In Focus

• FLYING HIGH WITH JOY By Ma Anand Bhagawati
• Work and the Mystery of Destiny By Swami Chaitanya Keerti
• Loving What You Do By Ma Prem Tao
• But why? Why don't we enjoy ourselves in the workplace?
  By Ma Prem Gitamo
• Joy at workplace By Ma Deva Priya

It was a cold night in Rajneeshpuram, Oregon. Our community was going through a building crunch: the construction of Hotel Rajneesh needed to be finalized by a certain date because of legal complications involving land use laws that would render the hotel illegal. All of us were working late if not through the night. I was driving a pick-up truck, transporting air conditioning ducts from the factory where they were built to the hotel’s building site. In-between there was nothing to do but sitting silently in the cab.

At some point during that night I was told that the ducts I had just loaded were the last lot to be transported. Upon arrival at the site I had a peak into the makeshift tool shop where Kaveesha was occupied with having all kinds of tools arranged for workers to pick them up when needed. She was tired, I was tired, it was about midnight, and a bunch of tools had been returned and needed to be cleaned and put in their proper niches. There were also filthy bundles of electric cables piled up in a corner that begged attention. We looked at each other, communicated a mutual understanding and then we worked in tandem, cleaned every tool and stored it, rubbed down those cables, rolled them up, until the area looked like a perfect display of new tools in a store! Workers coming in to pick up supplies were blown away not only by the neatness but by the love that they felt was put into those tools, and all the while we were enjoying ourselves so much, we were flying high deep into the night!

This is a small memorable example of ‘joy in the workplace’. If whatever I do, I do with love, focus and intent, even mundane tasks become a joy to complete. There is no difference to me making a pasta sauce for dinner, or writing an article, or setting up a business spread sheet on the computer, or weeding the garden. I enjoy what I am doing as long as I stay with the task in the here and now.

The mind might come in, yakking away that rather than cooking right now in this heat, I should be at the pool, or rather than filling in this pesky spread sheet, I could be gossiping with my neighbor, and so on ad nauseam.

But as they say in Germanglish, “vee have vays”:  just by shifting my focus totally on the work on hand the mind slips on an invisible banana peel right out of sight! And suddenly the fingers are flying over the keyboard, the brain cells compute with utter clarity, the hand wielding the cooking spoon creates a delicious tomato sauce brimming with love and spices.

“There should be a passion flowing between you and your work. When really you have found your vocation, it is a love affair. It is not that you have to do it. It is not that you have to force yourself to do it. Suddenly you do it in a totally different way you had not known before. Your steps have a difference dance, your heart goes on humming. Your whole system functions for the first time at the optimum. It is a fulfillment. Through it you will find your being -- it will become a mirror; it will reflect you. Whatsoever it is -- a small thing.

It is not a question that only great things become vocations no. A small thing. You may be making toys for children, or making shoes, or weaving cloth -- or whatsoever.

It doesn't matter what it is, but if you love it, if you have fallen in love with it; if you are flowing with no reservation, if you are not withholding yourself, if you are not dragging -- dancingly moving into it -- it will cleanse you, it will purify you. Your thinking by and by will disappear. It will be a silent music, and by and by you will feel that it is not only work, it is your being. Each step fulfilled, something in you flowers.

And richest is the man who has found his vocation. And richest is the man who starts feeling a fulfillment through his work. Then the whole life becomes a worship.

Work should be a worship, but that's possible only when your being starts to be more meditative. Through meditation you will gather courage. Through meditation you will gather courage to throw the profession and to move towards the vocation.”
OSHO
Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega Vol. 7, Chapter 6, Question 4

Many of us were blessed to have had so many opportunities in the various communes to experience work as worship! I don’t remember any friends who were miserable during those times, but I do remember the beaming happy face of a Swami who cleaned the public toilets, and the smiling Ma mopping up the kitchen floor for the umpteenth time. There was love and care in every gesture and movement, and such passion...

This is where the point is reached where time has disappeared and only HERE AND NOW exists. Forgotten are worries, plans for the future and t memories of the past.

Being total results in joy emanating out of every corner of your being!

- Ma Anand Bhagawati

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I had rarely known the joy of working before I met Osho. It was always a burden, a duty towards the family members who were dependent on me for some reason. It was more of being a martyr for those who always expected me to work for them.

One day it all changed when I met Osho and took initiation into sannyas in Mumbai. This sannyas was not a renunciation of work or the world as is traditionally understood about sannyas. A new work started the very next day after sannyas, but it was very playful, and with the spirit of sharing with a much more wider world than a small family which I belonged to before sannyas.

I had been writing educational books together with two authors before I met Osho in 1971. I was 21 year old when I became a sannyasin. Osho had no ashram for me to settle down. He sent me to travel with a kirtan mandali of sannyasins. I joined this group for an year and half and then I expressed my desire to publish a magazine from Punjab for spreading Osho's vision all over India. Osho gave me the name for the magazine immediately. At the age of 23 I became the editor of Osho's monthly Hindi magazine.

On 21st of March, 1974, Shree Rajneesh ashram started at Koregaon Park in Pune. I went to Pune to see Osho in October-November. Osho invited me to live in the ashram and edit Rajneesh Newsletter, fortnightly in Hindi. The first issue of this paper --both Hindi and English editions--got published on Osho's birthday,11 December 1974. One month before the publication, when I was sitting in Darshan with Osho and our conversation ended, I touched his feet, I remember he told me in Hindi: Kam me lag jao. This meant "engage yourself in work", and it meant this work was my meditation.

Osho's work has always been a meditation for me since 1974 to this day. This work involved editing his books, editing his magazines and contributing articles to various newspapers in India, and abroad, if possible. Osho gave me the work that gave me joy always. Though seemingly I chose this work myself. Many new dimensions have always been opening in this work, and I never seem to be tired of it. Work becomes really tiresome when it is imposed on you and you don't want to do it. You don't look at watch when you are doing something after your heart. you look at watch only when you do something that you don't want to do. Your mind resents it. You hate it. You feel relieved when it is over. And the work you really want to do, becomes your passion. You pour your being, love and creativity into it. And it gives you efficiency which is unique.

Lord Krishna says to Arjuna in Gita: Yoga Karmasu Kaushlam. Be efficient in your workwhatever you doand your work becomes worship. According to Osho, whatever we do we should meditatively, and then the whole quality changes. This simple work becomes our offering to God, and blessings shower on us.

Osho adds another very beautiful dimension to work as a joy of creativity. He says: If you really want to be creative, then there is no question of money, success, prestige, respectability -- then you enjoy your activity; then each act has an intrinsic value. You dance because you like dancing; you dance because you delight in it. If somebody appreciates, good, you feel grateful. If nobody appreciates, it is none of your business to be worried about it. You danced, you enjoyed -- you are already fulfilled. But this belief of being uncreative can be dangerous -- drop it! Nobody is uncreative -- not even trees, not even rocks. People who have known trees and loved trees, know that each tree creates its own space, each rock creates its own space. It is like nobody else's space. If you become sensitive, if you become capable of understanding, through empathy, you will be tremendously benefited. You will see each tree is creative in its own way; no other tree is like that -- each tree is unique; each tree has individuality, each rock has individuality. Trees are not just trees -- they are people. Rocks are not just rocks – they are people. Go and sit by the side of a rock -- watch it lovingly, touch it lovingly, feel it lovingly.

It is said about a Zen master that he was able to pull very big rocks, remove very big rocks -- and he was a very fragile man. It was almost impossible looking at his physiology! Stronger men, very much stronger than him, were unable to pull those rocks, and he would simply pull them very easily.

He was asked what his trick was. He said, "There is no trick -- I love the rock so the rock helps. First I say to her, 'Now my prestige is in your hands, and these people have come to watch. Now help me, cooperate with me.' Mm? -- then I simply hold the rock lovingly... and wait for the hint. When the rock gives me the hint -- it is a shudder, my whole spine starts vibrating -- when the rock gives me the hint that she is ready, then I move. You move against the rock; that's why so much energy is needed. I move with the rock, I flow with the rock. In fact, it is wrong to say that I remove it -- I am simply there. The rock removes itself."

One great Zen master was a carpenter, and whenever he made tables, chairs, somehow they had some ineffable quality in them, a tremendous magnetism. He was asked, "How do you make them?"

He said, "I don't make them. I simply go to the forest: the basic thing is to enquire of the forest, of trees, which tree is ready to become a chair."

Now these things look absurd -- because we don't know, we don't know the language. For three days he would remain in the forest. He would sit under one tree, under another tree, and he would talk to trees -- and he was a mad man! But a tree is to be judged by its fruit, and this master has also to be judged by his creation. A few of his chairs still survive in China -- they still carry a magnetism. You will just be simply attracted; you will not know what is pulling you. After a thousand years! -- something tremendously beautiful. He said, "I go and I say that I am in search of a tree who wants to become a chair. I ask the trees if they are willing; not only willing: cooperating with me, ready to go with me -- only then. Sometimes it happens that no tree is ready to become a chair -- I come empty-handed."

