Let the Mind be on God

Do all your duties, but keep your mind on God. Live with all --- with wife and children, father and mother --- serve them. Treat them as if they are the dearest to you, but know in your heart of hearts that they do not belong to you.

A maid servant in the house of a rich man performs all the household duties, but her thoughts are fixed on her own home on her native village. She brings up her master's children as if they are her own. She even speaks of the, as 'my Rama' or 'my Hari.' But in her own mind she knows very well that they do not belong to her at all.

So, do all your duties in the world, but keep your mind on God.

Source: pg. 94, Sermonettes of Swami Sivananda

Be with the World but be Not of it

The worldly duties are not ties. The world is the best teacher. You are not required to renounce the world and take shelter in the Himalayan cave to claim back your lost divinity. The world cannot stand in the way of your God-consciousness. live in the world but allow not the world to live in you. He who attains perfection living in the midst of temptations of the world is the true hero.

Source: pg. 60, Sermonettes of Swami Sivananda