(This article discusses-What do we mean by action? How best am I to act? What makes me act and what are the personality layers that express themselves in action? If I know the mechanism of action, I may probably be able to understand the technique and the art of adjusting my personality in such a way that my action falls under the highest type of activity, one that brings about achievement for me as well as for my community-editor).
Today we are all students of science, and we are not ready to accept an idea unless we clearly know the complete mechanism of it. This is the spirit of the modern age. Therefore, when the teachers or the scriptures try to explain that we must work, and that the quality of our work depends upon the beauty of our emotions behind it, we are not ready to accept it. We want to know how these are connected.

A little knowledge of the instruments of action and how to act in the world outside is necessary. If the mechanism of man as a dynamic creature working in the world is understood, it will be clear how a greater ideal can inspire us to work better.

Mechanism of Action
All living creatures constantly receive external stimuli. The stimuli are called form, touch, smell, taste and sound. These five different types of stimuli reach us through our sense organs. We cannot remain even a single second in the world without receiving stimuli. Through the eyes every form enters; through the ears sounds enter; through the nose smell enters; through the tongue, taste enters; and through the skin, touch enters. Thus, through the sense organs various objects of the world enter into us, inviting
us to react to them.

The instrument or mechanism within man that receives and processes the stimuli is called the mind. If our mind is not attentive, but wanders to some other idea, we cannot hear what is said to us. If we are worried or preoccupied, we cannot see, for our mind is engaged with the worry and so cannot receive the stimuli. The mind cannot come to a decision; it only receives the stimuli and then submits it to a higher authority, called the intellect, the judging faculty.

The intellect judges how we are to react to situations and
what responses we must make. The final decision comes from the intellect.The intellect cannot judge haphazardly. Everyone’s intellect comes to a judgment depending upon his
vasanas, or impressions of his past experiences.

Past experiences control, direct, regulate and discipline
our present reactions to the world, because our intellectual judgments are coloured by their past experiences. For example, if a bottle of whisky is put before a devout Brahmin and a drunkard, the latter would grab the bottle while the former would shun it. The bottle itself is not the source of attraction or repulsion. The quality of vasanas in an individual’s intellect determines the attraction to or repulsion from objects. The ideas and ideals that we already have in our intellect condition the intellect’s judgment as to how it should tackle the stimuli that have been received by the mind.

Thus, the outer world enters through the sense organs into the mind, the mind receives the stimuli and awaits the intellect’s judgment, the intellect judges the stimuli according to the existing vasanas that control it, and when the judgment is passed, the order to act is sent back to the mind. The mind is not only a receiving clerk but also a dispatching clerk. According to the orders passed by the intellect, the mind regulates the proper muscles to act in the world outside. All this happens instantaneously.

The intellect must come to a judgment. But how I judge the situation is different from how you will judge the situation. Our judgments will be different because the ideas and ideals that I am inspired by and those that you are inspired by-the various vasanas under which we work-are different. Furthermore, the reactions of one individual differ from moment to moment. Each individual acts differently at different times, even though the circumstances remain the same. These reactions are determined by the type of ideals with which we work in the world.

Expressing Ideals in ActionEvery day we face decisions and temptations. Although we may have high ideals, if our conviction is weak, we
compromise easily. Supposing you see a man walking in front of you in a busy street downtown. You see his
wallet slip out of his pocket. The man is preoccupied and he is unaware that his wallet has fallen. Supposing you pick up the wallet and realize that it is full of money. Will you think, ‘Should I put it in my pocket? No one has seen me. Should I keep it, or should I call the man and return his wallet? What should I do?’ You have complete freedom to either keep the wallet or to return it to the man. What determines your response? Your intentions, your ideals, your education all determine your decision. If at that time your negative tendencies are stronger, the wallet will slip quietly into your pocket, and you will try to justify it, saying, ‘See, for the past month I have been pleading with God to help me somehow. Honest men are always protected by God. When He wants to give, He gives it on the sidewalks of downtown!’ Thus you justify yourself.