It happened: The Emperor of China asked him to make him a stand for his books. And he went and after three days he said, "Wait -- no tree is ready to come to the palace."

After three months the Emperor again enquired. The carpenter said, "I have been going continuously. I am persuading. Wait -- one tree seems to be leaning a little bit." Then he persuaded one tree. He said, "The whole art is there! – when the tree comes of its own accord. Then she is simply asking the help of the carpenter."

Each man comes into this world with a specific destiny -- he has something to fulfill, some message has to be delivered, some work has to be completed. You are not here accidentally -- you are here meaningfully. There is a purpose behind you. The Whole intends to do something through you.

- Swami Chaitanya Keerti

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The man lay dying, a sprinkling of people silently sitting around his death-bed. He made a motion for the nurse to come close and as she did he ever so slightly turned his head to say something to her. She leaned closer and with his last words he said......
             “I only regret one thing. I wish I had spent more time at the office.”

Not very likely!!!

Why do so many people work day after day in jobs they hate? It's the majority of the world's population in fact.  I reckon it's the successful collusion between all of Society's institutions; the family, the educational system in schools at all levels, in churches and in the belief system that is floating around us in the very air waves, that keeps all of this mis-information in place.

In short (because I'm not very tall) people don't know that it can be different. And that they are supposed to love their life, find work that is exhilarating and to expect joy and satisfaction. There it is.  If you are amongst those who know that life is to be abundant and exquisite, then realize how lucky you are. You have graduated from the mass (un)consciousness.

Many studies have been done on this subject, some to educate those caught in the old thinking and help them leap out, expect more from life, to reach in and reach out and find creative, meaningful, rewarding career goals, not least of which is to be happy and fulfilled.  Alexander Kjerulf, AKA Chief Happiness Officer, is one of the world's leading experts in happiness at work and the best-selling author of 3 books including Happy Hour is 9 to 5.  See his Top Ten Reasons below linking happy workers with greater productivity..

An extensive survey carried out by the Conference Boards Consumer Research Center a couple of years ago suggests that more people at this time are unhappy with their jobs than at any other time in the last twenty years.  And I quote:

“Most Americans Hate Their Jobs
....The statistics vary according to age group, with older people generally being happier in their work. Maybe we're more likely to have found a job we like as we grow older, or maybe we have just learned to accept our situation for what it is.
The shocking figures are as follows:
Less than 39 percent of Americans under 25 are satisfied with their jobs.
Less than 45 percent of Americans aged 45 to 54 are satisfied with their jobs.
Less than 50 percent of Americans over the age of 55 are satisfied with their jobs.
However, twenty years ago when the survey was first conducted, 61 percent of all Americans said they were satisfied with their jobs. It looks like things are getting worse...”

I actually think it's a good sign, that people are wanting more from their lives and not just mechanically settling for whatever is handed to them. There’s a clear link between happiness at work and productivity. This only leaves the question of causation. Does being productive make us happy or does being happy make us productive? The answer is, of course, yes! The link goes both ways. It is a proven scientific fact that people who are happy in their work live healthier, richer, fuller, more stress-free lives and produce a better product in their job. For simplicity's sake product here can be any result of their work, including a service of some kind.

These are people whom either enjoy their work environment, their colleagues, job title, rewards and benefits, or simply enjoy what they are offering, feeling a sense of pride, purpose, accomplishment, or meaningful contribution through what they do.

In my business, I hire outside people to provide creative services for my weddings  such as florists, lei-makers, photographers, musicians, caterers, limousine drivers, butterfly growers, helicopter pilots and so on.  My choice of individual has always been towards those who absolutely love what they do, as well as being very good at it. How I came to this, was noticing that people who worked with passion and joy had a special quality to what they offered, which was superior to other providers of similar services. And of those whose service meant participation in the wedding I found them more fully present and happy to be of service to the couple. They were much more fun to work with, more relaxed and adept at creatively going with the flow when we had unexpected kinks in the works. And it felt to me during the event as if an unspoken universal love factor bound us all as into one big  rolling ball of bliss as we offered our gifts to the wedding couple.

I have to love what I do, feel a sense of meaning or purpose with it otherwise I'm left flat, even if appreciated by others. I have found that creativity and creative ideas are stimulated from joy and enthusiasm; from expansion not contraction. If someone feels like a cog in a wheel questioning the value of what he is doing, his life force ekes out more and more from lack of feeding and watering, until he is like a dead man working. Where people are treated as insignificant and their contribution unappreciated, they also tend to give less and less as time goes on, so it's very important for employers to keep this in mind and consider how they can motivate and appreciate those who are in service to their business.

