experienced people.

    @SanathanaDharma
    Sir,
    Though by God's grace that dust of delusion is almost gone as I've said in my last comment but since these are very important matters I wont leave this thread..
    Your argument is acceptable and that story of a bus driver also seems acceptable.
    But, what I was saying is quite different. I'll try to make it clear with that same story of yours. Suppose that the bus driver is not reluctant for an extra trip in the morning but what he is really concerned about the wastage of fuel..i.e carrying only one or two people in a BUS is surely wastage of fuel. So, although he is very clear about his duty, that is to take people from one place to the other, but considering the wastage he refuses to take another trip.. will that again be wrong..
    So, same is with me. Actually what people are doing today is just for the material benefits. There is still no guarantee whether that person will be saved by the doctor coz ultimately it's in the hands of God.
    I think we are on a road to annihilation and our path has just begun. What we now need to do, as i said in my last post, is to spread dharma so that more and more people could be able to surrender and submit themselves to God. But, that surely doesn't mean to go to Himalayas for rest of the life. We don't have to perform our duty blindly but we have to do it in Krishna Consciousness and we have to do only that thing which is good for dharma...

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 3 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 3 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. Work / Making a living
    By quadrant6 in forum Introductions
    Replies: 10
    Last Post: 16 December 2009, 03:37 AM
  2. Shiva and Sati - A Question
    By srivijaya in forum Shaiva
    Replies: 25
    Last Post: 19 December 2008, 11:33 PM
  3. Tomorrow I will work
    By orlando in forum Announcements
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 26 September 2006, 11:34 AM

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •