Ayudha Puja and the Value of Work

Rev. Kathy Tew Rickey, minister of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Boca Raton, and UUFBR member Ron Roth led this service, to which members were invited to bring machines, tools, instruments, and devices for which they wished to show appreciation.

“The occasion of Ayudha Puja commemorates the victory of the Goddess Durga over the buffalo demon Mahishasura, the triumph of good over evil,” Ron said. “In Hinduism, any day that you abide by the Dharma, the ‘right way of living,’ is a triumph of good over evil, the "order and custom" that sustains life and makes the universe possible.”

“As Unitarian Universalists, the Seven Principles guide our actions in much the same way,” Rev. Kathy continued. “Today, we honor this source of truth by cleaning and caring for our tools and honoring the traditions that sustain order and justice in our world so that all may one day live in peace and a just world.”

Ron then added: “The tools and all implements of vocation are first cleaned. All the tools, machines, vehicles, and other devices are then painted or well-polished, after which they are smeared with turmeric paste, sandalwood paste with tilak (an insignia or mark), and kumkumam (a vermillion color).”

“Then, in the evening, previous to the puja day, they are placed on an earmarked platform and decorated with flowers,” said Rev. Kathy. “In the case of weapons of war, they are also cleaned, bedecked with flowers and tilak, and placed in a line adjacent to a wall.”

“On the morning of the puja that is on the Navami day, they are all worshipped along with the images of Saraswati, Lakshmi, and Parvati.,” said Ron. “Books and musical instruments are also placed on the pedestal for veneration. On the day of the puja, these are not to be disturbed. The day is spent in veneration and contemplation.”

Sermon: Ayudha Puja and the Value of Work

 by Ron Roth Jr

This reflection, like life, is a series of breadcrumbs that will lead you along the path of discovery, identity, self-worth, engagement, fulfillment, meaning, and awareness. My purpose is to present a dialectic: an investigation into the truth of our opinions about human work and the consequences to our value system by creating thinking machines, by that I mean Artificial Intelligence.

When I meet someone for the first time, I always ask, "What do you do?" Invariably they'll answer with their occupation or explain why they're not working. But if I ask, "No, no, What do you love to do?" I almost always get an entirely different answer. Why is it that so many people don't do what they love to do? I love to sing and compose music, but I don't do that for a living. I also love computers and the cool software that makes them useful and fun. 

When I was about 11 years old, a friend of my mother's gave her a TRS-80 Color Computer he was no longer using, and she gave it to me along with a cassette tape drive, a book on Microsoft BASIC, and several copies of COMPUTE! magazine containing hours and hours of code you could type into the computer in order to play games or turn your computer into a Cash Flow Manager or a Coupon Filer, use Dynamic Bookkeeping, and run a Utility Audit. I once spent an entire Saturday entering a text-based adventure game into that computer that allowed you to interact with the story of Tom Sawyer titled Where's Tom? only to find out that the tape drive wouldn't correctly save the program. That was okay because I could still follow along with the BASIC programming guide and learn how to program random colors and shapes to float across the screen and sounds to compose 8-bit music. So if you asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I'd’ve told you I wanted to be a Computer Repair Man. I didn't know what you called a programmer back then. I did end up becoming a software engineer, writing applications that change the way people do their jobs, and for the past 23 years, I love what I do.

But what’s wrong with the rest of the country? Here are some facts from a recent Pew Research Center poll of about 5800 American workers.

• About four-in-ten workers (39%) say their job or career is extremely or very important to their overall identity.

• About a third of workers with jobs that can be done remotely are working from home all the time.

• Lower-income workers are less likely (less than two-thirds) to have access to key employer-sponsored benefits.

• Black workers (41%) are the most likely to say they’ve been discriminated against in the workplace because of their race or ethnicity.

• About two-thirds of workers ages 65 and older (7% of the workforce in 2022) say their job is fulfilling (68%) and enjoyable (65%) all or most of the time.

• One in four women and one in ten men report they have been discriminated against or been treated unfairly by an employer in hiring, pay or promotions because of their gender.

• 15% more self-employed workers find their jobs enjoyable and fulfilling than not self-employed.

• A study from the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that while most seniors are indeed happy, a higher percentage are feeling more dissatisfied than before, a 12% drop over the last 15 years.

• One in six retired people say they are thinking about getting a job, while 3% actually return to the workforce full-time within one year of retirement.

So many vital benefits key to survival and fulfillment have been tied to the ability to maintain gainful employment that one might come to believe work is all we’re good for. Without work, retirement savings, disability, or a benefactor, we are homeless and considered a burden to society. Perhaps our perception of work is too narrowly focused on survival, pay, and benefits. We are a society overstressed with work, obsessed with work to the point of inventing a new addiction in the 60s: workaholism - the uncontrollable need to work incessantly. It's a common trait for all company executives the world over.

A new term that may apply is “workism,” coined by American journalist Derek Thompson in 2019, the belief that work is not only necessary for economic production but also the centerpiece of one's identity and life purpose. "The feeling that you have to be productive every hour of the day or that you constantly have to be [meeting goals] to be successful comes from the ideals of hustle culture." [Megan Drake 2022] In every form of society across history, citizens are expected to work, and every system of government is expected to sustain an economy that can provide steady work for its citizenry. If it cannot, workers seek opportunities in another country that can. This is the story of America to this day.

