PUBLISHER’S DESK • JULY 2019§
Our Three Kinds of Temples
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The community temple, the home shrine and the sanctuary inside you are readily available to stabilize and uplift your daily life§
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IT WOULD BE HARD TO OVERESTIMATE THE POWER and importance of the temple in Hindu culture and spiritual practice—the home of God to which we go for solace and connection with the divine. When we think of temples, we naturally think of community temples, those always welcoming, often ornate, magical spaces which I like to call pura mandiras. Worshiping in these temples is a central practice in Hinduism. But there is a broader, seldom discussed understanding of the temple in Sanatana Dharma which embraces two other sacred places of communion as equally important. One is the home shrine, or griha mandira, and the other is the soul temple or atma mandira.§
The Community Temple, Pura Mandira§
Hindu communities revolve around the local temple, which serves as the hub of culture, worship, festivals and more. For the devout, the ideal is to attend a puja at the community temple daily, or at least once a week, and to participate in the major holy festivals celebrated within its precincts. This allows us to experience the blessings of God and the Gods regularly and to enjoy frequent fellowship with other devotees, which is uplifting and engaging. Though God is everywhere, it is easiest to receive His blessings at the temple. My Gurudeva, Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, had many insights into temple mysticism: the ray of the temple, its subtle force field and how the three worlds work together in that sacred space. All this was apparent to his inner sight. He wrote, “If you could view the temple from the inner worlds, you would see a brilliant ray coming from the Third World, or world of the Gods, right into the temple on the physical plane. This ray allows communication similar to a live video conference. The priest opens the connection by performing puja. When the puja is performed with loving devotion, the ray becomes strong and inner doors open from God’s world to ours; the angelic helpers, called devas, hover around and through the temple, and blessings pour out to the devotees. A Hindu temple’s devonic rays have the power to transform the course of karma, open inner doors to new opportunities, assuage long-held hurts and provide inner visions equaling the fullness of devotion.”§
Regular worship at the community temple deepens our humility and our devotion to God. It also purifies and lifts our energy into higher chakras. In addition to worship, we can also perform service (seva, or karma yoga) at the temple and accrue even more spiritual benefits. The Tirumantiram, an ancient scripture by Rishi Tirumular, lists a number of traditional chores in verse 109: “The simple temple duties, lighting the lamps, picking flowers, lovingly polishing the floors, sweeping, singing the Lord’s praise, ringing the bell and fetching ceremonial water—these constitute the dasa marga (path of the servant).” Additionally, those who are qualified can volunteer to teach Hinduism to the youth.§
If you are finding fulfillment by worshiping in your community temple, don’t stop there. Consider extending your devotional life to the griha mandira, or home shrine.§
The Home Shrine, Griha Mandira§
The ideal Hindu home centers around the home shrine, a special room set aside and maintained to create a temple-like atmosphere which holds us close to our spiritual goals and practices. In this holy space we conduct puja, read scripture, perform sadhana, sing bhajana and do japa. Here we can always feel the presence of God and the Gods, whom we honor especially in the morning and evening and before meals, which we offer to them before we partake. Here worship traditionally begins before dawn, with the simple act of dedication for the coming day. After a bath, morning puja is performed, usually by the husband. The wife and older children may also perform their own puja at another time of day. The form of home worship, called atmartha puja, is simple: we lovingly invoke the Deities, tender choice offerings and beseech their blessings for our family and the world. This early morning worship begins the day on a religious note, blessing the work and activities that follow. Evening devotionals include a simple arati, bhajana, meditation and reading of scripture—a day’s-end routine that carries family members to lofty, celestial realms during sleep. The temple-like atmosphere of the shrine room can prevail throughout the home if family members handle disagreements and difficult issues in a harmonious, professional way, avoiding arguments and expressions of anger.§
You can bring some of the power of the community temple into your home shrine by lighting an oil lamp when you return from the temple. This sacred act brings devas who were at the temple into the home shrine room, where, from the inner world, they can bless all family members and strengthen the religious force field of the home. This is one of my guru’s unique insights into the mysticism of temple worship.§
