Work is Worship

The first man in this world, Adam, had all that one needs to live (i.e. food and shelter since clothing and luxuries did not exist then). It was not required to earn and fill the stomach, and yet he was expected to engage in gardening by his creator i.e. God. Thus, work comes natural to man. Without work, life would be meaningless and boring. It is through work that one comes across other people, meet them and interact with them. Work, be it that of a student or a professional or a housewife, keeps one occupied. Is it possible to lead a life doing nothing at all, sitting idle all the while? One would have nothing to talk about and nothing to think about. People’s brains would stop working and their body would be paralyzed. Even the sources of pleasure such as movies, books etc won’t be there as nobody is working. Thus, life becomes futile and morbid without work.

Worship is giving reverence to a higher authority. When one worships God, he is conveying his respect and gratitude to him, which in turn is a means of pleasing him. But according to me, the best way to express one’s gratitude to God is to work as hard as possible in ones life. When people work hard, they inform their creator indirectly that they are pleased to be alive and thankful to him for giving them a chance to live. It is only through hard work that one can make maximum of one’s life. Also, the harder one works, with sincerity, honesty and devotion, the more good it brings to the society and the people around, and any act which makes our fellow beings happy is an act of worship. However, work is worship only when it is performed keeping in mind welfare of the people and not its monetary aspects. In that case, the work loses its moral basis and simply becomes a means of earning livelihood, and nothing more.

Work should be enjoyable and pleasurable. It should not be drudgery and a burden. It should come across as if the person engaged in it was born to do it. In today’s industrialized era, one can see how badly the common man is treated. The labor is dismissed as “helping hands”. The capitalists are least concerned about the welfare of the employed men. The only focus is to make profits, making the lives of employees onerous and troublesome. Such form of work is of no use, and in no way a form of worship. The selfish motives of the entrepreneurs and the exploitation of the labor and employees defeat the noble nature of work making it a form of drudgery.