PART 1: THE KNOWN DEFINITION
In general, people would describe ideal job satisfaction as a situation in which they are able to do what they love, and consequently, love what they do and earn income from such work as well.
Everyone is always doing something. No one can refrain from doing anything, not even for a moment. Action is the symptom of life. Only a dead body would not do anything. The spirit soul is the active principle in the body. It powers the entire body just as electricity powers a machine.
In the material world, everyone is forced to work. Otherwise, even maintaining one’s own body becomes impossible. If given a choice, no one would want to work a job. Everyone would want to gratify their senses without limit in a variety of different ways. But because we have to survive, we are obliged to work. It is basically a struggle for existence.
Those who are blind to the knowledge of spiritual reality want to make a compromise by making this struggle as comfortable as possible. Thus they invent phrases like “job satisfaction.” Out of illusion, conditioned souls consider their distress to be their happiness. They want to enjoy their distress instead of inquiring how to come out of such distressful conditions.
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam compares such materialists to camels. Why? Śrīla Prabhupāda explains the nature of a camel very nicely in the purport to
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam [2.3.19] as follows: “The camel is a kind of animal that takes pleasure in eating thorns. The camel sucks its own blood while chewing thorny twigs. The thorns the camel eats cut the tongue of the camel, and so blood begins to flow within the camel’s mouth. The thorns, mixed with fresh blood, create a taste for the foolish camel, and so he enjoys the thorn-eating business with false pleasure. Similarly, the great business magnates, industrialists who work very hard to earn money by different ways and questionable means, eat the thorny results of their actions mixed with their own blood. Therefore the Bhāgavatam has situated these diseased fellows along with the camels.”
Sometimes, people think that if their work can create a positive impact on the world, however small, they think their job satisfaction is achieved. The reality, however, is that their so-called solutions will help the recipients only temporarily and is not a permanent solution for all their problems. Moreover, such solutions can give rise to problems in some other way. That is the way of materialistic counteraction of distress. Furthermore, none of the solutions can remove the perennial problems of birth, death, old age and disease. Actually, therefore, there is no satisfaction. It ends in frustration. Only Kṛṣṇa consciousness provides the complete solution for all problems.
Chasing illusory sense gratification, foolish materialists undergo great tribulations but still consider themselves happy under the powerful spell of the Lord’s illusory energy, Māyā. Moreover, all endeavors and achievements of the materialists are robbed from them at the time of death. So ultimately, there is no satisfaction in the whole process. Both the means and the end are miserable. This is materialistic “job satisfaction” in a nutshell. Lord Kṛṣṇa has already certified this material world as duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam [Bhagavad-gītā 8.15] — ”a temporary abode of misery.” There is no possibility of undoing that.
PART 2: THE REAL JOB SATISFACTION (THE GOAL)
But thankfully, real job satisfaction does exist. But we are looking for it in the wrong place. We are trying to look for it in the gratification of our senses but we will never find it there just like we cannot find any real fruits in the reflection of a tree on the surface of the water.
The material world is a perverted reflection of the spiritual world just as much as a reflection of a tree on the surface of a lake. The reflected tree resembles an upside-down tree and seems to have the same fruits as the real tree but one cannot enjoy the fruits in the reflection. If one at all wants to enjoy the fruits, he has to stop his vain search in the water. He has to climb the real tree and eat the fruits from there.
Similarly, job satisfaction is not entirely an illusion. There is real job satisfaction which is described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam [1.2.6] as follows:
sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo
yato bhaktir adhokṣaje
ahaituky apratihatā
yayātmā suprasīdati
“The supreme occupation [dharma] for all humanity is that by which men can attain to loving devotional service unto the transcendent Lord. Such devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted to completely satisfy the self.”
There is a lot to unpack in this verse. Firstly, one must understand one’s constitutional identity with the help of a bona fide spiritual master who instructs, without misinterpretation, from the revealed scriptures like the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Without understanding one’s identity, one cannot adequately determine what is good for him and what is not. Our constitutional position is explained by Lord Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā [15.7] as follows:
mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke
jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ
manaḥ-ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi
prakṛti-sthāni karṣati
“The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal, fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.”
Just like a finger is a fragmental part and parcel of the body, we are a fragmental part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. But it is not that we have become divided at some point. We have been a separate fragment eternally. This is conveyed by the usage of the word sanātanaḥ. Some Māyāvādī philosophers give the analogy of a sheet of paper to falsely come up with the conclusion of transformation. That is, they say that if a paper is torn into small bits and pieces, or fragments, the original paper is now gone and is transformed into the bits and pieces. Similarly, we are now bits and pieces of Kṛṣṇa that have been separated from Him and because of this, Kṛṣṇa has now been transformed into all His diverse energies. Therefore there is no separate existence of God apart from the cosmos.