How elaborate should the home puja be? It can vary from short and simple to long and complex. Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Mahaswamiji (1894–1994) of Kanchi Kamakoti Pitham commented, “Every family must perform puja to Ishvara. Those who find it convenient to do so may conduct elaborate types of puja after receiving proper initiation into them. Others need perform only a brief puja, not lasting more than ten minutes or so. Office-goers must offer at least this brief worship. The sacred bell must ring in every home.”§
Ideally, all members of the family gather together in the shrine room for a puja each morning. Additionally, visiting the shrine at other key times brings special benefits. Visiting the shrine before leaving the home reminds you that work is also worship when approached in a spiritual way, a strategic attitude that helps you maintain a religious perspective during your time out of the home. Visiting the shrine upon returning home provides a few moments to release any negative, worldly vibrations you have taken on while away. Visiting before an important event, such as a job interview or a major exam at school, you can pray for special blessings and guidance. Retreating to this oasis when emotionally disturbed or reflecting on a personal problem reminds you to spiritually center yourself and overcome the challenge or upset condition with the blessings of God and the Gods. These are several ways the home shrine can benefit the family. By your example you teach these practices to your children—practices that will sustain them as they make their passage through life.§
Performing your own individual puja in the home shrine with sincerity and regularity unfolds a relationship with the Divine that is likened to that of a child to a parent, called satputra marga, or “path of the dutiful child.” The Tirumantiram summarizes, “Puja, reading the scriptures, singing hymns, performing japa and unsullied austerity, truthfulness, restraint of envy and offering of food—these and other self-purifying acts constitute the flawless satputra marga” (verse 1496).§
If you are finding fulfillment by worshiping in the home shrine, don’t stop there. Consider worshiping in the atma mandira, if you are not already practicing yoga meditation.§
The Soul Temple, Atma Mandira§
The third place of worship is the temple within the body, which I call the atma mandira. My paramaguru, Yogaswami of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, said, “God lives in this house built of earth, water, fire, air and ether. Therefore, keep the house clean and the mind pure, and conduct yourself with calmness.” His disciple Markanduswami recounted his guru’s instructions: “Yogaswami said, ‘Leave your relations downstairs, your will, your intellect, your senses. Leave the fellows and go upstairs by yourself and find out who you are. Then you can go downstairs and be with the fellows.’ “§
Yogaswami was describing the internal form of worship—meditation in the sacred chamber of the soul, wherein we quiet our physical body, still our astral and mental bodies, become centered in our immortal, spiritual body of light, and strive for, discover, near and ultimately merge with God within. Through meditation, we temporarily set aside our mundane concerns and experience our refined, spiritual nature that is always serene and centered, the source of intuition, solace and strength for all our activities. Consistent practice of meditation has the power to increase our concentration, observation, understanding, compassion, appreciation, cooperation, mental acuity, emotional stability, willpower and our ability to see God in all things and all people.§
Three modes of communion: (left to right) A man and woman prostrate to God in their local temple; a husband and wife perform japa, reciting the Lord’s name together in their home shrine room; a yogi in meditation communes with God inside himself.§
Awakening Wisdom§
God abides in all three of these temples. In the community temple He is worshiped in elaborate, formal ways, mystical ways that bring His shakti, or power, into the inner chamber to bless the world. In the home shrine He is worshiped in simple, loving ways which bring His presence into the home to guide the family through karma’s sometimes difficult passages and bless their pursuits. In the chamber of the heart He is worshiped as the Life of life, as the Self of ourself, to awaken peace of mind, insight, inspiration and enlightenment. The three temples stand as a central pillar of Hindu life.§
Successful worship in the three temples over many lifetimes culminates in jnana, divine wisdom, which we see in an enlightened being, a soul in its maturity, immersed in the blessed realization of God, while living out earthly karma. In verse 1444 of the ancient yogic text Tirumantiram, Rishi Tirumular sums up our thoughts: “Being the Life of life is splendorous jnana worship [achieving jnana]. Beholding the Light of life is great yoga worship [meditation]. Giving life by invocation is external worship [performing puja]. Expressing adoration is charya [attending puja].” As you see, our experience of the three temples of Hinduism is an ancient one that survives in the 21st century.§
