It is because the nation is not people, it is not trees, it is not mountains, it is not earth, and it is not rivers. It is a concept in our mind. A totality of an integration of feeling in us, indescribable rationally, is what we consider as a nation. The nation is just a thought in our minds. It is a concept in our minds. I have been giving some other examples also, many a time, and to illustrate this point I will tell you something very humorous.

There are six hundred members in a parliament. If five hundred of them say something, it becomes an Act. You may certainly agree with me. If five hundred out of six hundred say something, it becomes an Act of the parliament; so the only condition is that five hundred members of the parliament are to say something. Now suppose five hundred of them come here to Rishikesh and sit on the bank of the Ganga and say something. Will it become an Act of parliament? No. Why? You may say that it has to be told in that particular place only, which is called the campus of the parliament. Now, what is the parliament?

You have denied the fact that five hundred people constitute members of the parliament by saying that their saying something here in Rishikesh cannot constitute an Act. It is intriguing indeed. But you say that they should tell it in a particular place, and then only it becomes the parliament. Can you say the place is the parliament? Let all the members get out, and only the place is there. Can you say the building of the parliament house is the parliament? No. The building is not it. So, you are saying that the people are not the parliament, the building also is not the parliament; then, what else is the parliament?

You have got a concept in your mind - a peculiar descriptive notion which you cannot yourself explain. There is a nebulous feeling of what is good and what is bad, and what is right and what is wrong, etc. What I mean to say is that the activity which is known as social welfare work is also a conceptual organisation of the faculty of thinking, in the sense that it is commensurate with the supreme concept of existence Absolute. We may, in one sense, say that God also is a concept - not a concept of any particular individual, but consciousness. When we use the word 'concept', we are identifying it with the activity of the faculty of the mind or the internal organ of a particular individual. But, actually, virtually, it is identical with what we call consciousness, which becomes the essence of God-existence.

So, Thought-Absolute is God, and thought-individual is to participate in Thought-Absolute, the Universal. If this thought-individual which is at the back of every activity can be set in tune with Thought-Absolute, it becomes imperishable work producing a power that can usher we, the soul, in the direction of the achievement of the realisation of universal thought.

It is the mind that is responsible for the determination of the validity of any work - social welfare work, or whatever it is. If the mind is confused and it thinks that it is a temporal activity that it is engaging itself in, then temporal results will follow. All our work will be a waste if we think that all our activity is our activity, because we will go one day; with that, all the things that we did also go.

But our deeds will not perish if the imperishable element in us gives the total concept of activity, universal in its nature, at the back of our motivation. Then it will come with us, even after we shed our body. When we pass away from this world, what we have done follows. But what have we done? We have built a bridge somewhere, or a dam on the river, or a hospital. If this is what is coming with us when we say that dharma will follow us, that right action will follow us, the result of good deeds will follow us, what do we mean by that? Will all the results of hospital-building come with us? What is it that we are thinking about? It is nothing of the kind. It is the extent and the gamut of the universality that has been implanted in our activity - call it social activity, or by any name. The element of universality - the percentage of universality that is present in our motivation, our thought, our speech, and our action - that will come with us.

It is only the Universal that can take us to the Universal. The particular cannot take us there. So, any particular activity cannot take us to the Universal Being. If we think that our activities are particularised, individualised, it is socially in the sense of a work connected with perishable human beings, then that is not going to help us in any way, because one day all people will perish. Then, all the good deeds that we have done for the sake of people also will perish. So, what is the purpose of all this activity?

Activity is the work of God, finally. It is not yours or somebody else's; and so-called social work is nothing but the element of the goodness of God present in our goodness of mind behind the activity. We should not confuse ourselves and go on with an admixture which is chaotic in its nature. Our relationship to God and reality should be known very clearly.

Everything that is done is perishable. Good deeds perish; bad deeds also perish. But the element of universality present in the action will not perish. It is up to each person to remember how much of the universal concept is present in our daily behaviour - or are we totally individualised in our behaviour? If we are a totally individualised personality, then nothing that we do will have any worth. In that sense, usually this social welfare work of the present-day concept of people has to be revamped and refurbished, and it has to be given a proper galvanising touch by the divinity that is to be present in the activities of people.

Is our work having an element of divinity in it? We must put a question to our own self. We are doing a lot of good work. Is it a divine activity, or a mere shell of activity without any substance in it? The divine element is nothing but the universal element. We have to be a little bit of a philosopher and good psychologists to understand the worth of life itself. We cannot be fools and live comfortably in this world, because one day our foolishness will bring the consequence for which we have to repent. We cannot go from this world having achieved nothing worth the while, and with nothing that will come with us when we leave this body.

You please tell me: What will come with you? You will be flabbergasted at this very question. "What for am I living here, if I leave everything here and go, like a beggar, having nothing with me, with empty hands?" No, you are not supposed to go like a beggar. You have to garner the harvest of your good deeds in this world, which is a participation of your total individuality with the total work of the Cosmic Being. This is the relationship between "I am doing everything," as Bhagavan says, and "You also do something. You do something in the sense that you are participating with that which I am doing, so my doing and your doing are interconnected very vitally, inextricably, and organically."

There must be an element of goodness in you in the sense of godliness also, in your personality. Unless you are godly, even in some little modicum, your actions will have no meaning. Have you some half a percentage of godliness in you? Please think over this matter. You have come for the Sadhana Week, for this conference; you are listening to wonderful lectures on spiritual life, etc. Put a question: "Have I one percent of divinity in me, or am I bereft of it totally? Am I a skeleton, with flesh and blood, nerves and muscles? Am I nothing else?" Because if you are only an anatomical structure, a physiological movement which perishes tomorrow, who will go? Nothing will go. There will be a vacuum at the time of passing.

