How can we know that the purpose we are pursuing is the best purpose?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
so how can we know what purpose is the best purpose we may pursuing say engineering or pursuing research that may benefit some people but that might also harm the environment if our emotions are oscillating the emotions can also decide can affect our our perception of what is the right purpose yeah there are two different things over here I will take them separately first with respect to the purpose the Bhagavad Gita is an eminently realistic book it says that there is no activity in this world which is flawless that just as fire is covered by smoke similarly every endeavor is covered by fault so you won’t find any profession in the world which is completely flawless having said that the Bhagavad Gita actually it says that whatever work we are doing by your work worship that Supreme Lord some people translate this as work is worship that is not exactly what the Bhagavad Gita teaches if work were worship then the donkey would be the greatest worshipper donkey is working so hard work alone is not worship work can be done in a form of worship by our work what does doing work as a worship mean? it means that we understand that the abilities we have they are gifts from God for us and we are meant to use them for a constructive service so what we are is God’s gift to us what we become is our gift to God we see life from this higher perspective of making a positive contribution and the external purpose that we have that will vary from person to person even from situation to situation today we may have the purpose of becoming a graduate, tomorrow we may have a purpose of becoming a mother, tomorrow after that we may have a purpose of getting a particular position in society, whatever it is the purpose may vary in terms of the external goal that we are achieving the Bhagavad Gita goes deeper to go to address what is it that is driving us towards that purpose the Bhagavad Gita says that if we are acting out of a desire to love and serve desire to love and serve God and love and serve everyone in relationship with God then that can overcome whatever discrepancies might be there circumstantially in our profession so that desire for love and service that’s not simply a sentimental longing, it’s a process of purification so the process of yoga, the Bhagavad Gita especially recommends Bhakti Yoga the process of Bhakti Yoga when we practice we connect our heart in a mood of loving service with God and then with that mood of loving service permeating our consciousness, whatever we do that also becomes infused with that mood of loving service and then we will be guided from within about how to unify the various roles that we are playing whether it is a student, whether it is a researcher whatever roles we are playing how to harmonize them in a way that they can bring the best yeah certain professions may be involving harm to the ecology but ultimately somebody has to rectify it so it is only by doing a research about how to do the same thing in less chemically damaging ways that we might find a solution so how we can harmonize our specific profession with our spiritual purpose that we will learn through our own inner clarity if we are spiritually rooted if we are spiritually connected if we are working with a mood of loving devotion Bhagavad Gita says we will be given intelligence to make wise decisions that way we can harmonize we can go beyond whatever limitations are there in our particular profession and harmonize its essential purpose with our life’s ultimate purpose okay