Aimless voyage
Namaskar,
Setting up objectives is very important in human life. Consider two people going on a stroll without any intention to reach a specific place. Without a well-defined goal, they will not reach anywhere. One can do something meaningful only if there is a set goal. When the goal is not well defined, no work gets done as there is no inspiration. Without a set goal, the situation is just like a man sitting in a boat not knowing which destination to go. Such a man will just be drifted away by the currents. Without a set goal, very soon boredom and tiredness overpower a person. If the goal is set then the speed of movement will be better.
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Goal of sadhana & universal welfare key to happiness
A goalless human life is unhappy. One who thinks only about oneself ends up being unhappy. In contrast, one who constantly keeps thinking about others’ welfare by delivering physical, psychic, and spiritual service is never unhappy.
Materialists always think only about their own pains and pleasures. Spiritualists, on the other hand, keep thinking about others’ welfare. Thus, spiritualists do not suffer the pains and tribulations of life, which are very common phenomena in everyone’s life, in the same manner as materialists do. Even if pain and troubles are there, the spiritualists do not feel it or suffer from it. Therefore, in order to lead a happy and satisfactory life the simple trick to follow is to do sadhana and take it as one’s duty to work for the welfare of the masses.
Universal welfare by one’s own sadhana & service
One can bring about universal welfare by rendering physical, psychic, and spiritual service to people. There are four kinds of service that one can render for the welfare of other people, namely, shúdrocita, kśatriyocita, vaeshyocita, and viprocita.
https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/
Baba says, “You know sevá, that is, service. Service is of four kinds: Shúdrocita sevá is serving with your physical body, rendering physical service, rendering medical service. Service rendered by a shúdra is shúdrocita service. Then kśatriyocita [martial service] is security service, helping the weak. Then vaeshyocita sevá [economic service] is relief work, feeding the poor, helping the needy. Then viprocita sevá is preaching morality, teaching, preaching the ideology, doing dharma pracára [spiritual propagation]. They are all viprocita sevá.” (1)
Viprocita service: writing on spiritual subjects
Writing on spiritual subject matter is viprocita seva. All four types of services are necessary but viprocita service provides permanent relief to people. For a writer of dha’rmic postings, the goal should be well defined. For example, writing at least one posting every week. If one thinks that “whenever I feel like it I’ll write” then no writing ends up happening. If a person is a writer and thinks that he will write twelve writeups in a year then it is not enough. After all, life is short and the energy depletes with aging. With only twelve writeups in a year, one’s overall contribution will be minuscule and life will be wasted. Thus, one should increase one’s speed. The goal has to be defined properly, and also a proper goal has to be defined. One should also audit one’s progress from time to time to ascertain if the movement is in the defined goal direction and apply course corrections as needed.
Conclusion
Setting up goals in human life is very important. A life devoid of the proper goal is unhappy. The proper goal of a human life is sadhana & universal welfare; the latter can be rendered in four different ways namely shúdrocita sevá, kśatriyocita sevá, vaeshyocita sevá, and viprocita sevá. All types of services are important, but viprocita sevá provides permanent relief. Writing postings on spiritual subjects falls under the category of viprocita sevá, and one should set a well-defined goal to write postings and audit one’s progress from time to time.
https://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/
In Him,
Bhakti
Note: Without sadhana, service is impossible.
References
(1) Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 30, The Four Kinds of Service
== Section 2: Links ==
Shravanii Purnima - Sun, 22 Aug 2021
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