Here are Alexander Kjerulf's top 10: Why happiness at work is the ultimate productivity booster.
1 Happy people work better with others
2: Happy people are more creative
3: Happy people fix problems instead of complaining about them
4: Happy people have more energy
5: Happy people are more optimistic
6: Happy people are way more motivated
7: Happy people get sick less often
8: Happy people learn faster
9: Happy people worry less about making mistakes  and consequently make fewer ones.
10: Happy people make better decisions

I'm taking a left turn here now to give at least honorable mention to the Spiritual side of things and use myself as an example.  Being intrinsically lazy, I am not willingly a draft horse or wanting to work for the sake of working. Nor do I wish to do things that I don't like doing, where I use very little of my heart and soul self, or where it is hard to find any intrinsic value, or real meaning and purpose. What really rocks my boat though and sincerely moves me to action, without hesitation or thought, is when it comes from within. Spirit speaks, rises up through me and I feel lit up and have to jump into action and make it happen. This comes with such passion and enthusiasm and with an unstoppable energy that has nothing to do with efforting. It is like a well-spring that rises up and never tires, seeming to always replenish itself with even more freshness. These are my moments of absolute joy and knowing without a doubt why I am here. These moments are heaven.

Unfortunately, they are the less frequent moments that come between long dry spells with no particular inspiration, guiding feeling or specified direction. As I really love some modicum of comfort and beauty, dare I say luxury and enjoy eating regularly, I have to find things to do in between, even though these are not even distantly related to the calling to ecstatic action which is effortless, pure bliss and always rewarding.   At these other times I am either doing what is needed, or forcing myself to do, or working hard to love what I am doing in the moment, while waiting for doing what I love to come along.
It is essential, more so for some, to be inspired and for our hearts and souls to sing with joy while we are engaged in our work, and to feel that a contribution beyond oneself is being made. And when that is not possible, it is possible through meditation and a sheer willingness to enjoy whatever we are doing, to elevate ourselves and those moments. And although that is admirable on one hand, to bring an upbeat quality to as many moments as possible even if not perfect, it is still at a fundamental level, a false and forced act. 

Each man comes into this world with a specific destiny -- he has something to fulfill, some message has to be delivered, some work has to be completed. You are not here accidentally -- you are here meaningfully. There is a purpose behind you. The Whole intends to do something through you
OSHO
Source.unknown 

I wish for all men and women: find a way to see your uniqueness and value, to feel that your work, your presence, your personal offering, has been in some way of undeniable contribution to the whole. And to live in this world knowing this very particular quality of joy, and leave it knowing you have sung your song.

- Ma Prem Tao

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After taking a sabbatical for several years  when I recently started working again I was stuck by this point forcibly. As such I didn’t need to work in the sense , my finances were adequately met by  but it just seemed  that the wind was blowing favorably in the direction in which I would once again take up work again (after 12  very short years of not working).

And as I didn’t need to work I was, and still am determined to enjoy my  time in the office as much as I do at home.. Need is such an ugly word. It makes you a slave or rather creates a perception that you are a slave, bonded by the circumstances. But if anyone looks at things clearly, with no clouds misting their eyes, everyone’s needs are but few. And these few needs can be  very easily met by resources available to us.  To own two cars just because your neighbor or perhaps closer to heart some relative has them is plain stupid. One question that needs to be asked and answered with sincerity is that do you work to live happily or live to work . Priorities should be clear. Osho gives the example of a successful and famous surgeon who would much rather have been a carpenter but who didn’t  take it up as he was not very good at it.

So, choosing the type of work you are going to do is  of  foremost  importance. As our Guru Osho says  ‘The point is that whatsoever you are doing is not against your being, and that your being and your doing go together hand in hand, in a dance. Then each experience is a growth experience, and out of each experience it is not only that your work grows, you grow. And it is not only that your work succeeds -- you succeed... and that is the real value.’
OSHO

And if the work is to their liking,  even then people don’t enjoy work as they take it so seriously. They don’t break into a song if they feel like it, don’t laugh with their seniors and bosses and keep a distance from their juniors. Its as if they are carrying a mountain of responsibilities and duties on their shoulders. And  what they don’t realize is that they do more harm than good  by adopting this attitude. A very famous  but misinterpreted hindi saying comes to the mind in which a renowned Saint says that no animal or bird seem to be doing any work but the almighty takes care of everyone. One interpretation of this is that since they are doing work which is a intrinsic part of their nature, its almost as if they are not working, that God is acting thru them and taking care of them.

