The axioms of meaningful work

Abstract

One of the central themes in Bhagavad Git? is that work is a very enjoyable activity. Not only work is enjoyable, it is the only way an individual can evolve, flower into a full blown personality and lead a life of contentment. This is in direct conflict with our current understanding of work and its effect on us. A vast majority of people all over the world are increasingly complaining of deprived meaning at their work place. When work becomes less meaningful, it invariably introduces enormous stress in a person and results in what is now frequently discussed, viz., job burnout. The problems of stress and job burnout are not the exclusive domain of office goers. A child studying for the examinations, a home maker attending to household chores, a priest attending to various activities in the temple and a social worker can all experience work stress and job burnout. This is because irrespective of what they are engaged in, they are all doing some work or the other. Therefore, any opportunity of deprived meaning of the work anybody does, will land him/her into similar problems. Given this, we are indeed curious to know how Lord Krishna provides an anti?thesis to this perspective of work and assures us that work could indeed be a fulfilling activity. In the Git?, there are certain prescriptions to work that Lord Krishna points out to Arjuna. These could indeed become the key principles behind approaching work or for that matter in anything that we do in our life. We shall look at five important axioms of work...........................