Examine the contribution of Swami Vivekananda’s ‘Practical Vedanta’ to the ethical conduct of a civil servant. What does ‘work is worship’ demand of a public office today?

Definition: Vivekananda's Practical Vedanta (1896 lectures) applies Advaita's oneness to daily action; karma-yoga, drawing on Gita Chapter 3, is duty performed without ego or attachment to fruit — making work itself a form of worship.

Illustration: 'Jiva is Shiva' means every citizen at the counter manifests the divine; service to the daridra-narayana — the poor — is the highest puja. The officer who clears a tribal pensioner's file at 7 pm is doing yoga, not overtime. Vivekananda's three demands — abhih (fearlessness), strength, and renunciation of ego — translate into Ashok Khemka-style integrity across transfers, E. Sreedharan's punctual delivery of public works, and Armstrong Pame's mobilisation of villagers for the People's Road. The Ramakrishna Mission's Kerala floods relief (2018) embodied institutional seva.

Application: 'Work is worship' demands of a public office today three things — punctuality, fearless decision-making, and treatment of the citizen as Narayana; Mission Karmayogi explicitly draws on this karmayogi framing.