Every day we face decisions and temptations. Although we may have high ideals, if our conviction is weak, wecompromise easily. Supposing you see a man walking in front of you in a busy street downtown. You see hiswallet slip out of his pocket. The man is preoccupied and he is unaware that his wallet has fallen. Supposing you pick up the wallet and realize that it is full of money. Will you think, ‘Should I put it in my pocket? No one has seen me. Should I keep it, or should I call the man and return his wallet? What should I do?’ You have complete freedom to either keep the wallet or to return it to the man. What determines your response? Your intentions, your ideals, your education all determine your decision. If at that time your negative tendencies are stronger, the wallet will slip quietly into your pocket, and you will try to justify it, saying, ‘See, for the past month I have been pleading with God to help me somehow. Honest men are always protected by God. When He wants to give, He gives it on the sidewalks of downtown!’ Thus you justify yourself.However, if you are a cultured man of real education and understanding, of sympathy and concern for others,
you will immediately visualize the tragic picture of this man returning home to his wife and children, having lost his wallet. It is a painful scene indeed. It makes you think, ‘Let me help him. Ordinarily I cannot afford to give so much money in charity, but here is his own money, and it is certainly charity now in return it to him. 0 Lord, you have given me a chance to help someone in need and therefore I will call him and return his wallet to him.’ Before the man can thank you, you disappear, and with a growing sense of satisfaction at having done a heroic deed, you go on with your day.

All our actions depend upon the type of ideals in our mind and intellect. The way in which we behave in the world is altered, controlled and regulated by the type of ideals that inspire us. So the question is, how shall we act in the world, how can we improve our actions and gain a greater achievement in life? This cannot be done by working twice as many hours.

The idea of the modern commercial world is that if I double my hours, I can double my output. When a machine works six hours, it produces a certain quantity. If it works twelve hours, it can produce double the quantity. But a man’s work in society cannot be measured by the hours he works. It is not the quantity of action that matters but the quality.

The quality of action is improved only by the ideals that illumine and inspire us. Thus, the nobler the ideals, the greater the shine and beauty of action. The ideals that inspire us at all times to bring out greater efficiency and beauty of action are called noble or moral ideals. Ideals that bring a dispirited and dejected attitude to such an extent that our actions, however efficient they may be, ultimately
lead to doom, sorrow and failure are false or immoral ideals.

The spirit of freedom, the spirit of reverence for one’s country, and the spirit of sacrifice for the sake of the common good are all inspiring ideals. Under such ideals, mighty men have done great and ennobling activity in the world, and the fruits of their actions are enjoyed by future generations for
decades. Thus, the higher the ideal that inspires an individual, the nobler is the action that he performs in the world.

To jump over the wall of a private house with a concealed dagger, to enter through the window, to move stealthily into the house, to see whether anybody is awake by watching the rhythm of the sleeping persons, and then to go to the safe, collect the valuables, and quietly leave is a skilful achievement indeed. It calls for many qualities of the individual to do it efficiently. But what is the product of all this intelligence and courage? From that day onward the thief finds that he is not happy. Instead, his peace and tranquility are gone because of the reactions that come to his mind. His best abilities were put forth into a piece of work inspired by negative thoughts. When the goal in one’s mind is selfish, even though
the work may be successfully accomplished, it is only a sad act of grand theft.

Our scriptures say that work can bring forth real, enduring results, not merely because of the quantity of effort put forth, but because of the quality of inspiration with which the man has undertaken the work. The greater the ideal, the brighter is the action and the product. Mahatma Gandhi was only a barrister-at-law. He would probably have been a successful advocate looking after only his wife and
children. But what would have been the total turnover of his work? The same individual, when inspired by the ideal of his country’s freedom, became a different person-a mahatma. He brought about a change in the moral vision of the country and of the political leaders and thinkers of the world. The quality of his work was higher and nobler because of the selfless ideals that inspired him.

Imagine that you suddenly hear your house is on fire. You rush home and find that the entire house is in flames. At that moment you see your wife running out of the house with your child in her arms. You then hear spellbound the thrilling story of how the child was rescued. The child was sleeping upstairs in his room. In panic, everybody ran out of the house, and then the mother remembered the child. She asked the fire department to save the child. The chief, in spite of his forty years’ experience, said, ‘I’m sorry, no human being can go in and come out alive. The whole house is ablaze. ‘The mother immediately forgot everything, and with superhuman courage ran into the house. She rushed upstairs, took the child, and came out.