PUBLISHER’S DESK • JANUARY 2016§
Drawing Close to Ganesha
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How sincerely approaching Him as a real being can deepen your relationship with the Lord of Obstacles§
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HINDUISM IN THAILAND, A PREDOMINANTLY Buddhist nation, has been the subject of several articles in HINDUISM TODAY magazine over the years. To many people’s surprise, the country has a number of Hindu temples, including a large and ornate Ganesha shrine right in the middle of Bangkok’s financial district. Our journalist asked several Thais why so many in the country worship regularly at Hindu temples. The common answer was, “The worship of Buddha helps us in a purely spiritual way, whereas worshiping the Hindu Gods helps in our daily life.”§
My Gurudeva, Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, stressed this same idea: “Among all the wonderful Hindu Deities, Lord Ganesha is the closest to the material plane of consciousness, most easily contacted and most able to assist us in our day-to-day life and concerns. Worship of Lord Ganesha leads the devotee most naturally to the other great Gods.…Lord Ganesha is a Mahadeva, a Great God, created by Lord Siva to assist souls in their evolution. He is the elephant-faced Patron of Art and Science, the Lord of Obstacles and Guardian of Dharma, the first son of Siva. His will prevails as the force of righteousness, the embodiment of Siva’s karmic law in all three worlds.”§
Many great saints and sages of Hinduism have had visions of Lord Ganesha and shared them with their devotees, thus strengthening their faith in the Gods of Hinduism and expanding their understanding.§
In ancient times Auvaiyar, a Tamil mystic who had visions of Ganesha, shared her experiences in devotional poetry. In “Vinayaga Ahaval” she wrote, “Desiring to make me Yours this instant, You, like a mother, have appeared before me and cut the delusion of unending births.”§
In modern times, Gurudeva shared his mystical perspectives and experiences of Ganesha in a book called Loving Ganesha: “There are a great many liberal Hindus and/or Western-influenced Hindus who don’t think of Ganesha as a real being. To them He is a symbol, a superstition, a way of explaining philosophy to children and the uneducated. But this has not been my experience of our loving Lord. I have seen Him with my own eye. He has come to me in visions several times and convinced my lower mind of His reality.”§
Since 1969 we have arranged group pilgrimages to India, where traveling seekers have had life-changing visions of Lord Ganesha and other Deities. Such visions, born of the intensity of pilgrimage and inner striving, would often come in the form of the stone or bronze murti moving and smiling at them, or becoming an animated, human-like figure. With eyes closed, some devotees inwardly saw the Deity’s face, as real as any living being.§
Though not many have such powerful visions, in the year 1995 hundreds of thousands of Hindus experienced firsthand the widely publicized milk miracle in temples around the world. They watched as devotees offered milk to murtis of Lord Ganesha, who actually drank the milk. The remarkable happening was recorded by video cameras and well documented in world media. This increased many people’s faith in the reality of Lord Ganesha.§
In his many inspired talks to large crowds in South India’s ancient temples, Gurudeva explained that the stone or metal Deity images are not mere symbols of the Gods; they are the form through which their love, power and blessings flood forth into this world. Knowing that the Gods are real beings and that the purpose of going to the temple is to experience their blessings transforms the temple from a cultural hall to a truly sacred place for the devotee. Some readers may wonder what I mean by saying that Lord Ganesha and the other Gods are real beings. If they are real, where do they live? To answer that question, let’s provide some background. Hindu scripture speaks of three worlds of existence: the physical plane, the subtle or astral plane, and the causal plane.§
The physical plane is the world we perceive with our five senses, the realm of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. Of the three worlds, this is the most limited, the least permanent and the most subject to change. Within the physical plane exists the subtle or astral plane, the mental-emotional sphere. We function in this realm through thought and feeling and reside there fully during sleep and after death. There, in our astral body, we meet other souls who are sleeping or have died and do not have a physical body. We function constantly in this in-between world by our every thought and emotion.§
