These are some thoughts of Leo Tolstoy about the about inner journey of man-------------------
On Labor and Luxury by---------- LeoTolstoy
The Inconsistency of our Life with our Conscience: --however we may
seek to justify our betrayal of humanity to ourselves, all our
Justifications will crumble into dust in the presence of the
Evidence
The
Conscience of man cannot be quieted by fresh devices; and it can only
be calmed by a change of life, for which and in which no
Justification will be required.
The first, simplest, and indubitable result will be, that you will
become a more cheerful, a healthier, a more alert, and a better man,
and that you will learn to know the real life, from which you have
hidden yourself, or which has been hidden from you.
The second result will be, that, if you possess a conscience, it will
not only cease to suffer as it now suffers when it gazes upon the
toil of others, the significance of which we, through ignorance,
either always exaggerate or depreciate, but you will constantly
experience a glad consciousness that, with every day, you are doing
more and more to satisfy the demands of your conscience, and you will
escape from that fearful position of such an accumulation of evil
heaped upon your life that there exists no possibility of doing good
to people; you will experience the joy of living in freedom, with the
possibility of good; you will break a window,--an opening into the
domain of the moral world which has been closed to you.
But why should we dress ourselves, wash and comb our hair? why should
we hand chairs to ladies, to guests? why should we open and shut
doors, hand ladies, into carriages, and do a hundred other things
which serfs formerly did for us? Because we think that it is
necessary so to do; that human dignity demands it; that it is the
duty, the obligation, of man.
"What does it matter whether one stone is laid
accurately in its place?" Surely, it is precisely under conditions
of modesty, simplicity, and imperceptibleness, that every magnificent
thing is accomplished; it is impossible to plough, to build, to
pasture cattle, or even to think, amid glare, thunder, and
illumination. Grand and genuine deeds are always simple and modest.
And such is the grandest of all deeds
Words always possess a clear significance until we deliberately
attribute to them a false sense.
If the life of a man is filled with toil, and if he knows the
delights of rest, he requires no chambers, furniture, and rich and
varied clothing; he requires less costly food; he needs no means of
locomotion, or of diversion. But the principal thing is, that the
man who regards labor as the business and the joy of his life will
not seek that relief from his labor which the labors of others might
afford him. The man who regards life as a matter of labor will
propose to himself as his object, in proportion as he acquires
understanding, skill, and endurance, greater and greater toil, which
shall constantly fill his life to a greater and greater degree. For
such a man, who sees the meaning of his life in work itself, and not
in its results, for the acquisition of property, there can be no
question as to the implements of labor. Although such a man will
always select the most suitable implements, that man will receive the
same satisfaction from work and rest, when he employs the most
unsuitable implements. If there be a steam-plough, he will use it;
if there is none, he will till the soil with a horse-plough, and, if
there is none, with a primitive curved bit of wood shod with iron, or
he will use a rake; and, under all conditions, he will equally attain
his object. He will pass his life in work that is useful to men, and
he will therefore win complete satisfaction.
Did you like reading On Lab our and Luxury?-Neelanjan
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