After this incident, she would be afraid to go near any fire, but inspired by her great love for her child, she performed a miracle. If this is the potentiality of the human mind, can’t she live twenty-four hours of the day as a heroine? She cannot, because she does not have that inspiring goal. An ordinary man may be a coward, but when he is inspired by a great ideal, you find that he miraculously taps a new stream of energy and vitality.

Taking another example, suppose your spouse has fallen seriously ill at home. You cannot take leave of absence from work.Your sister comes to look after your wife during the day, and you take your turn in the night. You serve your wife every night. For months together you do not have a chance to sleep. Yet, out of sheer love for your wife, you do not feel tired. But if your employer says that you must work overtime,
you feel like answering, ‘Only if you pay me overtime.’

Where did this extra energy come from? Usually by 6 p.m. we are tired, not because of overwork, but because of boredom. On the other hand, when our wife or child is ill, out of love for them we discover new energy which no doctor can explain. If that much energy and efficiency lie concealed in us, what is the secret mechanism by which we can tap them?

Discovering a goal or a vision in life, a great ideal to inspire us, and surrendering oneself to that ideal seem to be the secret behind the new dynamism in our activities. We thereby raise the very standard of activity in us and bring about a greater happiness in the world. Each one will have to discover his or her own goal.

There was a time when the ideal was dharma, or religious ideals. Today it is not. Today with the emphasis on technology and raised standards of living, many are inspired to help the poor. This seems to be actively occupying our minds. To serve the underprivileged in the world, to serve one’s countrymen, to lift them up, each one of us will have to make his own effort. All efforts cannot be at one point alone; each person can make an impact only from his own position. Thus you can convert your own small office or corner of work into a shrine where you can serve, through your fellow beings, that mighty Lord who is the destiny of the world and who guides it at all times. You alone can discover this new spurt of energy and enthusiasm within yourself. Thereby, your own ideals of work become chastened. You gain an immense amount of reward, not in terms of cash, but in
the spirit of joy that arises out of a heart that has done the right action at the right time.

Wrong Responses to the WorldDifferent individuals seem to react to external challenges differently, and these reactions are called actions. One individual acting in the world rises to achievement and success, while another in the same field of work reacts to it so unintelligently that he experiences disastrous sorrows. No doubt, you and I immediately justify our failures, saying that the world is a bad place. We would like to curse somebody
for our failure. A bad worker will always blame his performance on his instrument. Similarly, the majority of us are escapists from life, and when we meet with failure we want to attribute it to a cause outside yourselves: ‘Nobody was helping me, the world has not given me a fair chance; the environment was not conducive; and so on. But essentially when we analyse our personality, we find that if we fail, if our actions bring about more and more unhappiness to ourselves and the world, it is not because of the world but because of our own wrong responses to challenges from the world.

Different individuals seem to react to external challenges differently, and these reactions are called actions. One individual acting in the world rises to achievement and success, while another in the same field of work reacts to it so unintelligently that he experiences disastrous sorrows. No doubt, you and I immediately justify our failures, saying that the world is a bad place. We would like to curse somebodyfor our failure. A bad worker will always blame his performance on his instrument. Similarly, the majority of us are escapists from life, and when we meet with failure we want to attribute it to a cause outside yourselves: ‘Nobody was helping me, the world has not given me a fair chance; the environment was not conducive; and so on. But essentially when we analyse our personality, we find that if we fail, if our actions bring about more and more unhappiness to ourselves and the world, it is not because of the world but because of our own wrong responses to challenges from the world.Success and failure in the world are our own personal successes and failures. The same situation, the same
sun, moon and stars, the same climatic conditions, the same flora and fauna, the same city, may be available to all of us. But I fail in the city and become a tragic failure, while you become a successful person in the same city. How is that possible? It is only because I do not know how to meet my challenges and react properly, while you know how to react to them and are therefore able to make the environment
conducive to your development and growth.