But the word sanātanaḥ, meaning eternal, refutes that idea. By that word, it is meant that we are always His separated parts and parcels, eternally; not that we were separated at one point and now we have to merge into Him again.
Vaiṣṇavas, or devotees of Viṣṇu, or Kṛṣṇa, accept the correct Vedic conclusion of byproducts instead of transformation. This is explained in the Īśopaniṣad (Invocation), the foremost of all the Upaniṣads as follows:
oṁ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idaṁ
pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate
pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya
pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate
“The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.” So His identity or existence is not transformed into the living entities and His other energies. They are His byproducts. He still exists as the primeval source of everything.
A finger cannot be nourished on its own. It has to cooperate with the interests of the stomach in order to be adequately nourished. It must agree to work for the satisfaction of the stomach. It has to work hard for earning money and after that, it must put the food in the mouth and into the stomach. If the finger wants to eat the food by itself instead, it can never get satisfied.
Similarly, we are meant for cooperating with the will of the Supreme Lord, being His parts and parcels. When the stomach is satisfied, all the bodily limbs are automatically nourished and strengthened.
yathā taror mūla-niṣecanena
tṛpyanti tat-skandha-bhujopaśākhāḥ
prāṇopahārāc ca yathendriyāṇāṁ
tathaiva sarvārhaṇam acyutejyā
“As pouring water on the root of a tree energizes the trunk, branches, twigs and everything else, and as supplying food to the stomach enlivens the senses and limbs of the body, simply worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead through devotional service automatically satisfies all living entities, who are parts of that Supreme Personality.”
Therefore, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam [1.2.13] advises:
ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhā
varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ
svanuṣṭhitasya dharmasya
saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam
“It is concluded that the highest perfection one can achieve by discharging the duties prescribed for one’s own occupation is to please the Personality of Godhead.”
Therefore, one has to give up the idea of one’s own sense gratification and desire to satisfy the senses of Kṛṣṇa. That is bhakti. Such service to Kṛṣṇa should not have a motive of sense gratification. Many neophytes in devotional service come to God in order to fulfill their material desires. But that is not pure devotion. Until and unless they advance to pure, unmotivated devotional service, where their only desire is to satisfy Kṛṣṇa, they will not endure in the devotional process and will not attain complete satisfaction.
anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ
jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam
ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-
śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā
“When first-class devotional service develops, one must be devoid of all material desires, knowledge obtained by monistic philosophy, and fruitive action. The devotee must constantly serve Kṛṣṇa favorably, as Kṛṣṇa desires.”
A devotee not only has no material ambitions but he does not even have personal spiritual ambitions. He does not want anything in exchange for his devotional service.
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the devotee incarnation of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, explains in His teachings called Śikṣāṣṭaka [4]:
na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ
kavitāṁ vā jagadīśa kāmaye
mama janmani jamanīśvare
bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī tvayi
“O Lord of the universe, I do not desire material wealth, materialistic followers, a beautiful wife or fruitive activities described in flowery language. All I want, life after life, is unmotivated devotional service to You.” The words janmani janmani indicate that He is not even asking or expecting to be liberated from the cycle of birth and death. He is asking only for the opportunity to render unmotivated devotional service unto Lord Kṛṣṇa in every single life He may take in this material world.
There are five kinds of liberated positions in the spiritual world. The devotee does not want any of these in exchange for his devotional service as confirmed in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam [3.29.13] as follows:
sālokya-sārṣṭi-sāmīpya-
sārūpyaikatvam apy uta
dīyamānaṁ na gṛhṇanti
vinā mat-sevanaṁ janāḥ
“A pure devotee does not accept any kind of liberation — sālokya (living on the same planet as the Lord), sārṣṭi (having the same opulence as the Lord), sāmīpya (being an intimate associate of the Lord), sārūpya (having the same bodily features as the Lord) or ekatva (to merge into the existence of the Lord, as desired by the monists) — even though they are offered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”
Complete satisfaction means to have no more hankering and no more lamentation. Except for pure devotees of Kṛṣṇa, everyone is a victim of hankering and lamenting, even great yogīs and jñānīs. If one is hankering or lamenting for something, it inherently means that his current position is not adequately satisfactory.
Therefore, we can deduce that devotional service unto the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa gives so much satisfaction that one does not care a fig for even liberation. That is real job satisfaction.
PART 3: HOW TO GET THERE?
Now that we know both the material and spiritual platforms of job satisfaction, the next question is how to rise from the former to the latter? The first thing to understand is that the stage of devotional service to the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, which is the stage of spiritual job satisfaction, is not something artificial to be acquired. It is the innate quality of the soul. It is only covered with thick layers of material contamination owing to long conditioning in the material world. The heart has to be cleansed of all misgivings born of ignorance. Therefore, transcendental knowledge needs to be injected into the hearts of the conditioned souls. Such transcendental knowledge is received through aural reception from the bona fide spiritual master coming in the disciplic succession.