Deep within the astral plane exists the causal plane—the world of light and blessedness, the highest of heavenly regions, extolled in the scriptures of all faiths. This is the superconscious world, where the Gods and highly evolved souls abide. It is this world that we seek to access through deep meditation and through temple worship, which opens a channel for the Gods’ blessings. This most refined realm is not distant. It exists within us as the abode of our divine Self, our pure immortal soul being.§
My Gurudeva often said that religion is the working together of the three worlds. In a sanctified temple, we can readily experience the Gods and devas as an uplifting, peaceful, divine energy, or shakti, radiating out through the murti from the causal plane. It is easiest to feel these blessings at the high point of the puja, when the flame is held before the Deity, or after the puja, in a quiet moment of reflection. The shakti of Lord Ganesha is a gentle, soothing force. Even a subtle encounter with the Lord of Obstacles has the power to bring us into the secure consciousness of the muladhara chakra, the force center of memory where Ganesha resides. This blessing keeps us above the lower seven chakras, home of the base emotions such as jealousy, fear and anger.§
There is a Tamil saying, “Ganesha is my support,” “Ganapati tunai,” which conveys the idea that Lord Ganesha looks after us and influences everything in our life for the better. You can develop a close relationship with Lord Ganesha, in which He feels like a good friend, if you take the time to get to know Him through bhakti yoga, the practice of devotional disciplines, worship, prayer, chanting and singing with the aim of awakening love in the heart and opening yourself to the Deity’s grace.§
The 2,200-year-old South Indian scripture Tirumantiram declares, “Five-armed is He, elephant-faced, with tusks protruding, crescent-shaped, son of Siva, wisdom’s flower; in heart enshrined, His feet I praise.”§
PUBLISHER’S DESK • OCTOBER 2011§
Making Your Home God’s Home
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Establish a formal shrine room as the family’s place of communion with the Divine through worship and meditation§
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AUNIQUE ASPECT OF HINDUISM IS THAT everyone can be a priest and be in charge of one’s own temple. That temple is your home shrine, which you can spiritualize, or turn into a mini-temple, through conducting daily puja. This process works best when the shrine is a separate room, strictly reserved for worship and meditation, unsullied by worldly talk and other activities. That is the ideal. When that is not possible, it should at least be a quiet corner of a room—more than a simple shelf or closet. Make the shrine a refuge for all family members, a place of peace and solace where they can connect with God and offer their praise, prayers and practical needs.§
The late Sri Sri Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Mahaswamiji of Kanchipuram Kamakoti Pitham commented on the necessity of home puja: “Every family must perform puja to Ishvara. Those who find it convenient to do so may conduct elaborate types of puja after receiving proper initiation into them. Others need perform only a brief puja, not lasting more than ten minutes or so. Office-goers must offer at least this brief worship. The sacred bell must ring in every home.”§
Here’s a story to show how our efforts to perform puja in the home shrine can start simply and gradually become more elaborate. The Shekhar family always kept a shrine room in their home. Over the years the husband systematically learned more and more about conducting puja. In the beginning he just chanted a simple mantra to Lord Ganesha while waving incense. Then he learned a few more chants and began passing the arati flame at the end of puja. Finally he learned the entire Ganesha atmartha puja, which he now does every morning before breakfast. He finds performing the full puja deeply satisfying and notes that it uplifts all members of the family as well. (The Ganesha atmartha puja is available with text and audio files at www.himalayanacademy.com/looklisten/chanting)§
About Personal Puja§
Many people do not realize it, but personal worship is a fundamental element of what we call Hinduism’s Code of Conduct, the yamas and niyamas, or restraints and observances. And this code, comprising steps one and two in ashtanga yoga, is often regarded as the foundation for meditation. Worship, one of the ten niyamas, is known as Ishvarapujana. It refers to puja that we conduct for ourselves rather than the rites done by a priest on our behalf. This worship, performed in the home shrine, can range from simply offering a flower to performing a full and formal puja. Puja conducted by a lay person, called atmartha puja, is regarded as a personal worship rite; whereas the public puja held by a priest in a temple is called parartha puja. After performing atmartha puja, it is customary to sit for a few minutes in meditation, internal worship, taking in to the soul level the refined feelings, the prana, that the puja has created and which still remains in the room. In this way, we receive maximum benefits from the puja.§
