Srimat Swami Tapasyananda Ji (1904 – 1991), was one of the Vice-Presidents of the Ramakrishna Order. His deeply convincing answers to devotees’ questions raised in spiritual retreats and in personal letters have been published in book form as Spiritual Quest:

Questions & Answers. Pariprasna is a selection from this book.

QUESTION: How is service of humanity possible without keen interest in such service and how can such interest arise without attachment to work? So is it not likely that the acceptance of the doctrine of work without attachment will remove all incentive to real and efficient service of others?

What is the recompense of work without interest or attachment?

MAHARAJ: Interest is of two kinds, personal interest and impersonal interest. Personal interest, as in business, is always motivated by considerations of personal gain. Under this inducement, man can do much for the advancement of society, provided he is guided by a proper sense of discipline and a code of honour. Give and take is the norm to be followed here. It is the generally prevailing law of life.

Impersonal interest is applicable only to people who have risen to a higher level of thought and living, who feel that life is not worth living if it offers opportunity only to live for oneself and to work only for personal gain. They want a higher sanction for human effort than mere interest born of personal gain. Now the ideal of work without attachment is applicable only to such persons.

In the questions raised above it is assumed that everyone can adopt this ideal or is capable of adopting it, or is asked to adopt it. That is not correct. A person who can temperamentally feel inclined to work only when work fetches personal gain, is incapable of serving humanity with detachment or out of compassion. Give and take is the only law for him.

To one who feels it is not worth living only for the narrow self, interest can be created in work only from higher considerations born of one’s identification with wider groups, causes or ideals. Thus service of a community, service of one’s country, service of humanity, and service of God have provided such souls of higher evolution with motives for action. It is wrong to think that in such actions there is no interest and there is no zeal in work. Great zeal and energy have been shown by workers in the service of great causes though they do not gain anything personal through it. Detachment does not mean indifference but zeal without consideration of personal gains.

But complete detachment combined with efficiency in the most genuine sense is possible when service or work of any kind becomes a part of one’s devotional life. The conviction that all the world belongs to God and that we are His humble servants entrusted with certain duties, must become the most dominant note in our life. We must also feel that all the energy we get mentally and physically is from God and that success and failure are attendant on His will and that we are merely His instruments. If we are fully entrenched in this conviction, born of devotional experience,

we will be detached in the fullest sense of the term and also be most zealous in the cause for which we are working, be it country, humanity or anything else we could consider as God’s. A sense of instrumentality is also needed to get full detachment and this is possible only when a devotional element supplements the pursuit of impersonal values like patriotism, humanism, etc.

As for the question of recompense for work without attachment, the issue is raised only by persons who can think in terms of personal gain alone. The feeling that a cause has been promoted or one’s duty has been done properly, is the recompense. The recompense is qualitative, not quantitative and cannot be called recompense in the ordinary sense. It improves the quality of our spirit, it makes us better men and women, it pushes us forward in the path of evolution.

Those who work with detachment in the devotional spirit, gain God’s grace, says Sri Ramakrishna: ‘A servant works for years for his master without any personal consideration. The master, being pleased with him, puts him on his own seat of honour and tells others that he is as good as himself and they should all obey him. A devotee who works for God’s sake without a tinge of self, is raised by Him to His own exalted state.’

According to the Vedantic doctrine upheld by Shri Shankaracharya, detached work purifies the mind and prepares the aspirant for the higher discipline of knowledge, Jnana-nishtha.

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mhane’. She has a few songs on Vitthala and Pandharpur, where she discusses philosophy and morals, right conduct and Guru, seva to the husband etc. One very famous abhang however stands out and is repeated again and again. In this abhang she compares the Varkari Sampraday to a temple: Santa Kripajhali, imarata phala ali, “The Sants gave their blessing and the building rose up! Jnanadeva laid the foundation and erected the temple. His disciple Namdev built the walls by his widespread kirtan. Ekanath erected the pillar by writing his Ekanathi Bhagavath, and Tukaram became the pinnacle!” (Concluded.)

Despite the concept of equality in Vitthala bhakti, caste and gender egalitarianism is rather an ideal than a social reality even among the Varkaris today! Dalits were allowed entry into the Vitthala temple only in 1947 after an uprising! In a historic move towards this equality, the Supreme Court ended in 2014 the centuries old monopoly of the hereditary Brahmins over Vitthala’s temple. Two women now serve as priests for Rukmini Mata, and priests from backward classes perform the ritual worship of Sri Vitthala along with the upper caste priests.