I have seen many students who think of taking up spirituality just so that they don’t have to study. Not only students, but even people of other professions who are reluctant to work hard think of taking up spirituality just so that they can escape hard work and their responsibilities. These people interpret spiritual teachings in a way that can benefit their needs. They twist the teachings of the great spiritual personalities according to their convenience. But this is not right and should never be encouraged.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjun too is inclined to go for the easy way and escape his duty of fighting the war of Mahabharat and instead go and meditate and get completely engaged in such spiritual activities. However, Lord Krishna does not allow him to do that. He tells him that no one can ever escape their duties in the name of spirituality. One has to execute his/ her duties and serve the Lord through them. He instructs Arjun to fight the war because that was his duty as a kshatriya.
Similarly, as a student, it is our duty to study, and we should never escape that in the name of spirituality. Of course, we have to take to spirituality but should not escape our duties in the process. Instead, we should try to serve the Lord with our actions by offering the results to Him.
So, spirituality can never mean escaping actions. Rather, it means directing our actions to ultimately serve Him. This is true spirituality. Nobody can ever be spiritual by escaping his/ her duties. Krishna says this to Arjun in the Bhagavad Gita. Therefore, we should carry out all our actions and execute all our duties and only then we are truly being spiritual and doing some actual service.
