We all love listening to Lata Mangeshkar. I personally adore her music. A few days ago, I was listening to a young singer on YouTube. She was presenting a song sung by Lata ji in a very beautiful way. After the performance, she was asked, “You sang Lata ji’s song so beautifully, what inspiration do you take from that great singer?”

The young singer paused for a moment, thought for a while, and then answered from the depth of her heart, “Lata Tai always sang ‘effortlessly.’ She never had to put in any special effort to sing any song.” She continued, “I also want to reach a point where, when I sing, it doesn’t feel like ‘I’ am singing.”

I had heard the word ‘effortless’ before, but that day, it lingered in my mind. And when a word stays within you, its meaning begins to unfold from within. However, this requires patience and spending some time with the word. Even here, no effort is required; this process begins to happen automatically within you if you accept it peacefully…

Today, our minds have taken a shape where ‘effort’ or ‘doing something’ has become extremely important. We cannot even imagine a situation where we do not make any effort or do nothing. Modern man believes that without his own effort, nothing will happen. He knows God in a verbal form, but he never makes an effort to see its meaning within himself. Because these two thoughts cannot coexist — on one hand, you believe that ‘you are doing everything,’ and on the other, you also believe that ‘God exists.’ If ‘God exists,’ then you are doing nothing. Everything is being done by Him, meaning everything is ‘effortless.’ In such a situation, everything becomes beautiful like Lata Tai’s singing — in rhythm and flow. Then, your ‘doing’ also becomes unified with that rhythm. Perhaps, in such a state, you do not move toward a result or goal, but just continue flowing.

However, today’s modern man always wants to achieve a result, become something, or reach a goal. We feel that if we don’t make an effort, we will get stuck in stagnation. We all have an image of a goal, and we continuously strive toward it. This effort has become an integral part of our lives.

But if we look at nature, there is no ‘effort’ there. Everything is ‘effortless,’ natural. A river flows without any effort, and it is extremely beautiful. Natural forests grow without effort, and they are equally beautiful. The colors of flowers, the limbs of animals, the fish in the sea, the stillness of the mountains — all of these just ‘are.’ And that is their beauty.

From my experience, I have observed that all the meaningful dimensions of life come naturally. For example, do happiness and joy come from effort? Sometimes, we become happy without any reason, and sometimes, despite all our efforts, we cannot be happy. Whenever ‘effortlessness’ occurs in life, it brings joy with it. It is this effortlessness that makes life beautiful and meaningful.

My daughter is a beautiful painter. I have seen that it is not a special effort for her; this talent is naturally present within her. She enjoys painting.

On the other hand, if I were to paint, there would be no joy in it for me. Therefore, I would have to force myself, and as a result, it wouldn’t even be beautiful. When ‘joy’ is attached to your ‘doing,’ effortlessness diminishes. This is a divine event, which is not in your control.

But I have also noticed that artists often develop the ego that they are doing something themselves — they are singing, acting, writing, painting, or expressing their art in some other form. However, I believe that art, in any form, is expressed through a person by divine intervention. The person is merely the medium. When this is realized, a sense of gratitude automatically arises.

Lata Tai must have had the natural ability to sing. Of course, she must have honed it through practice and dedication, but at its core, it was natural. That must have been the foundation that allowed her to grow. And that is why her singing was so effortless, even with the most difficult songs. There was no effort in her singing, only effortlessness. And that is why her songs seem so beautiful to us.

Doing, in itself, is a struggle. The joy of life is beyond struggle. In life, the ‘moment of creation’ does not arise from struggle but from love and divine intervention. Similarly, art is also divine intervention. And that is why life is beautiful, and art too.

A few days ago, I watched a wonderful film. The actors gave amazing performances, and the direction was outstanding. Acting is indeed a remarkable art. When a seasoned artist performs, every part of their body and mind must be involved in that moment of joy. And that is why their performance seems so beautiful and alive to us. As I was thinking about this, a very disturbing image of our film industry started emerging in my mind. I began asking myself why this field, full of artists, has become so distorted.

In the modern era, we have linked everything with business. Along with that, success and prestige are also linked to money. If we observe carefully, it becomes clear that if art becomes a means of business, the mind that holds it will become distorted. Because that mind will begin to measure the value of art in terms of money. Such a mind will completely ignore divine intervention and will have no sense of gratitude. It will start believing that it is doing everything — singing, acting, creating. This is a very subtle feeling that requires deep understanding.

When a person believes that they are the one doing everything, upon the arrival of any result (good or bad), they feel that they are the cause. And because of this thinking, they see everything around them the same way — either they are doing it, or someone else (a human being) is doing it. In such a situation, struggle and distortion naturally arise. Slowly, this distortion becomes our nature.

In other words, the nature created by the mix of art and business, along with the experiences based on it, and the world created from it, becomes distorted.

The same has happened in the fields of education and health. These two fields were originally not about ‘doing,’ but about ‘being.’ There was no interference from business in them. I don’t know much about this, but I have heard that in India, artists, sages (teachers), and physicians lived under the protection of society. Society respected them, and they easily received livelihood and prestige. All of this was part of service and worship, not business. This is elaborately described in the accounts of Ravindra Sharma ji. When these fields became linked to business — when artists, teachers, and physicians had to earn money themselves, or when business people started earning money through them — these sacred fields became distorted. And today, we are seeing the result of that distortion in many forms.

The question arises, what should be done then? In the world we live in today, it is not possible to completely disregard business. So how can we restore the sanctity of such sacred fields? It may sound absurd, but as soon as this question arises within us, we often get trapped again in the web of modernity. We begin looking for a practical solution and forget the main question.

We started with the word ‘effortless.’ Then we discussed our own ‘effort’ — either making an effort or accepting God.

In Chapter 10 of the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna describes his divine qualities. He makes some important declarations there, which are deeply connected to this subject. Understanding these declarations can guide us toward an answer to this question.

यच्चापि सर्वभूतानां बीजं तदहमर्जुन।
न तदस्ति विना यत्स्यान्मया भूतं चराचरम्।

Swami Ramsukhdas ji’s interpretation of this verse is: “O Arjuna! I am the seed of all creatures. Without me, no creature, whether moving or non-moving, exists. In other words, I am everything — moving and non-moving.”

In Chapter 15, Verse 15, Lord Krishna again says:

सर्वस्य चाहं हृदि सन्निविष्टो मत्तः स्मृतिर्ज्ञानमपोहनं च।
वेदैश्च सर्वैरहमेव वेद्यो वेदान्तकृद्वेदविदेव चाहम्।

Swami Ramsukhdas ji’s interpretation of this verse is: “I am situated in the hearts of all beings. From me arise memory, knowledge, and the removal of doubt and defects. Through all the Vedas, I am the one to be known. I am the one who determines the essence of the Vedas and the one who knows them.”

I recall these verses here because when God himself is the seed of everything, and He resides in the hearts of all beings, who are we to claim ‘doing’ anything? In reality, He is doing everything. It is easy to say this, but believing it in reality is very difficult, especially in today’s environment. Because if you believe this, then through you, God himself will begin to do something. At your level, it will be an ‘effortless’ (natural) state, but in reality, something meaningful will be happening in the rhythm of existence according to divine law. This belief is within us, and we need to see it once again within ourselves.

Anil Maikhuri
01 December, 2024

Note: This article was originally written in Hindi and translated into English with the help of AI. If any confusion arises in understanding, please refer to the original text in Hindi.