Why Do I Work? - A Poem

[Bijay Raut]

Why Do I Work? - A Poem

Propelled by desire,
Or stung by fear,
One works for these reasons,
One may also work,
To meet the both ends,
Or to feed one’s family,

There is a ray of light that I see,
That entices me to reach to it,
There is a bridge to that end,
It traverses through the path of toil,
The toil is work,
The work that has become a joy,
Because the goal is not mere survival,
But emancipation from this veil of the Maya,

The work then is a play,
The work then is a hope,
The work then is a passage,
To the distant land of realization,

I work not just to meet my ends,
Or to fulfill my desires and duties,
But to purify my mind and body,
To reach to the altar of the divine,

I work to see the people close to me happy,
To see them go beyond the duality of never ending needs,
To a place where work is a pure joy,
To be in that sole service of the divine,
Is why I work.

-Bijay Raut, September 17, 2008.