My Gurudeva observed that some people are afraid to perform puja. Why? They often feel they lack sufficient training or don’t understand the mystical principles behind it well enough. Many Hindus depend on the priests to perform the pujas and sacraments for them. However, Gurudeva points out, as did Maha Swamiji of Kanchipuram, that simple pujas may be performed by anyone wishing to invoke grace from God, Gods and devas. Love of the Deity is more important than ritualistic perfection. Those wishing to perform advanced atmartha puja can receive training and permission to do so through initiation, called diksha, from qualified priests.§
Gurudeva placed one important restriction on performing atmartha puja: “If a serious outbreak of anger is experienced, one must refrain from doing puja for thirty-one days. Simple waving of incense before the icons is permissible, but not the passing of flames, ringing of bells or the chanting of any mantra, other than the simple recitation of Aum.”§
He invoked this restriction knowing that an angry person would invoke, in the Second World, asuras that can upset us rather than the devas that bring us blessings. In fact, to successfully spiritualize the home, there is a need to minimize expressions of anger, as well as swearing. Take as an analogy assembling a complex jigsaw puzzle. Performing the puja is the equivalent of correctly fitting ten puzzle pieces together. Minor anger takes away five pieces, simple swearing two and a major argument twenty. Clearly, we will never finish the puzzle unless we bring anger and swearing under control. In other words, even the most sincere efforts we put into increasing the spirituality of our home will not succeed if we nullify them with outbursts of anger and swearing.§
Keeping in Touch§
All Hindus have guardian devas who live on the astral plane and guide, guard and protect their lives. The shrine room is a space for these permanent unseen guests, a room that the whole family can enter and sit in and commune inwardly with these refined beings, who are dedicated to protecting the family, generation after generation. “A token shrine in a bedroom or a closet or a niche in a kitchen is not enough to attract these Divinities,” Gurudeva counseled. “One would not host an honored guest in one’s closet or have him or her sleep in the kitchen and expect the guest to feel welcome, appreciated and loved.”§
The most cultured Hindu homes center around the home shrine, a special room set aside and maintained to create a temple-like atmosphere in which we conduct puja, read scripture, perform sadhana, sing bhajans and do japa. This sacred space serves as a solitary refuge, a meditation chamber. It is a safe room in which we retreat from the world, draw into ourself and get in touch with our superconscious intuition. It is a place to face ourself, to write and burn confessions and make new resolutions. It is a place to dissolve problems in the light of inner knowing with the help of our guardian devas.§
You can strengthen the vibration of your home shrine by going to the temple regularly, ideally once a week, and making extra visits during festivals. Lighting an oil lamp in the shine room when you come home from the temple brings the temple’s religious atmosphere into your home. Mystically, that simple act brings devas who were at the temple right into the home shrine, where, from the inner world, they can bless family members and strengthen the home’s religious force field.§
Gurudeva takes the idea of having a separate shrine room, in which God and the devas can dwell, one step further. He states that cultured and devout Hindus dedicate their entire home to God: “The ideal of Ishvarapujana, worship, is to always be living with God in God’s house, which is also your house, and regularly going to God’s temple. This lays the foundation for finding God within. How can someone find God within if he doesn’t live in God’s house as a companion to God in his daily life? The answer is obvious. It would only be a theoretical pretense, based mainly on egoism.”§
Hindus who believe in God’s presence in their home naturally wish to honor Him, even feed Him. They lovingly place food before His picture, leave, close the door and let God and His devas partake of the meal. Gurudeva observed: “God and the devas do enjoy the food; they do so by absorbing the pranas, the energies, of the food. After the meal is over and everyone has eaten, God’s plates are picked up, too. What is left on God’s plate is eaten as prasadam, a blessed offering. God is served as much as the hungriest member of the family, not just a token amount. Of course, God, Gods and the devas do not always remain in the shrine room. They wander freely throughout the house, listening to and observing the entire family, guests and friends. Since the family is living in God’s house, and God is not living in their house, the voice of God is easily heard as their conscience.”§
Gurudeva challenges each of us: “The psychology and the decision and the religion is, ‘Do we live with God, or does God occasionally visit us?’ Who is the authority in the home, an unreligious, ignorant, domineering elder? Or is it God Himself, whom the entire family, including elders, bow down to because they have resigned themselves to the fact that they are living in an ashrama of God? This is religion. This is Ishvarapujana.”§
