Swami Vivekananda: KARMA-YOGA

[web bird]

"Work through freedom! Work through love! … Therefore true love can never react so as to cause pain either to the lover or to the beloved. Suppose a man loves a woman; he wishes to have her all to himself and feels extremely jealous about her every movement; he wants her to sit near him, to stand near him, and to eat and move at his bidding. He is a slave to her and wishes to have her as his slave. That is not love; it is a kind of morbid affection of the slave, insinuating itself as love. It cannot be love, because it is painful; if she does not do what he wants, it brings him pain. With love there is no painful reaction; love only brings a reaction of bliss; if it does not, it is not love; it is a mistaking something else for love. When you have succeeded in loving your husband, your wife, your children, the whole world, the universe, in such a manner that there is no reaction of pain or jealousy, no selfish feeling, then you are in a fit state to be unattached. Krishna says: Look at Me, Arjuna! If I stop from work for one moment the whole universe will die. I have nothing to gain from work; I am the one Lord, but why do I work? Because I love the world." (Swami Vivekananda: Karma-Yoga)

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web bird

[MJA]

And Arjuna,
Rather than war, love thy enemy as thyself, and the world will live as One.

=
MJA

[SteveA]

Thank for the posts and I just wanted to add something - love itself just the motivation, but it doesn't necessary give "good results" without the wisdom and direction also.

If you had a bad habit you wanted to break or if you were doing something that threatened yourself, then love is also not promoting the habit and limiting the threat as well.

With a bit longer view it might end up being "Love works in mysterious ways"