Celebrating the
Unity of Life
Kahlil Gibran
Kahlil Gibran
The painting
“Ploughman with Woman Planting Potatoes”, by Vincent van Gogh
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An Editorial
Note:
The following fragment is a poem
in prose on the value of Karma Yoga.
It shows there is no separation between
inner contemplation and outward action.
Work and meditation must go together.
The text is reproduced from the book
“The Prophet”, by Kahlil Gibran, Senate,
Singapore, 2004,
114 pp., see pp. 32-35.[1]
(Carlos Cardoso
Aveline)
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...Then a ploughman said [to the
Prophet], Speak to us of Work.
And he answered, saying:
You work that you may keep
pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.
For to be idle is to become
a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life’s procession that marches
in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite.
When you work you are a
flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music.
Which of you would be a
reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?
Always you have been told
that work is a curse and labour a misfortune.
But I say to you that when
you work you fulfil a part of earth’s furthest dream, assigned to you when that
dream was born,
And in keeping yourself with
labour you are in truth loving life,
And to love life through
labour is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret.
But if you in your pain call
birth an affliction and the support of the flesh a curse written upon your
brow, then I answer that naught but the sweat of your brow shall wash away that
which is written.
You have been told also that
life is darkness, and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary.
And I say that life is indeed
darkness save when there is urge,
And all urge is blind save
when there is knowledge.
And all knowledge is vain
save when there is work,
And all work is empty save
when there is love;
And when you work with love
you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God.[2]
And what is it to work with
love?
It is to weave the cloth
with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that
cloth.
It is to build a house with
affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.
It is to sow seeds with
tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat
the fruit.
It is to charge all things
your fashion with a breath of your own spirit,
And to know that all the
blessed dead are standing about you and watching.
Often have I heard you say,
as if speaking in sleep, “He who works in marble, and finds the shape of his
own soul in the stone, is nobler than he who ploughs the soil.
“And he who seizes the
rainbow to lay it on a cloth in the likeness of man, is more than he who makes
the sandals for our feet.”
But I say, not in sleep, but
in the overwakefulness of noontide, that the wind speaks not more sweetly to
the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass;
And he alone is great who
turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.
Work is love made visible.
And if you cannot work with
love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and
sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
For if you bake bread with
indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger.
And if you grudge the
crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine.
And if you sing though as
angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the
day and the voices of the night.
NOTES:
[1] The present fragment was also published in the July
2013 edition of “The Aquarian
Theosophist”, under the title “Speaking
of the Effort”. (CCA)
[2] In Theosophy, the term “God” means no monotheistic
deity. The word does only make sense if understood as meaning the Universal
Law. (CCA)
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On the role of the esoteric movement in
the ethical awakening of mankind during the 21st century, see the book “The Fire and Light of Theosophical
Literature”, by Carlos Cardoso Aveline.
Published in
2013 by The Aquarian Theosophist,
the volume has 255 pages and can be obtained through Amazon Books.
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