I also feel  that it is the tendency of mind to ‘divide and rule ‘, so apparent in this terminology workplace is another reason people don’t enjoy their workplaces.  So,  first and foremost there is no such place called the workplace.  Life is just a flow, an extension with no demarcations. Office flows into home just as home flows into office.  Either everyone is family or putting it upside down  everyone is a stranger. Both are equally right.. Once we let go and just look  and not say mentally, this is a friend, this a relative, and so on , much can happen. One can relax and let go , not feel tense  and get involved totally in what on is doing, one would not feel drained by the work but  would rather draw energy from it.

Then work and meditation become the same.

- Ma Prem Gitamo

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The first time I started work was when I was 12 years old in Rajneeshpuram in Oregon, USA. As I was studying in Ko Hsuan School our commune program included work in the evenings for a few hours. We often changed our departments as Osho wanted all the kids to learn different skills and explore in different dimensions of the commune. I was given all kinds of work from cleaning to chopping veggies to baking yummy cakes and muffins in the kitchen, to finance – taking care of cash and accounts of our ranch, to working with the tough guys in the construction crew, to designing jewelry and learning the finest details of stone work.

Work was called worship. People would ask each other “Where do you worship?” It was a beautiful revelation to me that by simply using the word "worship" the whole quality of work would change. Our work space would become a place of meditation. The commune was a rare experiment to learn flexibility, to learn non- possessiveness and move in different work situations. It was impossible to hold on to any position or status at work for too long. There were no higher or lower jobs. A toilet cleaner would be as much respected as a secretary in an office. In fact a periodical rotation of jobs was a must for everyone.

Even though the set up of the commune was to work for twelve to fourteen hours a day - all the seven days of the week, yet the atmosphere was of joy and playfulness. This was the magic of being in the presence of an enlightened master. Work was out of our love for him and not out of ambition, there was no goal but a deep gratitude of being surrounded by His presence. There was no reward or punishment – just the satisfaction of being in the commune was the fulfillment.

Hence, the nature of work did not matter. It was the quality of joy and celebration that made work so much fun.

In the last year of the ranch I was sent to the commune in Hamburg, Germany for six months. This was the exchange program where the kids from other European communes could come and be with Osho at the ranch and we were sent in place of them. No two friends were sent together to the same commune, the emphasis was to explore the unknown, to work and be in a totally new country, in a new environment. I had the most enjoyable time discovering the place and making new friends. I loved working in the creative department designing advertisements, in the evenings I would work in the commune restaurant learning different cuisines. On the weekends I was sent to Hannover which is a two hour
drive from Hamburg to help in the Zorba the Buddha discotheque. I have never been as joyous as I was then doing so many diverse jobs at such a young age, I have often asked myself – Was it presence of Osho? Or was it my totality, my longing to be with him?  Every time I see the ranch videos I am amazed to see our faces radiating joy and bliss that are not seen in the world outside. From the exterior it appeared a tough life as the whole emphasis was on work but it was through work that we all went through major transformations internally. It was not work in the ordinary sense; but the Master's device to create situations for our growth.

 In Pune commune I was given more responsible jobs of working in the finance and legal departments. This involved more presence of mind. And there was another aspect of watching ourselves how we behaved with each other when we had differences with our co-workers and coordinators. Situations did create some conflicts or heaviness that easily evaporated during our daily evening meditations. Just sitting, singing, dancing, celebrating at the feet of the master, and listening to his words in deep silence would wash away all our tensions and conflicts. We could joyfully laugh off and become unburdened and fresh again. Disturbing thoughts, stress at work, unnecessary anxiety would simply melt away. Dynamic meditation in the morning and white robe in the evening was the key to all kinds of crisis.

Now I happen to be the part of the administrative set up at Osho Nisarga, a meditation center in the Himalayas. Once again it is a new situation--quite isolated location, far away from the city life of Pune which I got used to and where I had the maximum number of friends. Sometimes it is also quite challenging to continuously be here and work with people all day. But the master-key that I continue to possess remains the same: Understanding my own individuality and respecting the uniqueness of other individuals, it makes the place a sacred space where we continue to blossom. And of course the daily meditations, the beautiful groups and programs keep on flowing in the foot-hills of majestic Himalayas! Though some times we may forget that work is worship, which is quite possible and very human too.

- Ma Deva Priya

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