23. The young people of today say, "We don't understand all this about Rama-naama, Rama-bhakti, and Rama-worship. But we shall do God's work." How God's work is to be done, Bharata has shown us by his example. By doing God's work, he assimilated and transformed the separation from Rama.  To keep doing God's work and so to have no time even to feel the sense of separation from Him, is one thing; but, it is quite a different thing when one is unconcerned about God. 

To life of self-control, doing the work of the Lord, is rare indeed. Though Bharata's way of life is to work in the spirit of nirguna, it never loses contact with its saguna basis. "Rama, my lord," he says, "I shall humbly do your bidding. Whatever you say, I shall not doubt or question."  But then, as he prepares to leave, he turns, again to Rama, and says, "Lord, but my heart is yet unreconciled. I feel as if I've lost something."  Rama at once understood his yearning and said, "Here, take, these sandals." In the end, the respect for saguna remains. 

In the end, saguna has moistened nirguna with the heart's affections. Lakshmana would not have been content with Rama's sandals.  In his view, it would have been like drinking buttermilk when one thirsts for milk. Bharata's stand-point is different. Though outwardly he
stayed far away and worked, his heart was full of Rama. Though Bharata thought that devotion to Rama consisted in doing his duty, he still felt the need for the sandals. Without them, he could not bear the burden of kingship. He did his duty, deriving his authority from the sandals. As Lakshmana was a bhakta of Rama, so too was Bharata. But in appearance they differ. Though Bharata was firm in his loyalty to duty and principle he too needed the living warmth of the symbol. 

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