When I was at school as a child, the school motto was in Latin, saying Laborare est orare which means - to work is to pray, or as some like to say - work is worship.
I don't believe all work is worship, but I do believe that one can worship through work, or through service in deeds and actions for the upliftment of the consciousness of all. Humanitarian and social or community service is welfare work at best But on the other hand, I believe that it is knowledge and wisdom in self-realization that can achieve more for a person, in the same way that teaching a person to fish is better than feeding them a fish.
And it is in the world of people that the best work can be done, not alone in a cave somewhere remote. Time in the cave might be good, but the world of people is where the most work is desperately needed. So it benefits all to emerge from the cave empowered with insights to share with the world, so that all can have the benefit of all that meditation and introspection.
What does it benefit one to hide their light under a bush, when so many who are in the dark could benefit from it?
THE ACHINTYA BHEDA-ABHEDA TATTVA
By Jas Das Babaji
CHAPTER 8: The Marketplace After Enlightenment
On Living in the World While Seeing Through It
1. The Zen ox-herding pictures culminate not in mountain solitude but in returning to the marketplace with gift-bestowing hands—enlightenment that hides from the world is enlightenment that has not yet ripened.
2. After you see through the cosmic joke, the landlord still requires his rent; after you realize all is Brahman, the tax collector still knocks; after you transcend desire, the body still requires food—render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, even while knowing Caesar is also a dream.
3. The world's ways are corrupted, its laws bent by those who hoard power, its systems designed to keep you asleep—yet you must live within them while not being of them, like a lotus rooted in mud yet unstained by it.
4. This is yukta vairagya, the right kind of renunciation taught in Bhakti yoga: do not flee from matter but transmute it through ritual, ceremony, and service to the divine—every meal becomes prasadam, every action becomes worship, every object becomes an instrument.
5. The false renunciate runs to the cave; the true renunciate remains in the marketplace, engaging the material energy without being bound by it, channeling worldly substance toward transcendent purpose.
6. You do not renounce money but offer it in service; you do not renounce food but sanctify it before eating; you do not renounce relationship but see every face as the face of the beloved—this is alchemy, not escapism.
7. The Bhagavad Gita's karma yoga teaches action without attachment to result: perform your duty as though everything depends on you, then release the outcome as though everything depends on God—which it does.
8. Before enlightenment: chop wood, carry water, pay bills, fix the leaking faucet; after enlightenment: chop wood, carry water, pay bills, fix the leaking faucet—but now you might smile while doing it, seeing the divine play in the mundane.
9. The washing of dishes becomes a meditation when you wash them to wash them, not to finish washing them; the changing of diapers becomes a sacrament when you serve the divine appearing as a helpless infant.
10. You will still experience frustration at bureaucracy, still feel the sting when the world's corruption touches you, still know fatigue and inconvenience—but now you hold these experiences like a bird holds air, necessary for flight yet not clung to.
11. The awakened one who still needs coffee is not less awakened—embodiment has its requirements, and honoring them is part of honoring the divine play of manifestation.
12. So pay your taxes with equanimity, navigate unjust laws with wisdom, give the world what it demands while keeping your heart free—you are the actor playing the role perfectly while remembering you are also the playwright, the audience, and the empty stage.
13. Live in the world as though planting a garden in borrowed soil: tend it carefully, knowing you do not own it; grow beauty, knowing it is temporary; offer its fruits, knowing you are not entitled to them—this is yukta vairagya, the sacred art of full engagement without spiritual ownership, of total participation without existential attachment.
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