The Secret of Work by Swami Vivekananda Prose summary, Indian Writing in English, B.A English Literature 1st Year 2nd Semester, University of Madras

 BA English Literature

 [1^st Year, 2^nd Semester] 

Core Paper IV: INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH 

UNIT 2: Prose

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2.1“The Secret of Work” - Swami Vivekananda 

About Author:     

The original name of Swami Vivekananda is Narendranath Dutta (1863 - 1902). Narendra left Bombay for Chicago on 31 May 1893 with the name "Vivekananda", as suggested by Ajit Singh of Khetri, which means "the bliss of discerning wisdom".

Swami Vivekananda, the most well-known of disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, is well know for his extensive exposition of the four types of Yoga – Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Raja Yoga. The lecture titled “The Secret of Work” belongs to his extensive commentaries on the Yoga of Action (Karma Yoga).

He revived Hinduism in India and introduced it in the West. His famous speech was in the Parliament of Religions, Chicago, which took place in September 1893. He call to the nations was “Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached”.

He adopted Hindu philosophy with new interpretations. Vivekananda is regarded as a patriotic saint and his birthday is celebrated in India as National Youth Day. He died at the age of 39.         

Notable works:            

Some of his books include Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, The East And The West, Pearls Of Wisdom, Jnana Yoga, My India, The India Eternal, Practical Vedanta, and the poem Kali The Mother.

His works were compiled to form a nine volume set “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”.

About Prose:

The secret of work is written by Swami Vivekananda. It is taken from “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Volume I ”. Karma- Yoga, Chapter III – The Secret of Work.

Karma Yoga means; even at the point of death any one, without asking questions. 

In the essay ‘The Secret of Work’, he explains the nature of work, the things that guide the conduct of human beings and the direct method of curing the miseries of the world.

The Secret of Work:     

The secret of work is written by Swami Vivekananda. It is taken from “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Vol. II”

Swami Vivekananda was one of the greatest Indian philosophers. He was also a preacher and a writer.

This essay is about the importance of spiritual help. According to Vivekananda a person can help others by different ways. According to that there are mainly three types of help.

1) Physical help

2) Intellectual help

3) Spiritual help 

Examples for the three types of help :

• An example of physical need is hunger. 
• An example of intellectual need is knowledge. 
• An example of spiritual need is enlightenment. 

Vivekananda describes the greatest help that can be given is the spiritual help because the spiritual knowledge only can give permanent satisfaction to the human beings.

Next important help for the author is the intellectual help because giving knowledge with the help of reason or the intellectual help is important to remove ignorance from human life.

The Swami continues his explanation of the nature of real life and its relationship to knowledge. The lack of spiritual knowledge and the addiction to wants is true misery. So, as and when we help others in this aspect of life, we have the potential to do greatest good. However, elsewhere, Vivekananda has also said – “One cannot give spirituality and religion to a physically hungry person…” – for that is their primary want. This is not a contradiction. We help them physically. But, if possible, we are not to stop there. We open the door for them to intellectual and spiritual knowledge.

He describes these three types of help in detail and comes to the conclusion that spiritual help is the greatest help.  He is of the view that physical help can remove physical needs of the human beings but human needs are endless. So there is no end to the suffering of the humanity. Hence most important thing in human life is to put an end to the needs in life. This can be done with the help of spiritual knowledge only. Swami Vivekananda thinks that a spiritually strong person can only be satisfied.

He also talks about the importance of intellectual help. According to him giving intellectual help through knowledge can remove ignorance from human life. He also thinks that “Ignorance is the mother of evil and of all the misery’’. Knowledge removes ignorance and, in that way, removes all the miseries in human life.

He further explains his assertion that “spiritual help is the highest help” by stating that “spirituality is the true basis of all activities in life”. In this way according to Vivekananda spiritual help is the greatest help that can be given to others. Next to the spiritual help is the intellectual help that is giving knowledge to others to destroy ignorance. He also talks about the physical help. In this way helping others in different ways is the secret of work according to Swami Vivekananda.

Regarding work, he discusses three things: 

1) how we must work, 

2) what are the effects of a work and 

3) what are the objectives of a work. 

Vivekananda explains about the impacts on a person's character. He gives reference of Bhagavad Gita which asks us to work incessantly. There are two effects of any work upon its performer: Goodness and badness. Effects of a work leave impressions in the mind which in turn determine the character of a person. Good effects leave good impressions in the mind which in turn make the character of a person good. Similarly with bad. Our mind should be like a lake. When it is disturbed, ripples are formed but later subside leaving no impression on the surface. Similarly, we will receive impressions but we should not let it get inscribed on our brain. The more the impression the stronger is the character, be it good or bad. Just like a tortoise tucks itself inside its shell and never comes out during disturbances, a person's character will never let him do anything against his will.

      The rippling effect of the work done by us is called ‘Samskara’. Good and evil actions will have their consequences. Good actions bring good and bad actions lead to bad. We have to work continuously without any attachments. Then only, our soul can be free of bondage. Every work we do leaves an impression on the subconscious region of the mind. The sum total of such impressions makes our character. We have do good work without expecting result to build a good character. If our ‘Samskara’ is good our character will be good.

We have to work continuously without being ‘attached’ to it. Our work should not affect our mind. Then only, our soul can be free of bondage. Every work we do leaves an impression on the subconscious region of the mind. The sum total of such impressions makes our character. We have do good work without expecting result to build a good character.

When we work like stranger to the land without bonding ourselves to it. If we are able to work like that, we are working like masters. If we are bound by our work, we are doing our work as slaves. We have to work with love and without attachment. We must not be selfish while working. Selfish work is slave’s work. 

Every act of love brings happiness, peace and blessedness. Real love makes us ‘unattached’. We have to look upon work as ‘worship’, dedicating the result of our work to God. Therefore be “unattached”; let things work; let brain centres work; work incessantly, but let not a ripple conquer the mind. The great saying of the Sankhya, “the whole of nature is for the soul, not the soul for nature”. The very season of nature’s existence is for the education of the soul; it has no other meaning; it is there because the soul must have knowledge, and through knowledge free itself. 

After the battle of Kurukshetra the five Pandava brothers performed a great sacrifice and made very large gifts to the poor. But the sacrifice of the Brahmin family as narrated by the mongoose was greater. The idea of complete self-sacrifice is illustrated in the story. This self sacrificed, unattached work is called as the secret of work.

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