Sathya Sai Baba The World-Avatar Teaching and Revelations

drinking, intake and release of breath - these too are activities. Who
can exist without these acts?
You derive benefit from the world and from the community and so
some activity on your part is their due. This universe is really a huge
workshop; every human being is a limb in its organization. The limb is
allotted a task in accordance to its structure and it must find its fulfillment
in doing that particular work. Whatever work one has been allotted
has to be done as on offering to God. There is no single thing in
the universe that does not engage itself in this great task. Plant and insect,
stone and stump, wind and rain, heat and cold, if any of these
does not function according to plan, the world cannot exist. The sun
and the moon carry on their routine tasks; wind and fire perform their
duties without demur. If the earth and the sun refuse to do their allotted
duties what will happen to the world? No one who has a body can be
considered superfluous! It is only when each performs his task with
care, that the wheel will move quickly and smoothly.
You may wonder why wise people should work; not only you, but many
others may ask themselves. Well, people usually follow the ideal set
by those in higher positions. Their acts form the basis of duty for all. If
wise people are inactive, how are ordinary mortals to save themselves?
They have no guide and so they lose themselves in the easy
paths of sensory pleasure. The duty of the wise is to foster right and
practice it before others, so that they may be prompted to follow, drawn
by the hope of becoming as contented and as joyful as the wise. (2-
47/48)
It is only in the action that is your very nature that you can have fortitude.
If it is just an assumed duty, you will find it difficult to put up with
the troubles and travails. (...)
Action (karma) that is the expression of your genuine self, your natural
work will sit light, and work done as sense of duty will induce conceit,
or the feeling “I am the doer”; so it will result in exhaustion or elation,
disgust or pride. (2-53/54)
Well. You will grasp the importance of the task of protecting Divine
conduct only when you consider its origin and purpose. God created
this universe on his own initiative and he ordained various codes for
its upkeep and smooth running. There were rules of correct conduct
for every being. (...)
Not only this country, every single thing in the world, has its own spe-
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