The Path Of Work In World Religions By Hudson Smith

There are four paths to Hinduism. Some people are primarily reflective, some emotional. Others are active and energetic, some like to experiment. The four paths to this goal reflect personality type. Every human possesses some talent in all four directions, and one of those directions is their strongest. The first of the four paths is: The way to know God though knowledge, Jnana. In the text, World Religions by Hudson Smith, they define this as spiritual aspirants who have a strong reflective bent. Such knowledge has nothing to do with factual information. It is not knowledge in an intellectual sense but knowledge of unity. The key is to distinguish between the surface self that crowds the foreground of attention and the larger self that

This is intended for energetic people. Work is life’s staple and the point is not that people must work to survive but must be constructively engaged to find it satisfying. All you need to do is learn how to work in ways that carry you toward God and not away from God. By choosing the path of work the karma yogi had already declared his taste for activity but there remains the question of whether this is affective or reflective. The answer to that question determines whether the yogi will approach work reflectively or in the spirit of love but we need to see how the spiritual dynamics operate in the two cases. Every action directed toward the external world reacts to the doer. Everything you do for yourself adds another layer to your ego, without even realizing it. Acts are no longer taken for their personal rewards but as a service to God as they are regarded as prompted by God’s will and powered by God’s energy. Preformed in this spirit, actions lighten the ego instead of encumbering it. Each task becomes a sacred ritual, preformed as a sacrifice for God’s glory. For people of reflective rather than emotional bent, God oriented work proceeds differently. They work unselfishly in a different way. They will approach work less relationally, seeking though enlightenment rather than a deepening love relationship. They do this by working in the spirit of detachment and draw a line between themselves and their infinite self that

Individuals differ from one another and each individual moves though different stages of life that calls for their own agendas. In India, they first stage they identify with is a student. This is usually between the ages of eight and twelve and lasts about twelve years while the student lived in the home of a teacher. The second stage begins with marriage, and there are three channels into which they flow, family, vocational and community and attention will be divided between the three. This is time for satisfying the first three human wants. Life’s second half is also divided into halves, the first is retirement. After the first arrival of a first grandchild the individual may claim the license of age and withdraw from social obligations. The quest that was commenced in that third stage continues through the fourth, the stage of