We find that the responses of an individual depend upon the type of ideas and ideals he has, and the higher the ideals, the greater his inspiration to act in the world. Every individual must discover this deal for himself. Nobody can give it to another. An artist, a scientist, and a freedom fighter all have their ideals. To the extent that we faithfully live up to the great ideals, dedicating ourselves more and more
to them, a pure column of energy seems to spring forth from our hearts and we are able to apply that energy to productive activity.

Many people complain that though they have high ideals, they have no enthusiasm to study, to improve themselves, to live a higher life. Why? ‘Because we are exhausted by the time we come home from the office. We live far away from work. Early in the morning we have to commute, and by the time we reach office and return home in the evening, we have no more energy left in us.’

I want to say to such people that they should go to a village in India and observe the farmers. Early in the morning, with a plough on his shoulder and two bullocks, the farmer walks to his plot of land. Where is this plot of land? Not one block, but two and a half miles away. There he ploughs from morning until noon and then he eats what he has brought with him. He has been working in the hot sun. Ploughing is a very
strenuous work and he feels exhausted, so he rests until 3 p.m. Again, he ploughs from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and then along with the bullocks, with the plough on his shoulder, he walks two and a half miles home.

The amount of physical energy that he spends on the field are incomparably greater than that of an office manager. When he reaches home, the farmer takes a bath, eats his dinner, and often joins his friends to sing in full-throated joy. He goes on and on with ecstasy and revels the whole night. Where did he get his energy? If a farmer can have so much energy, why do we get fatigued so easily?

When people complain that they feel tired, I am not trying to prove that they are not tired. They really are tired. But the farmer is not tired, because being tired of life is not caused by physical exertion. Physical exertion cannot tire you, and if at all there is fatigue, a half-hour of rest will revive the physical body. The fatigue that you and I in the cities feel is only mental exhaustion. The moment the manager wakes up he feels worried about his position, about getting more clients, about getting more pay. In the store he feels anxious because the merchant has more money than he does. Whatever he sees makes him feel troubled. Somebody has a Mercedes, he is anxious that he cannot afford one. By the time he reaches the office, his energy has already started to ebb away.

Thus he gets mentally exhausted, even though physically he has not done a bit of work. In the case of the farmer, he leads a simple life and is happy with his simple comforts. When he ploughs with his bullocks, he feels happy because they are his bullocks. He walks two and a half miles dreaming of his fertile land. He ploughs on and on, and as he
ploughs he does get physically exhausted, but mentally he is enthusiastic, and therefore he does not feel exhausted. By the time he comes home and takes a bath he has revived or refreshed himself, and there is still a lot of energy in him.

The fatigue that we feel in the modern world is not the fatigue of physical exertion, for with all the modern conveniences, physical exertion is unnecessary. Because of elevators, we need not climb stairs. Because of cars we need not walk. All around us we have comforts to economize our precious energy, and yet we complain that we have no energy at all! Fatigue is caused by mental tension, which is the outcome of
having no goal to aspire for. Our goal is only to finish our daily work, somehow or the other, doing as little as possible and getting the maximum pay. This is the extent of our aspirations.

When these negative thoughts come, however much money and security we may have, we will still be dissatisfied. Happiness depends not only on the type of work we do, but also on our mental condition, our mental health. Mental health can be maintained only when there is a greater goal to inspire us, and the higher the goal, the greater will be our inspiration.

We discover new resources of energy welling up in ourselves to pour out in tireless activity serving the world. Thus, it is necessary that we have a clear and creative goal in life, so that we may look up to that goal and draw inspiration from it. When we have a goal in life, such as the nation’s prosperity, or the country’s progress, the goal itself inspires us, and the more ,it inspires us, the more we find the required energy for tireless activity. As we discover such a goal and surrender ourselves to it, we unleash a new, unknown column of energy within ourselves.

Sometimes we feel momentarily inspired by an ideal, but once the source of that inspiration is gone, we are back again in the old lethargy. Where has that energy gone? The energy was with us, but it has been dissipated into various channels and is no longer available for the ‘irrigation’ of activity.

Dissipation of Energy
We may build a dam and thereby create a reservoir of water, but if this water is not made use of and taken by canals to the land, then the land cannot be benefited by it. In order to make the land more arable, we need water, and for that purpose we build the dam. But this water contained by the dam cannot create crops, unless a canal system directs the water into the various fields. Similarly, by surrendering
ourselves to a great goal, we may find a new enthusiasm and energy, but if that enthusiasm or energy is not properly channelized, it either stagnates or dissipates into unproductive activity.

