Excerpt from the second volume of "The complete works of Sawmi Vivekananda"
"In various upnishads we find that this vedanta philosophy is not the outcome of meditation in the forest only, but that the very best pearls of it were thought out by brains which were busiest in the everyday affairs of life.
Bhagwat Gita - most of you perhaps have read it, it is the best commentry we have on the vedanta philosophy.Gita is intense activity, but in the midst of it. eternal calmness.
Inactivity dosent become activity when its combined with passion. Real activity ,which is the goal of vedanta is combined with eternal calmness, the calmness which cannot be ruffeled,the balance of mind which is never disturbed,whatever happens. And we know from our experience in life that that is the best attitude for work.
The less passion there is the better we work. The calmer we are,the better for us , and the more the amount of work we can do. When we let loose our feelings, we waste so much energy,shatter our nerves, disturb our mind and accomplish very little work. The energy which out to have gone out as work is spent as mere feeling, which counts for nothing. It is only when the mind is very calm and collected that the whole of its energy is spent in doing good work.
And if you read the lives of great workers which the world has produced, you will find that they were wonderfully calm men. Nothing, as it were, could throw them off their balance. That is why the man who becomes angry never does a great amount of work, and the man whom nothing can make angry accomplishes so much. The man who gives way to anger,or hatred or any other passion, cannot work; he only breaks himself into pieces, and does nothing practical.
It is the calm , forgiving , equable well-balanced mind that does the greatest amount of work."