In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta [22.107], this is explained clearly as follows:
nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-prema ‘sādhya’ kabhu naya
śravaṇādi-śuddha-citte karaye udaya
“Pure love for Kṛṣṇa is eternally established in the hearts of living entities. It is not something to be gained from another source. When the heart is cleansed by hearing and chanting, the living entity naturally awakens.” In a gold mine, when gold is dug, it does not look attractive and shining because it has been covered by a lot of oxides, minerals and salts for thousands if not millions of years. The nature of gold is to shine attractively, but when it is covered with all the oxides, it looks dull. Similarly, the soul, which is covered with the material conditioning for many millions of aeons, is almost completely bereft of its original spiritual effulgence. But such thick grime of materialism can be cleansed by the execution of devotional service.
To facilitate this cleansing, great ācāryas create communities of devotees where they can congregate to hear and chant about the topics of Kṛṣṇa. Such activities are most purifying. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam [3.25.25] states the effect of such hearing as follows:
satāṁ prasaṅgān mama vīrya-saṁvido
bhavanti hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanāḥ kathāḥ
taj-joṣaṇād āśv apavarga-vartmani
śraddhā ratir bhaktir anukramiṣyati
“In the association of pure devotees, discussion of the pastimes and activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is very pleasing and satisfying to the ear and the heart. By cultivating such knowledge one gradually becomes advanced on the path of liberation, and thereafter he is freed, and his attraction becomes fixed. Then real devotion and devotional service begin.”
Not only is the goal of unmotivated devotional service very satisfactory, but also the process itself is very joyfully performed. Lord Kṛṣṇa confirms this in the Bhagavad-gītā [9.2] as follows:
rāja-vidyā rāja-guhyaṁ
pavitram idam uttamam
pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyaṁ
su-sukhaṁ kartum avyayam
“This knowledge (of Kṛṣṇa consciousness) is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed.”
This authorized method of hearing and chanting about Kṛṣṇa was inaugurated by Śri Caitanya Mahāprabhu in the 15th century A. D. in the state of Bengal in India. His program was very simple. He used to conduct congregational chanting and dancing to the mahā-mantra Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare, then he would arrange for the distribution of prasādam to the people. With His confidential devotees who could understand the finer intricacies of devotional service, He would discuss the quintessence of all philosophies, the philosophy or the science of love of God. Therefore, Locana dāsa Ṭhākura, a great ācārya, described the movement of Śri Caitanya Mahāprabhu as kevala ānanda-kanda, which means that it is bliss throughout, from beginning to end.
In other processes of spiritual elevation, such as karma-yoga (ritualistic ceremonies), jñāna-yoga (cultivation of speculative knowledge) and haṭha-yoga (cultivation of mystic powers), advancement is very troublesome. One has to endure prolonged hardship before one can reap the results of such processes, and those results are not as perfect as the results achieved by bhakti-yoga process taught by Śri Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
Moreover, for want of adequate lifetime, intelligence and determination, the other processes are rendered almost completely ineffective in kali-yuga, the current age of quarrel and hypocrisy. The state of humanity in this present age is predicted in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam [1.1.10] as follows:
prāyeṇālpāyuṣaḥ sabhya
kalāv asmin yuge janāḥ
mandāḥ sumanda-matayo
manda-bhāgyā hy upadrutāḥ
“In this iron age of Kali men have but short lives. They are quarrelsome, lazy, misguided, unlucky and, above all, always disturbed.” Therefore Kali-Saṇṭāraṇa Upaniṣad emphatically recommends:
harer nāma harer nāma
harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva
nāsty eva gatir anyathā
“In this Age of Kali there is no other means, no other means, no other means for self-realization than chanting the holy name, chanting the holy name, chanting the holy name of Lord Hari.”
Seeing these circumstances, Lord Caitanya inaugurated a process of self-realization and self-satisfaction just suitable and practical for this age. Of course, He did not invent any new process as is the fashion nowadays of many unscrupulous so-called gurus and svāmīs. His process is in strict accordance with the revealed Vedic scriptures.
Furthermore, He predicted that His movement of Harināma Saṅkīrtana, congregational chanting of Lord Hari’s holy names will be broadcasted all over the planet, in every town and village. Five hundred years later, in the latter part of the 20th century, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda fulfilled this great prophecy by making this movement available to the entire world. He had set up temples in more than a hundred countries only to facilitate this congregational hearing process. He had also left behind volumes upon volumes of books for everyone to read and understand the sophisticated, transcendental philosophy.
One need not give up his livelihood or social position. One just has to associate with the devotees in the temple regularly and seriously and hear from them about Kṛṣṇa. By this process, one’s existence can be purified and one can achieve the association of Kṛṣṇa without any hindrance. Considering all these advantages, one should immediately take to this movement wholeheartedly if one really wants to have complete satisfaction and fulfillment in life. [End]
