Coconut & Areca nut trees: A Metaphor

To pluck coconuts, one has to climb the tree, pluck the nuts, slither down to the ground & repeat the process on the next tree. 

However, though the areca nuts are also located near the top of equally high trees, highly experienced climbers need not get down after plucking. 

Because of the relative slimness of the tree, their flexibility & closer planting to the next tree, after climbing up the first areca nut tree, reaching & plucking all areca nuts within reach, the climber need not clamber down.

He can sway the tree with his weight, bend & grasp the next tree near its top, get on to it & pluck its nuts. This process can continue with the next tree within reach, until the climber feels tired, when he can slither down that tree & reach the ground. By this means, the climber can avoid climbing down & clambering up each tree.

But human achievements in any field are like climbing a coconut tree. To achieve knowledge, one has to start from ground level & painstakingly work his/her way to the top. To master another discipline, one again has to start from ground zero. Eminence  in one field cannot be transformed to excellence in another, like jumping across the top of an areca nut tree.

One may master Law enough to become CJI & even enjoy music. But one cannot speak with the authority of a Pandit Ravi Shankar. A Scientific Advisor may enjoy watching cricket but cannot talk as if he is Sachin Tendulkar.

Entropy, Chaos & Yugadharma

Entropy is defined as the disorder or chaos within a physical system. It means that energy is not available to do useful work. Left to itself, the entropy of a system cannot decrease. It can only remain the same or increase. To decrease entropy, one has to import energy or do work.

Chaos also denotes a state of disorder.

In Hindu Cosmology, there are four yugas, Satya,Treta, Dwapara & Kali, where Dharma or righteousness is believed to gradually decrease. Adharma or unrighteousness may increase naturally if left unchecked, like entropy mentioned above.

In Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says (Chapter 4, Verse 8) 

To protect the virtuous and 

To annihilate the wicked and

To re-establish Dharma,

I incarnate from age to age.

In Satya Yuga, 4 incarnations appeared, namely, Matsya, Kurma, Varaha & Narasimha. In Treta Yuga, Rama was the principal incarnation & in Dwapara Yuga, Lord Krishna. 

These can be interpreted as the external energy or work agents intervening to reduce entropy (or chaos) to save the world from extinction.

Work/Life Balance: An Alternative View

The first thing to be noticed is they are NOT interconnected. Life can exist without work (as we understand it) being performed whereas work cannot be done unless life is present. The whole of non-human life has gone on & will go on without the human race & their much vaunted "Work."

Also the term "Work" cannot strictly be ascribed to activity undertaken at others behest for monetary or social benefits, which can more accurately be called "servile work" or more brutally "slavery." Only activity taken up by self-motivation for creative or altruistic purposes can be truly defined as (Creative) "Work."

The second thing to be noticed is that the (only?) goal of human life (in civilisation) has been to reduce the work involved in any activity. This has been especially evident during the Industrial Revolution, when steam 

power & later use of fossil fuels & electrical power has been to reduce human work or to put it more bluntly, drudgery. The classic example being the mass manufacture of pins quoted in Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations." Such being the case, elevating "hard work" to an almost divine virtue, is ridiculous.

If this has happened to a great extent in manual & even skilled labour (eg: robotics), AI (Artificial Intelligence) promises to take it even further into activity involving "human?" Intelligence. This leaves only truly "Creative" activity in human hands (minds?). This may include artistic activity & thinking up new fields like calculus, fractals, quantum theory & the like, which were so thought of in the first place.