Last Saturday, I got the opportunity to hang out with a monk of the Vedanta Society, Swami Vedananda, who has been an Awakin Call guest in the past. A group of us were there, and he shared some gems that I felt moved to capture.

Someone asked about cultivation, and how hard it is to get over one's human failings. Swamiji's response hit me like a thunderbolt. He said in essence, "No amount of cultivation will ever be enough. An infinite number of finite steps cannot get you to infinity." It struck me that when we find we do not have enough self-control, or self-awareness, and start beating ourselves up, perhaps we are asking some version of the question, "How much merit do I need to be able to wake up?" That question does not make any sense, and yet, it is probably at the base of many self-defeating thoughts. I never thought it's absurdity could be put so clearly as Swamiji did.

Swamiji's response on how to get to infinity was equally direct. "There's nowhere to go. If it isn't right here, it's nowhere." Sometimes he taps the wooden table when he says it. "This here is a part of the same infinite reality as us." He says it with such depth and conviction that somehow inspires great stillness in those moments. I slowly start to realize that I have forgotten to feel wonder at our reality - I know intellectually that the atoms behind all that exists are the same - it is just a difference of vibration. But there is such a difference between dry intellectual knowledge and a feeling of oneness.

As our conversation progressed, someone asked about burnout in service. Swamiji said (paraphrased), "When you are doing service, and the thought arises, 'Oh, I am working so hard, and people are not appreciating, or worse, criticizing me', it is a sign that it is not true service." He then recalled the mystic Sri Ramakrishna's mantra of service, made popular by Swami Vivekananda, "Shiva gyaane jeeva seva" or service rooted in self-knowledge. The Vendanta monks believe that service done with compassion is a low form of service and leads to enlarging one's ego. They offer the challenging question, "Who do you think you are to have compassion for others?" At first this is a little befuddling, and then they clarify their standard for service, "When you truly believe that whatever you consider most sacred in your life is present at the moment of your service, and that is what you are really serving, that is called 'service as worship' and is the highest form of service." There is no question of compassion for the sacred - there is only total absorption and surrender to the sacredness of your service in that moment. Swamiji reminded us of this standard and said, "When you serve from that space, there is no question of burnout. Your work becomes sacred service and it energizes."

Gems on the secret of work that deeply inspired me.