PUBLISHER’S DESK • JULY 2004§
Work Is Worship
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Career and family should not be viewed as separate from religious life. They are integral to fulfilling your dharma.§
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OVER THE LAST YEAR, I HAVE MET WITH a surprising number of Hindus visiting our Hawaii temple and monastery who have shared the concern that “We are so busy with our professional and family life that we have little or no time to devote to religion.” Their perspective is based on the concept that work and worship are totally separate. Worship is what is done in the temple and shrine room. Work is what is done in the fields, the factory or the office. The attitude is, “We are working to earn money to support ourselves; we are worshiping to receive the blessings of the Gods.” The two realms are unrelated when viewed in this way.§
This, of course, is not the highest Hindu perspective. Great souls tell us that work, when performed in the right spirit, is worship. What is it that transforms work from a secular pursuit into a religious one? It is the overview that through the process of living life we unfold spiritually. It is the knowing that through fulfilling our natural duties in life, honestly and to the best of our ability, we make spiritual progress. Why? Because work puts us in situations where we interact with other people, especially when we hold our dharmic responsibility over an extended period. Through interacting with others, we learn important lessons and, as a result, gradually deepen our understanding, improve our behavior and become a more spiritual person. In doing so, we work through the karma we created in the past and create new karma to be faced in the future. With this in mind, we can see that our daily work contributes to our spiritual progress just as much as attending pujas in the temple, worshiping in our home shrine, going on pilgrimage, singing bhajans, meditating or studying scripture. Paramaguru Yogaswami captured the essence of this perspective when he said, “All work must be done with the aim of reaching God.” §
From the Hindu perspective, all of life is sacred, and performing our duty is dharma. Dharma is a rich term that means “way of righteousness, religion and fulfillment of duty.” From this lofty view, every deed is a part of our religious practice. Everything we do is an act of worship and faith. There are no purely secular activities. Our worship in the temple is part of our dharma, and our work or occupation is part of our dharma.§
We all have certain duties in life. It is the duty of children to go to school and become educated. It is the duty of adults to earn an income to properly raise, educate and care for their children. Our natural profession in this life is based on the professions we have fulfilled in our past lives, plus the karma we bring into this life. This is our svadharma, our ideal pattern in life, and fulfilling it to the best of our ability causes us to make spiritual progress. The mystic law is that no challenge can come to us that exceeds our inner ability to rise up to overcome it. Paramaguru Yogaswami stressed this point to his devotees in Sri Lanka a half century ago: “Do your work. Work is svadharma—following your pattern.”§
One day, after I had explained all of this, a devotee from Los Angeles asked, “How can I bridge the gap in my life? I have a job that I don’t enjoy, and my boss is not kind to me. It’s only my few minutes in meditation that give me any solace. My work doesn’t seem like worship at all!” In response, I offered four remedies: 1) integrate religious practice into the workplace; 2) seek opportunities to help and serve others; 3) strive to see all your actions as serving God; 4) utilize your efforts at work to strengthen your powers of meditation and worship, and build good character.§
1. Bring Spirituality into Your Work§
A basic way we can make our work a form of worship is to introduce religious practices into our work routine. Doing this, even in small ways, brings blessings to our place of work and gives it a more spiritual atmosphere. Many devotees take a five-minute meditation/yoga break twice a day. Others keep a small photo of their guru or chosen Deity nearby to keep them uplifted and reminded of their highest aspirations. A woman in Maryland said that twice daily she sits for a moment, breathes deeply and basks in appreciation for God’s ever-flowing grace. A New York grocery store owner keeps a shrine in the corner where he does puja every morning, asking Ganesha to bless his business for the day and remove any negative forces and obstacles. The stone craftsmen here on Kauai perform a ceremony each morning at the worksite before commencing their work of erecting Iraivan Temple, and once a year hold an elaborate ceremony to worship their tools, so that God may work through those tools in the year to come. My Gurudeva, Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, tells us: “Ganesha influences events slowly and subtly, in unseen ways. Situations will change for you, unexpected doors will open, and accustomed ones will close as you are propelled through His grace toward your inevitable glorious future.”§
