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TSSA Lecture

Productive Work
Honorable Director (Operations) Sri Manas Bhattacharya, Director (Finance), GM (HR) all of the
West Bengal State Electricity Production-Distribution-Transmission Corporations, members of TSSA of
West Bengal, and dear ex-students of Ramakrishna Mission Shilpamandira and Shilpapitha, it is a
wonderful morning today. I am very happy to be a part of your 43rd Annual Conference here at the
Suvarna Bhavan, Tamluk today. Some of you may be wondering as to what a Swamiji of Belur Math is
doing in a programme such as this. Let me explain:
Some days back, two of my ex-students, Arnab & Anupam approached me and invited me to this
Conference here saying that these three Corporations have a huge number of engineers from
Shilpamandira and Shilpapitha. I agreed with a view to seeing for myself how my boys are faring in the
real world. Then I came here today morning and everything was going on well. I was sitting in the green
room since I had arrived about an hour early. I was discussing some interesting issues of the modern
technology that is entering the sphere of power transmission in India with the Director (Operations). One
of the office bearers of TSSA came in and distributed a flier to the two Directors and the GM. I too was
given a copy but I couldnt understand what it was since it was in Bengali, a language that I can speak but
cannot yet read well. The Director explained to me what the flier contained. Keeping that development in
mind, I am going to tell you two important things.
Firstly, I wish to remind you that the relationship between your association and the management
has to be like the relation between a son and his father. It must be congenial at all times. Neither should
you make inordinate demands on your management, nor should the management take decisions that are
detrimental to your welfare. Having said that, I will tell you about the other idea that I wish to introduce
you all to today.
Very few persons in this world have given deep thought to work that man does. Of the few that
have done so, one was Karl Marx and another was Swami Vivekananda. You all know quite a lot of
Marxs ideas. I wish to introduce you to Swamijis ideas of work today. Somehow, looking at the way in
which we work, I feel something is wrong somewhere. You see, we work eight to nine hours every day,
and at the end of the day, we feel that we need recreation. We need refreshment, recreation apart from the
work that we do. What sort of working is that? We are depleting ourselves when we work; that is the
reason why we need to recharge ourselves after we are done with working. That is totally wrong.
Somewhere, something is terribly wrong.
Work is a creative act according to Swamiji. You are not supposed to need any further recreation
after a creative act. If you need recreation after working, that means your work was not actually creative.
Similarly, we need to set aside a separate time to prayer. Work is worship according to Swamiji. If you
need to pray separately after working, that means your work was not done as worship. Do you see where
we are going wrong? Imagine a painters studio, say Rembrandt or Abanindranath Tagores studio. Does
our workplace have that kind of aura? Or again, imagine a temple or the meditation room of an Ashrama.
Does our workplace have that kind of purity? Should it not have the same purity? How can it have if we
are constantly thinking of our gain while we work? Does a poet think of his gain when he composes a
poem? No. He grasps something very high, very pure, and then proceeds to give it a concrete shape. He
has absolutely no sense of any personal gain in the whole process.

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TSSA Lecture

As engineers working in the Power Corporation, what higher ideal can we look for? Swamiji has
given us the new path. Right here in your own motherland Swamiji has done this and no one bothers to
give any thought to this. Those of you who have studied Swamijis life will remember the incident when
he swam to the last island of India beyond Cape Comorin. There he sat in meditation for three days. On
whom did he meditate? What deity was the subject of his meditation? For the first time in the history of
the world, a person meditated not on any accepted god or goddess of the rich pantheon of gods, but on the
Nation itself. Swamiji meditated on the Indian nation itself! Do you realize what that means?
This nation of ours is a living entity. Anything that exists has a spiritual aspect in it. This nation
of ours has a spiritual aspect to it that we can meditate upon and worship. How does one worship India?
Shall we make a picture of our nation, like some people do, and offer flowers and sandal sticks? That
would be superfluous. You all know that before you worship any deity, it has to be infused with life. It is
called Prana-prathisthta. We have our nation which already has a life of its own. A deity has to be woken
up, given a bath, dressed, worshipped with 5 or 10 or 16 items, fed sumptuously, exhibited for the
devotees and then put to sleep. There are established rituals for each of these activities that have come
down as religious tradition from hundreds of years. What about India? India is a nation. It has its
economy. A hundred thousand different activities constitute its economy. When we work in India,
whether we belong to the Govt or to a private enterprise, what we are doing is actually participating in
this Grand National Economy. We have to first of all get a glimpse of this grand vision of the living
nation that we live in. It is a living nation, a living entity. And we are participating in its life. Our work is
our means of participating in its life.
When we worship a deity ritualistically, what we are actually doing is participating in that deitys
living presence. Similarly, when we work, no matter what work we do, or where we work, we are
participating in the life of our nation. Our work is therefore our worship of our nation. Imagine how pure
our work must be when seen from this viewpoint. Imagine how pure our workplace must be when seen
from this viewpoint. Not just physically clean, as our Prime Minister says, through his Swaccha Bharat
Campaign. Morally clean! Else it is not worship! Self comes last, nation comes first.
You see, this is a pervasive trait we see in India. We Indians do not have a strong sense of our
nation at all. If you see some other nations such as the Europeans or the Japanese people, you will
understand what we lack. The sense of their nation in their mind is very strong. Unless this sense
develops in us, we will keep on faltering in our efforts like we have been doing all these years.
Let me tell you a story. Actually it is a real incident. A friend of mine went to Japan for some
work. He stayed as a guest of a Japanese gentleman who happened to be his friend. This friend, he
observed, used to work two to three hours extra every day. Being an Indian, my friend concluded that this
was some murky OT business. He asked him. Do you know what that Japanese gentleman replied? He
said, Every day, I work from 8 to 5 because my company pays me for it. I also put in one hour extra
before 8am and 2 hours extra after 5pm for my country. I was thrilled when I heard this. Long ago when
I was a small boy, I had read Swamiji mention in one place If you want to learn about patriotism, learn
from the Japanese. No wonder a country that is smaller than this state of West Bengal is one of the
richest economies of the entire world!
Now, I wish to clarify one more thing before I end. What Swamiji speaks of is not patriotism. It is
something much, much higher than that. It is a new spiritual practice meant for this new age. Why
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TSSA Lecture

introduce a spiritual path when ordinary patriotism could suffice, as it has done in Japan? The reason is,
as Swamiji puts it in India, even business and politics and national development has to be achieved only
along the spiritual path. There is no other way. That has been decided long, long ago by our great
ancestors. We do not seem to have much freedom in that area. All that we need to do now is, study
Swamiji, and slowly put his ideas into practice.
I wish this audience of learned engineers does that as soon as possible. That is what I would
expect from you as ex-students of Shilpamandira and Shilpapitha, and not forming Associations like this.
I really do not understand what need you all have for another association like this TSSA. You already
have this Nation. It has a Govt and you are already a part of that system. Why another association? It is
just a waste of energy and effort, which can easily be directed towards much better purpose if only you
will heed to Swamijis words.
I pray to Sri Ramakrishna that this may materialize as soon as possible through all of us. Thank
you for patiently listening to me.
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