A Summary from the lecture of
Swami Vivekananda

• Spiritual Help
• Intelluctual Help
• Physical Help

• Why is Spiritual help Superior to other helps?
• His wants are removed forever. So helping man spiritually is the highest help that can be given.
• Spirituality is the true basis of all our activites in life. A spiritually strong man will be strong in every other aspect if he wishes.

• Why is Intellectual help Superior to physical help?
• Life is of little value if it is a life in the dark groping through ignorance and misery .
We must not make a mistake of concluding that physical help is the only help that can be given

• Commands to work incessantly.
• But every has both good and evil.
• Good and evil produce effects that return in form of good and evil (karma) and are a bondage to the soul.
• Solution reached in Gita is : non-attachment to work

• SamskaraInherent tendency (nearest translation)
• Any wave that rises in the mind does not die out completely, but leave a mark and a future possibility of its reoccurrence . This is called
Samskara
• The sumtotal of the Samskaras is Character

• Bad (bad impressions working. Compelled to do bad )
• Bad + good
• Good ( established like a tortoise + control over sense organs and nerve centers)
• Desire for liberation ( higher than the above 3)
( golden chain is as much a chain as an iron one )

• Counteract bad tendencies with good ones
• Then conquer the good tendencies also
• Thus “ attached ” becomes “ unattached ”
• Work but not let the action or thought produce a deep impression on the mind.

• “ The whole of nature is for the soul, not the soul for nature “ (Sankhya Philosophy)
• We forget this and think we are nature and get attached to it
• When this attachment comes work forms deep impressions on the mind
• Deep impressions force us to do things good or bad ( So slavery )

• Work like a master, not a slave

• Every act of love brings happiness
• Sat-Chit-Ananda – Existence-Knowledge-bliss
• Existence- becomes relative we see the world
• Knowledge- knowledge of things of the world
• Bliss- foundation for all true love known to the heart of a man
• So true love can never react as to cause pain to either the lover or the beloved

• When you have succeeded in loving your husband, your wife, your children, the whole world, the universe in such a manner that there is no reaction of pain or jealousy, no selfish feeling, then you are in a fit state to be unattached.
• To attain this unattachment is almost a life-work, but as soon as we attain this point, we have attained the goal of love and become free.

• Attachment comes only when we expect a return
• There are two things which guide the conduct of men: might and mercy

• Requirement- belief in personal god
• Give up all fruits unto the Lord
• No right to expect anything from the mankind for work we do because that is worship.
• The two stories of unselfishness

• Karma Yoga means ; even at the point of death to help anyone without asking questions
• Never vaunt of your gifts to the poor or expect their gratitude, but rather be grateful to them for giving you occasion of practicing charity to them