2. Seek Ways to Serve§
Gurudeva told a group of devotees, “Give and give until it hurts.” He was prescribing the means to overcome selfishness—a quality that is as prevalent today as ever. He was also pointing to an effective way to make our work part of our worship. The secret lies in helping others in selfless ways—with no expectation of payment, presents, praise or prestige. This is a spiritual practice known as karma yoga, or union through service. Karma yoga produces spiritual progress in that certain past negative karmas can be mitigated, meaning lessened, as well as new positive karmas created for the future. Normally it is thought of as service done at a temple or ashram, but it is wise and prudent to extend it as widely in your life as you can, such as helping others in your workplace beyond what is expected, willingly and without complaint. This counteracts the instinctive tendency to only serve oneself, to promote one’s own goals and career and to help others only begrudgingly—which ultimately makes you a lonely, unhappy, limited person. The fact is, the more selfish we are, the less happy we are. And the less selfish we are, the happier we are. Gurudeva gives an excellent summary of the benefits of karma yoga: “Through service and kindness, you can unwind the subconscious mind and gain a clear understanding of all laws of life. Your soul will shine forth. You will be that peace. You will radiate that inner happiness and be truly secure, simply by practicing being kind in thought, word and deed.”§
3. Dedicate Your Actions to God§
The Hindu concept that work is worship defines a lofty, refined way of living—taking each situation, each duty, each challenge and encounter as an opportunity to grow, to learn, to serve and thus mature into your highest spiritual potential. No matter what type of work it is, be it at home or in an office building, whether pleasant or distasteful, interesting or monotonous—with the right attitudes, willpower and persistence, you can transform it from secular labor to a spiritual exercise that will advance you on the path and uplift you and all those around you. This can be achieved by perceiving all your spiritual, mental and physical actions as fulfilling the will and design of God, rather than merely fulfilling personal ambitions. Try this, even at work. Yogaswami’s words to a young man just starting his career were, “You are going out to work. You must dress well and look dignified. Everything should be an offering to God. The world is an altar.”§
4. Work on Yourself§
All the good habits and self-control we develop in our outer life are useful in our inner life as well. For example, if we develop good concentration in our school studies as a youth and carry this on in our adult life by being focused on the tasks we do at work, we will have developed a strong ability to concentrate. So, when we sit down to meditate, our thoughts are naturally concentrated and it is easy to control the mind. However, if we let our mind wander during our studies and as an adult daydream while working, when we sit down to meditate, we will find it impossible to control our thoughts.§
Another important ability we develop in our work is willpower. Willpower is the strength to carry out one’s decisions, wishes or plans. People who regularly make plans and fail to carry them out lack willpower. For example, a student plans to get up early all week to study for his tests, but when his alarm rings, he shuts it off and decides to continue sleeping instead. We cultivate willpower by finishing and doing well every task we undertake—in fact, doing it a little better than our expectations. Nothing is done with half our mind thinking about something else. Nothing is dropped in the middle. Developing these two important habits produces an indomitable willpower. First, finish each task. Second, do it well. My guru taught, again and again, “The more you use your personal, individual willpower, the more willpower you have.”§
The workplace is a veritable classroom for spiritual progress. Life brings us many opportunities to fail and every opportunity to succeed at the tests it offers us as we strive to be the best we can be. If your boss is mean to you, be grateful for the karmic challenge and go out of your way to be kind to him. If, as a homemaker, your daughter continually makes you furious, study out how to control your anger. If you find a fellow employee intolerably annoying, look to yourself to see what it is that keeps you from accepting him just the way he is. The list of opportunities is endless.§
One of the profound beliefs of Hindus is that God is in all things. Therefore, for us, there is no meaningful division between secular and religious life, for God is always there, in our job, in our boss, in our projects, if only we are subtle enough to see that truth.§