That which is of a permanent nature - the Universal element in us, the divine element - comes with us. That will protect us even today. Even at this very moment of our breathing here, we will be guarded by the divine element present in us. Nobody else can guard us and protect us. There is no friend in this world, really, socially construed. Every friend will desert us one day or the other, when the conditions of social friendship break. Father and mother separate; sons and daughters separate; members go here and there, helter-skelter. There is one friend who is eternally present in us, right from our birth, right from the ages through which we have passed, who will come with us wherever you go.

The great Almighty of the Gita tells us, "Know me as your real friend." Who is our real friend? That great universal Totality of Being is present in us even today - though we are not conscious of it - as a little spark of consciousness, a little intelligence that we have got, our being alive itself. If this consciousness of the principle of universality is present in some modicum, then all our activities are divine. We may do any amount of social welfare work, but it is not social welfare work - it is divine activity. If Bhagavan Sri Krishna did so much work, do we call it social welfare work? Sri Krishna did not do any social welfare work. What has he done then? He has done divine work. But when the divine work takes effect through the personalities of people, it looks like social work. So, godly activity looks like human activity. It may look like human activity; it may take the shape of social activity. It does not matter. But really, it is divine activity. It is God moving - the God in us moving in the element of godliness present in us.

The value of our social welfare work and the good deeds that we perform will depend upon the extent of divinity implanted in our heart. To repeat, it is the universality of existence that is enshrined in our personality that endures. The universal never perishes; the particular always perishes. All particularised activity, therefore, will perish.

So, the question of whether or not social welfare work has any connection with sadhana is a moot question which goes deep into the very core of existence itself. It cannot be answered at once, offhand. It requires in-depth analysis of one's own personality, the structure of being, and one's relationship to the world. We must know how we are related to another person; we must know how we are related to the world outside; then also, we must know how we are related to God. If we say we have no relation, okay; then we will be in a wilderness of confusion. But if we have some relationship, what kind of relationship it is. How are we connected to another person? How are we connected to society? How are we connected to the world of nature? How are we connected to God? Tell me all these things.

You have to study the Bhagavadgita thoroughly - not with a commentary, but under a competent master. Only a God-man can tell you what the Bhagavadgita is teaching. Books and commentaries cannot tell you. You must find such a person. I would advise you to read Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj's commentary, or Jnaneshvar Maharaj's commentary. They are beautiful and will help you to some extent. But yet, as your mind is puerile and unable to grasp the subtle truths of these people, it is good to be under the guidance of a good mentor.

So, I will conclude by saying that social welfare work has a connection with spiritual activity in the sense that it is supposed to be a movement of the human personality in terms of the extent of universality present in it - minus which, social activity has no value at all. It will perish. To the extent that the Universal Supreme Being is implanted in our hearts, to that extent our good deeds are really good deeds. They will do real good to people outside. To the extent we are minus all universal elements in us, our good deeds so-called will perish tomorrow. When we go, they will also go away afterwards. Unless we have a real trust in God, and believe that such a Being exists, and that we are breathing because of the breath of this Almighty, our existence is actually a meaningless parading of human vanity. Against this, we have to guard ourselves.

So again I repeat, social welfare work has connection with our aspiration for God, which is called sadhana. It will be a great blessing for us, and we will be rewarded for it in the afterlife. But it has no connection if we think that we are doing it independently. If we are personally doing it with an individualised motive, then that cannot be regarded as any good deed. It has no spiritual value. In one sense, social welfare activity has a great spiritual value. It is a sadhana by itself, provided that it is a universalised action with a consciousness of our being rooted in the All-pervading Being. That is why Bhagavan Sri Krishna felt a necessity to show the Vishvarupa: "See me, what I am; after that, do your work." So, the work of Arjuna became meaningful only after the vision of the Absolute, which is the Vishvarupa. Before that, he was asking hundreds of questions unnecessarily, and he never got satisfied. When that supreme vision which is cosmic, universal-inclusiveness was seen before him, he began to feel that he is included within that - his activity is its activity, and all social welfare work, good deeds, everything, is its work; and it is also our work, to the extent that we are participating in that wonderful vision.

Do you understand what I am saying? If you have not understood anything, I am sorry for it, because this subject can be carried on for days and days together, in the same way as people can go on writing commentaries endlessly on the Bhagavadgita. The whole life you can speak on this subject, and yet you will find that something is lacking. You will never find the truth of it because you have not tried to implant universality in your life. You always have been a son, a daughter, a boss, a father, mother, sister, brother. This is what you have been. You have never been a child of God, even for a moment. That is why this question has arisen.

I request you to remember that you are a progeny of the Almighty, and you are not a progeny of a mortal father or a mortal mother. This attachment should go. A duty is different from attachment. Duty is a compulsive necessity imposed upon you by your connection with the supreme activity of the cosmos; but other activities are selfish in their nature, motivated by your false feeling that you are a body, a social individual.

This is a great subject, indeed. It is a divine discourse to be actually thinking on this subject, so I conclude that social activity has a spiritual meaning. It is a sadhana, provided the universal element is present. If it is not present, if the universal element is totally absent in our activity, social welfare work has no connection with spiritual life.

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