This leakage of energy takes place, according to the masters of the past, through three dissipating channels. One is regrets about the past. For example, an average student decides that he must get a first class in his exam. He studies very hard for it, but as the examination approaches, he thinks, ‘I will be satisfied with a pass don’t need a first class.’ When asked what happened to his determination, he answers, ‘I have never received a first class in the past; how can someone like myself ever get a first class?’ Thus,
the memory of the past has dissipated his confidence and energy. Memories and regrets from the past refer
to thoughts such as: ‘In the past I have always been inefficient; how can I be efficient now?’ Thus, the
memories of the past come to disturb us, our new enthusiasm to live a nice life oozes away, and we have
no energy for any activity.

A second source of dissipation is anxiety for the future. For example: a boy who has always been a first-class student hopes to get a high .rank in his MA examination. The boy enters the examination hall rather pale, and the examiner thinks it is because of over study. When the question paper reaches the boy he reads it and faints. An examiner rushes to him. The boy says, ‘Please give me some water. I feel dizzy, I
need to lie down.’ What has happened?

The boy thinks, ‘Everything is lost. How can I answer fourteen questions, even though I know all the answers, when there is so little time?’ In his nervousness, the boy has forgotten to read the instructions. The instructions say: Answer any three questions!

Because of the boy’s over-anxiety to get a first class, his efficiency was lost. Many students fail in their exams, not because they haven’t studied, but because of such leakages of dynamism, which dissipate their energy and sense of composure. This is why some students fail, even though their teachers expected them to do well. One’s success depends upon the mental equanimity with which one acts in the world.

Thus, the dissipation of energy may take place either due to lingering memories of the past or due to anxieties for the future. Even if these two are overcome, the sages of the past say that there is a third cause of dissipation: excitement in the present. You may have noticed some people who sincerely work long hours, yet who give a general impression of being extremely inefficient. No one wants to give work to such a person. He works hard, no doubt, but he cannot come to any decision. In the morning he looks at his desk. The files have already piled up and he is worried about the amount of work. At that time a secretary comes with more files. By the time he takes those files and starts working, he sees a label marked
immediate. After reading it he remembers the first file, while the secretary has brought in yet another file. He is worried and dejected. He doesn’t know where to begin.

On the other hand, if he has composure and self-confidence, he will realize that he should concentrate on one file at a time, come to a decision, and take action so that at least one file is disposed of. If he goes through them one by one, without becoming excited, there will be some efficiency in his
work. But if he succumbs to the excitement of the present, it will dissipate his energy and destroy his efficiency.

There are thus three outlets through which our energy is lost: regrets of the past, unintelligent anxieties
concerning the future, and feverish excitement in the present. The great seers of ancient India found that once we discover a goal and surrender ourselves to it, we will find a tremendous energy and inspiration welling up in us. After that we should not allow this energy to be either dissipated in the futile memories of past regrets and failures, or in the imagined sorrows of the future, or in the excitements of the
present. We must focus our entire energy on the activity. This is the highest creative action in the world. Thereby, an individual who was until now considered most inefficient finds his way to the highest achievement and success.

Training Our MindsIn order to develop this attitude, we need consistent training, because we have already trained our minds in in incorrect way. Not knowing the art of action, we have become master artists in doing things wrongly in life. When each individual does anything wrong, the totality of activity cannot but bring the country to a sorry state.

In order to develop this attitude, we need consistent training, because we have already trained our minds in in incorrect way. Not knowing the art of action, we have become master artists in doing things wrongly in life. When each individual does anything wrong, the totality of activity cannot but bring the country to a sorry state.If, in the socialist pattern, each of us is given a car and we don’t know how to drive yet we drive anyway, what would be the condition on the roads? The cars would certainly collide. This seems to be the pattern of the life that we lead. Everyone of us is a vehicle. We know how to go forward. The intellect is a very powerful guide when used correctly, but nobody seems to know how to control the mind’s energy and
direct it properly, or guide it to the right destination.

