Prayers
Like the prayers quoted above (i.e., prayers of Pujya Shree Mota in 1924 as a sadhak; they are not published in this book.), I tried my best to remember in my heart my dear God and earnestly appealed to him for help. By God's grace this effort was so very soulful that, by the force of its impulsion alone, the feelings of love and affection appeared in my prayers of those days. Only when this happens, can prayers become really useful in the development of our lives. Have no doubt on that score. A very strenuous effort is indispensable to create in our hearts an intense and sincere prayer.
Service as a Shop-boy
Let me narrate to you today another incident of my early teenage days. I was then studying at the Gujarati School in Kalol (district Panchmahals). I had not yet finished the seventh standard, but I felt very very deeply the stress of poverty. It struck me, "Let me then begin to earn something. Whatever little I may get from it will lessen, by God's grace, this unbearable pressure of indigence."
My father was then living in Godhara and working there as a dyer. A businessman was our neighbour. I went to his shop once and appeled to him very earnestly to engage me as his servant. "Try me for a few days and if you are satisfied with my work, please employ me." He kindly accepted my plea and I became his servant. He entrusted me at first with simply sweeping the shop daily and other such very menial work. I would get up early in the morning, take the keys of the shop from my boss and sweep the floor of the shop neatly. Usually the mattress sheets and cushion covers of such businessmen remain dirty, unwashed, and full of dark inkspots. But I wanted to please my master by performing the smallest work given to me in the most excellent manner. I was so eager to make my service permanent! Everyday I washed the sheets and cushion covers and spread them so efficiently that there was not a single crease in them. I took particular care to see that not a speck of dust remained anywhere in the shop. I put things in such a way that the shop appeared decent and beautiful. I bowed down in a worshipful attitude to the shop and placed flowers, rice, and vermilion near the entrance.
Employed
In a few days my boss was so highly pleased by my conscientious work, he at once employed me as a servant. But do you know at what pay? Rupees five and no more. Let me add, however, that in those early days that small amount was considered good payment. As time passed he began to entrust me with more and more responsible work.
In the end, I was given the work of weighing ( and afterwards buying) corn which farmers from villages brought in their carts. Even at that time to let the farmer know that he had given only forty pounds, and yet by clever trick getting about two pounds more stealthily, was a common practice. That was a rooted custom and no businessman ever felt anything wrong about it. As for myself, I talked with the farmers very lovingly, I tried to please them. Hence I weighed their corn very accurately without the trick. My boss took it for granted that this chap would do everything in the interest of his master. It is in his self-interest to do so.
Since I was in deep distress for want of money, I also did the work of weighing. That evil custom of cheating the illiterate farmer was so much in vogue that my master naturally assumed that I, too, would follow the common practice. When he discovered that I did not defraud the farmer, he got very angry with me and showed me the trick by which he could get more corn. A slight clever jerk on the rod of the balance at one side brought down one of the pans a little and that was how by repeated weighing about two pounds could be easily taken from the farmer's stock without his knowing it. That was the art he taught me. But even afterwards, when I weighed corn, I did not adopt the trick shown to me by my master. But he thought, "Chunio is now adept in the trick and weighs things accordingly."
The Bubble Burst
But suddenly one day he (master) had some quarrel with a farmer. In order to know whether the weight shown to the farmer was proper or not, he entrusted someone else to weigh the stock. The result was that the bubble burst and I was caught red-handed (for being honest). The boss was so angry that he abused me right and left in the presence of many people. I gave up the job, even though the need for the earning money was very great. Then I began my study again. By God's grace I was a clever student. It did not take me long to pick up the thread and renew my study.
The purpose in giving an account of this incident of my early life is this. Even if we are entrusted with work of no importance, it should be done in the best way. If we zealously create a love for doing the most negligible thing, as though it was a very important matter, it is sure to do us good. Work done in such spirit becomes our Guru in the future.
Honesty of the Heart
In
this way, in whatever work we may be engaged, we should put forth a very honest
effort. This creates the quality of conscientiousness, helping us to reach
our goal in life. Our aspiration for self-realization will then grow more
and more inflamed and will not fail to exhibit itself in our common actions.
Everything is so intertwined! Karma (action) is absolutely necessary for making
our heart's desire concentrated, centrifugal, and concrete. Action is the
threshold of the yoga of self development. Bhakti is the confluence of longing
in the heart and action charged with intense feeling. The creation of lively
awareness of the purpose of our lives and the resulting alertness while doing
some action is gyana (experiential knowledge). Karma yoga (yoga of action)
means all actions in our lives are performed in the spirit indicated above.
In this way karma, bhakti and gyana can never be detached from one another.
They are always intertwined and interwoven.