Swami's Darshan Talk Last Night

Swami Vishwananda's Darshan Talk 26 February 2011 (excerpt)
A few days ago somebody asked me, “Swamiji, you always say pray to God always, but I am working on the outside (in the world). How would I attain the Divine?” Many of you ask this question. I said, ‘It’s so simple.’ Of course, one’s duty is very important; one can’t not do one’s duty. The Gita said that one’s karma, one has to do no matter what, and karma is very important. How one has to do it, that’s the most important. There is one form of doing one’s duty of karma which means doing one’s duty without even thinking of the result. That’s what the Gita said. Whatever one does, if one is attached to the fruit of the action, one will suffer. It’s true, because when we expect certain things when we do something, there is always certain expectations and when that expectation is not met, what happens? You get sad. You feel upset. Where does this come from?

So, when one does one’s duty without even expecting something, the mind is already surrendering to the Divine. When the mind has the quality of the sattva (without impurities) quality, the mind doesn’t have any power into it. This is when whatever one does is in complete surrender to the Divine. When one mixes a little bit of the “I” quality into the sattva quality, this is when one will say, “I will do good to the world.” Into that state we’ll see that the “I” is very big. Whenever the mind pictures the “I”, it doesn’t mean the “I” of the Self, it means always the “I” of the ego. I can do this; I can do that. As long as you have not realized yourself, the “I” of the ego is always big. That’s why they say in the scriptures, “Remove this 'I' Put Him, the Lord, because as long as you have not realized anything, one has to remind one’s self continuously that All is Him.