Chapter 6 - Action

In this chapter, swamiji has introduced us to the idea of action. One must remember that life is action. Thus, "none" can remain without action. What differentiates human beings from animals is that our actions have  a purpose, and a motive -- the truth of which is only visible within. The achievement of our goals are often clouded by that motive.

Swamiji, in this chapter, divides human beings into three classes -- Laborers, Workers, and Persons of achievement. They form a continuum between utterly selfish work, as opposed to utterly selfless work. The figure below provides a summarized classification of the differences between the different typologies of personalities.

It is important to note that the classification is not literal, rather figurative. The fundamental difference is in the level of egocentric actions, and its consequences for the individual.



In general, laborers "labor" thorough life finding everything is a problem. Resistances are harder to overcome. In contrast person of achievement is like a windsurfer who does not get concerned about the short-term obstacles, and puts the highest premium to "doing the right thing" irrespective of their individual desires.  When this is done with an ideal that is high enough to include vast swathes of humanity, the role of individual ego relative to the ideals become small in comparison to the importance to the ideals. 

Lets put this in context. The same desire can also belong to a laborer, worker or person of achievement A student works on learning to improve their knowledge in a particular subject. The grade in a particular course is often regarded as their benchmark for success. 

A laborer works to be at the top of the class by not helping anyone, and working very hard in order to show to the world what a great student they are. The focus is on their smartness.  When the person achieves high grades, they gloat over the fact that they are smarter than others. Here, the individual focus dominates. 

The worker is a student who helps all friends, yet is focused on elevating his entire group to higher academic performance. Yet, they may have selfish interest of wanting to advance their group of friends. Note that here the student still has some selfish interest. In contrast, a student who is a "person of achievement" focuses on the topic for the love of the topic. He/She learns the topic for elevating the knowledge of the topic without regard to their position or the position of the group. An example is the mathematician Ramanujan. He was focused on mathematics for the sake of the subject.  The level of his work was there for everyone to see. He produced work that still inspires mathematicians after decades.  

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