“‘To buy and sell, yet never forget God.’ The ideal is that hand and heart work harmoniously together. Certain Western writers claim that the Hindu goal is one of timid ‘escape,’ of inactivity and antisocial withdrawal. The fourfold Vedic plan for man’s life, however, is a well-balanced one for the masses, allotting half the span to study and householder duties; the second half to contemplation and meditational practices.
“Solitude is necessary to become established in the Self, but masters then return to the world to serve it. Even saints who engage in no outward work bestow, through their thoughts and holy vibrations, more precious benefits on the world than can be given by the most strenuous humanitarian activities of unenlightened men. The great ones, each in his own way and often against bitter opposition, strive selflessly to inspire and uplift their fellows... Ahimsa, ‘non-injury,’ called ‘virture entire’ (sakalo dharma) in the Mahabharata, is a positive injunction by reason of its conception that one who is not helping others in some way in injuring them.”
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