Question: I've always thought that the people who did some work using their hands were more conscious than others.

Sri Chinmoy: No. Take Ramakrishna. There are many people who do not create or do physical work, and yet they are fully conscious. One does not become conscious only by doing physical work. He who prays and meditates well has more capacity to do things consciously than an ordinary person, even though that ordinary person may work with his hands.

Each has to appreciate his job, whatever he is doing. Farmers work with their hands. That is their job, true. However, if you are meditating while using your hands, then you become infinitely more conscious than a farmer who is just working mechanically.

When you do something mechanically, it is no good. But if one good thought comes from your meditation, that good thought that you have created enters into the physical work itself. Meditation is consciousness itself, and it makes us conscious.

From:Sri Chinmoy,The giver and the receiver, Agni Press, 1987
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