Our market-driven culture places a price tag on everything, even things such as artistic talents whose value is often not reducible to monetary terms. Such a commercialized culture deems as impractical, even worthless, things that don’t command a good market value. If we uncritically adopt the culture’s valuing system, we start devaluing our work whenever it stops giving a good paycheck.
By such devaluation, we set ourselves up for frustration, insecurity and inferiority complex. Why? Because the world’s valuing systems are fickle – the same skill deemed valuable today may be deemed valueless tomorrow or vice versa. For example, many of the world’s most celebrated books were initially rejected by dozens of publishers, yet they eventually became timeless classics. Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita exhorts us to stick to our natural work even if it is beset with difficulties (18.48) and cautions us against looking for some other work just because it looks more appealing (18.47).
In today’s world, if a global economic meltdown unexpectedly and unfairly devalues our work, how can we maintain our morale? By directing our work towards something higher than the world – its source Krishna. The previous verse urges us to work in a mood of worship (18.46). When we cultivate a worshipful mood by practicing bhakti-yoga and train ourselves to focus on Krishna, we gradually find inner security and satisfaction in his remembrance, irrespective of whether the world values us or not. Further, by the resulting inner connection with him, we get the clarity to seek the intelligent balance between determination and adaptation: determination to stick to our strengths and adaptation to make our contributions relevant.
By thus striving to do justice to our God-given talents in a mood of devotion, we can gradually relish tangible inner satisfaction and make substantial outer contribution.
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only GOD determines our value of work in HIS BOOK.