Dr. Lisa Miller of Columbia University says, "The mental health field minus the spiritual core makes no sense. [In her reseach, a] sharp decline in personal spiritual life leads to elevated rates of addiction, depression, and suicide. [She characterizes] spirituality as a deep and unlimited resource that protects against diseases of despair. [She describes] the "achieving" awareness as important, but when it becomes the sole focus, it leads to depression. Connecting to a higher power and sustaining spiritual life is neuroprotective against depression. Altruism, love of neighbor, correlates strongly with the fortification of the awakened brain."

But what happens when the work is over? With work being such a vital component of adult life, why do the majority spend so much of it being unhappy or disengaged? What is it about work that brings fulfillment and meaning to life?

Few people have dedicated their life's work so completely to answering these questions, as Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, a Hungarian-born researcher and World War II prisoner who moved to America in his 20s. His early studies focused on happiness and creativity. It was through these studies that Csikszentmihalyi started to look into what he would term Flow, the state of being where one’s performance is heightened, and one really starts to come alive. Csikszentmihalyi defined flow as “being so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter. The ego falls away. Time Flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.” The concept of flow has withstood the test of time, and it entered the vernacular to such an extent that its source had been lost. I suggest that the separation of work from enjoyment, leisure, and spirituality is a major cause of America's health and mental health crises.

“The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times . . . The best moments usually occur if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.”

~ Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

To be in a flow state, an individual must have:

• Complete concentration on the task;

• Clarity of goals and reward in mind and immediate feedback;

• Transformation of time (speeding up/slowing down);

• The experience is intrinsically rewarding;

• Effortlessness and ease;

• A balance between challenge and skills;

• Actions and awareness are merged, losing self-conscious rumination;

• A feeling of control over the task.

According to the neuropsychological studies of Arne Dietrich, flow has been associated with decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex (2003). It silences the inner critic, loses our sense of time, decreases self-consciousness, reduces neuroticism, and allows "more brain areas to communicate freely and engage in a creative process" (Dietrich, 2004).

Flow is a natural component in human evolution. As our species mastered new skills in husbandry to care, cultivate, and breed crops and animals, masonry to establish homes and cities, metallurgy and smithing to create tools and weapons for trade and defense, and milling to create paper and bind scrolls and books to preserve and advance knowledge, it is our unique use of tools that set us apart from all other species. Flow is an essential part of all apprenticeship and mastery-based learning programs. The expert spends thousands of hours in a flow state achieving perfection in complete concentration while using tools as an extension of the self. The creation, care, and advancement of tools by the paragons of trade and industry enable individuals to build and create at scales hundreds, thousands, and millions of times greater than human capacity. Human fulfillment, identity, and self-worth are inextricably linked to the tools and products of our creative endeavors.

In my search, I can find no better celebration of human fulfillment and the connection between the human person and their tools than the Hindu festival of Ayudha Puja. Today we celebrate a Unitarian Universalist participation in Ayudha Puja. Together with the UU congregation of Saratoga Springs and others around the country, we partnered with AI & Faith and aiandthehuman.org to consult with UU Hindu leaders. They have helped us create a ceremony to participate in Ayudha Puja, which means 'worship of tools' and falls on October 23rd this year.

Depending on where you celebrate it in India, you might make an offering to Saraswati of pens, paper, books, musical instruments, and computers to signify the victory of knowledge over ignorance, you might dedicate a plow, a hammer, or a service vehicle to Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity, or you could offer the weapons of a soldier or the legal books of a lawyer to Parvati, the goddess of power. Ayudha Puja places our tools and machines on a pedestal of veneration and contemplation, not to be used for one single day.

It is in taking a moment to contemplate and appreciate our tools that we grow closer to understanding and right thinking about them. Few tools achieve the same fear, hype, and misunderstanding as Artificial Intelligence. No other tool since the Manhattan Project has the same potential to disrupt work as we know it. It has already begun, but A.I. is also meant to be a force for good in this world. Its use and development have spiritual, moral, and ethical implications worth discussing and advocating. Any good tool requires care in its crafting and diligence in its maintenance if it is to deliver the expected results and prevent harm from its use. A.I. is no different. As with every industry, every worker, and every tool, government regulations temper the unscrupulous practices of the world's biggest corporations. A.I. is just as dangerous.

The most effective remedy for fear and ignorance is understanding and knowledge. This is at the heart of Ayudha Puja. This is what we celebrate today. And that is why the Smartacus Sharing Circle is working with AI & Faith experts to provide monthly A.I.-themed content to the Soul Matters sharing circle. That is how we are bringing the AI conversation to UU congregations around the country. I implore you to watch our first interview with AI & Faith expert Robert Geraci and join our next discussion on October 26th. It features questions by our interim minister Rev. Kathy Tew Rickey.

Our work is our identity. What we do is who we are. When we give back to the world, it gives us self-worth. How we engage in meaningful effort allows us to let go of the cares of the world and simply be. The way we honor the tools of our labor, those who created them, and the values they promote in a just society is how we become aware of the value of human work. Ayudha Puja is a celebration of the divine spark of creativity in humanity. That spark must be protected, nurtured, and reignited through the love and life of our Beloved Community.