There: is too much chaos in our lives-each person is concerned only with himself. Every one of us is intent
on reaching a particular goal, but we reach nowhere, instead we end in disaster en route, because we do not
know how to control our minds and pour it into positive activities.

When an individual has discovered new energy within himself, when he has learned the art of stopping the dissipation, and he is able to fix his entire energy on the piece of work at hand, a great joy starts welling up in his mind-the joy of the artisan. This joy can be understood only by experiencing it. For an artisan or a worker, crafting something new-whether a toy or an instrument of precision-brings great fulfillment.

No doubt, to a large extent the mechanization of life in this industrial age has robbed us of the joy that the artisan of the past had. In those days, when they made an article of furniture or a piece of sculpture, they had the joyous satisfaction of creating something. Nowadays because of division of labour and automation, the average worker has been looted of his joy of creativity. Instead, an inert, iron monster called the machine produces everything. Furniture is produced by machinery, clothing is produced by
machinery. The worker thus does not have the joy of applying his creativity to his work.

Instead, he programmes and maintains machines. To that extent, the joy of creation has gone out of his life. However, if we turn our vision in a different direction, certainly the joy of having done the right thing in the right way can be ours. For example, even though typing is considered dreary work, if the typist executes his work neatly, without overtyping or making mistakes, he has his dividend of joy from having done
his work well. We can discover a joy in the precision and perfection of the work that we turn out. Whether others recognize it or not, we have the satisfaction that we did our work as well as we could.

The artists who have been able to put their head and heart where their hands work have discovered the joy
of samadhi, a joy of religious ecstasy, because when the physical, mental, and emotional personalities
become integrated, the individual is closer to perfection, closer to the actual experience of joy welling up from within, and in that atmosphere of joy the individual is capable of achieving his best.

Anyone who has a hobby can very easily understand this.
A hobby means a physical activity wherein the
head and heart act in unison. When the hand is doing something and the head and the heart are involved, the
individual says that it is a recreation, a hobby for him.

One man says playing cricket from morning to evening is recreation. Yet another man playing tennis or football calls that recreation. If they are asked to exert that much to help their neighbour, they will resist. But in spite of a great amount of energy and perspiration spent in a tennis court, football ground or cricket field, they come away saying that they feel revived.

In summer vacations, some south Indian teenagers go to north India for a holiday. They sightsee the whole day
and walk along deserted roads in the midday heat. The local people are afraid of sunstroke. When they look
out of their windows, they see these teenagers walking without any protection.

They wonder, ‘How is it that they are walking in the sun?’ They close their windows with the assumption that south India is probably hotter and therefore these boys are walking comfortably. But the teenagers don’t know that it is hot. They are living in a realm of their own! They have come to the north to sightsee, and however uncomfortable the heat is, it is fun for them because their purpose is to enjoy the holiday. Thus, walking in the hottest sun, sleeping in railway stations, catching any train and suffering in many ways is an
enjoyable adventure, for their head and heart are where their physical bodies are.

After the teenagers have returned home, if the old grandfather were to ask one of them to get something
from the corner store, the boy will complain that the sun is too hot! He forgets that when the temperature
was at 114°F he was walking five miles on the tarred roads of Agra, enjoying himself all the way. Here the temperature is 80°F and he feels too hot to go out for his grandfather.

You and I feel disappointed and dejected in life not because there is no meaningful work in the world. It is because we have not found an activity that integrates our body, mind and intellect. To work in this way is the art of living that has been described in the Vedas, especially in the Bhagavad Gita.

Thus, to sum up, according to the great teachers, we should discover a goal to draw our inspiration from. Once we have found that goal or ideal, whether it is political, economic or spiritual, a new enthusiasm wells up in us. When there is enthusiasm, sincerity, ardour, and consistency of purpose automatically follow. Next, we should channelize our energy to achieve our goal without dissipating it through up
intelligent regrets of the past, futile imagination of  the future, or frenzied excitement of the present.

If we work in the world with our head, heart and hands fully integrated, the very work gains a stamp of efficiency and beauty. Our reward is indescribable fulfillment and joy.

(Compiled by S.K.SARDA)
email: chinmayamissionsikkim@yahoo.com