Fear Of Old Age (The Guidelines of Vedanta IV)

Add as a preferred source on Google

Do Your Duties and Do Your Best.

Vedanta says that life is interdependent, not independent. Our individual life is sustained by receiving support from others. Our body is reproduced from the parental cells. Our food is gathered from the vegetable and animal worlds. Our individual mind-stuff is derived from the cosmic source. Many have to suffer and many have to die to keep us alive.

The human, superhuman, and sub-human worlds are bound together by a tie of spiritual unity. Therefore we have duties to others, duties to God the Creator and the sages, to fellow human beings, to the vegetable and animal worlds, to parents, and to departed ancestors. By doing our duties we recognize that bond of unity and overcome our selfishness and greed, and attain to peace and tranquillity.

Receiving and giving are the two aspects of living. When we were born, we received help from others for our growth, support, and development. When we grow up, we are expected to repay our indebtedness to others by doing our duties to the best of our ability. Those who do not or cannot repay are forced to live a miserable and demeaning life, and their old age is haunted by feelings of self-defeat and unworthiness.

Contribute to the Welfare of Others.

One of the cardinal teachings of Vedanta is that all existence is one: there is one Self that lives in all; there is one life that pulsates in the whole universe. Each individual is like a leaf of a huge tree. Leaves grow and fall in their due time, but the tree continues to exist. When we ignore the fact of oneness, our individual existence becomes separative and delusive. Because of the oneness of existence, our individual welfare depends upon the welfare of the totality. Thus, by doing good to others we really do good to ourselves.

We experience the joy of self-expansion. Swami Vivekananda says: 'They alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive.' Self-sacrifice for the good of others is the highest virtue. The Bhagavad Gita (II.40) designates this virtue as the greatest dharma: 'In this selfless action, no effort is ever lost and no harm is ever done. Even very little of this dharma saves a man from the Great Fear. There is an ancient verse that says: 'Since death is certain for the body, let this body be used for the good of others.' According to the Bhagavad Gita, the doer of good is the best among the yogis (VI.32): 'Him I hold to be the supreme yogi, O Arjuna, who looks upon the pleasure and pain of all beings as he looks upon them in himself.'15 Further, the Bhagavad Gita (VI.40) says: 'O Partha, there is no destruction for him either in this world or the next: no evil, My son, befalls a man who does good.'

Our selfless actions for the good of others help us to break down the walls of our separative existence, and bring us in contact with our ageless true Self. This contact with our true Self puts an end to all our sorrows and sufferings.

About the author

Swami Adiswarananda

Swami Adiswarananda, the Minister-in-charge of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Centre, New York, USA, is a senior monk of the Ramakrishna Order. He is a well-known thinker and contributes articles to various journals.

Chat With The Devotees Of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa