Attitudes to Work

In the light of the spiritual, no work is high or low in itself; it is the attitude of the worker that makes a work high or low. The discipline and control of this attitude is the contribution of spiritual philosophy to human life and work. The small man, in the light of this philosophy, is not the man who does what is, in the secular estimate of society, small work, but who does any work in a small way. Even small work becomes big when done by a great man; and conversely, big work becomes small when done by a small man. Kabir weaving cloth on a loom or Gandhi spinning thread on a charka helped to raise the status of the humble loom and charka. On the other hand, a greedy priest or a corrupt politician lowers the status of the high calling of priesthood or politics. How much the inner man counts in all fields of outer work is evident from these and other instances. Life without quality is life lived in vain; and quality is a value concept; and values are not mechanical, but spiritual. In the protesting words of Bertrand Russell (The Impact of Science on Society, p. 77):
‘The Machine as an object of adoration is the modern form of Satan, and its worship is the modern diabolism. …‘Whatever else may be mechanical, values are not, and this is something which no political philosopher must forget’.

EXTRACTS FROM: Eternal Values for a Changing Society Volume III – Education for Human Excellence; 17 – Indian Philosophy of Social Work (Pg: 287; ed. 1995)
This was the convocation address at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay on June 3, 1967.