In the Bhagavad-gītā you'll find... That is our brahma-bhūta (SB 4.30.20) situation. The Vedas teaches us that "You are not this matter. You are Brahman." Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. Lord Śaṅkarācārya, he preached this gospel to the world that we are not this matter. We are Brahman, spirit soul. So that, when that spiritual realization will be actually done, then your symptoms will change. What are those symptoms? Brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati: (BG 18.54) "When one is situated in his own spiritual consciousness, then he will have no hankering and no lamentation, lamentation for loss or hankering for gain." Two things are going on in this material world. The things which we do not possess, we hanker after it: "If I get these things, I'll be happy. If I get these things... Oh, I have no money. If I get one hundred thousand millions dollars, then I'll be happy." This is hankering. And when one hundred thousand million dollars you have got... Some way or other, it is lost, oh, you cry, "Oh, I am gone." So either for earning or we hanker, that is also a kind of distress, and when we suffer loss there is distress. But if you are situated in brahma-bhūtaḥ avasthāna, you'll be neither, neither distressed, nor hankering. You'll be in equilibrium. Yasmin sthite guruṇāpi duhkhena na vicālyate (Bg. 6.20-23). Even if you are situated in the midst of fiery tribulation, you'll not be disturbed. That is the position.
- evaṁ prasanna-manaso
- bhagavad-bhakti-yogataḥ
- bhagavat-tattva-vijñānaṁ
- mukta-saṅgasya jāyate
- (SB 1.2.20)
Bhagavat-tattva-vijñāna... Bhagavat-tattva-vijñāna means the science of God. The science of God becomes perceivable by such person who is situated in the brahma-bhūta, I mean to say, status. So from that brahma-bhūta status, we have to work, and that work is recommended here,
- buddhi-yukto jahātīha
- ubhe sukṛta-duṣkṛte
- tasmād yogāya yujyasva
- yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam
- (BG 2.50)
Now, so, so long we have got this material body, we have to work. We cannot stop working. That is not possible. But we have to adopt the tactics of yoga so that even by doing ordinary work in which by destiny or by circumstances I am put into, there is no harm. You'll find in Bhagavad-gītā that even if you find in your own occupation there is... Suppose I am occupied in some business in which I have to speak lie. Without speaking lie, my business cannot go on. Now, suppose if that is the position. Now, speaking lie is not very good thing, and if you think that your business is not very, based on very moral principle, "So I should give up," then Bhagavad-gītā you'll find that "Don't give up." Even if you are put into such circumstances that your livelihood cannot go on without that unfair means, still, you should not give it up, but you should try to make it purified. You should try to make it purified. How it is purified? Now, you should not take the fruitive result of your work. That is meant for God.