VII. KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION

 

Karma is the essence of existence, whether of man or of God, the Lord of Karma. Karmas rightly performed, in a spirit of service to the Divine, can lead to spiritual emancipation. Karmas or actions are of two kind: good and bad. Good deeds are those which tend to take us nearer to our spiritual goal while the bad deeds are those that take us farther away from it. There is no pleasure higher and more abiding than the one that comes from rediscovering one’s true Self. Which is really finding one’s identity with the world around.  Life in all its forms is characterized by a activity; and change is the law of life. No man can do without action, even for a fraction of a second. Words worth has described this state of perpetual activity thus:

 

The eye cannot choose but see,

We cannot bid the ear be  still,

Our bodies feel where’er they be

Against or with our will.

 

This being the case, what one has to do is to sublimate the course of ones actions, from end to end, so that they are purged of the dross of low and mean desires and sensual relationships. The selfless service of mankind is the highest virtue “”Service before self” should then be the guiding principle in one’s life. Since all life springs from God, the fountain of life and Light, life must be made a perpetual dedication unto Him, without any desire for the fruit thereof. Brahmsthiti or establishment in Brahman comes not by renunciation of works (saivyas), but by giving up the desire for the fruits thereof (tyaga). It is not work, but the motive Power behind the work, that binds us and pampers the ego.

 

Karma, to be the means of moksha or liberation from mind and matter, must satisfy three conditions:

 

(i)                   True knowledge of the higher values of life: Life is itself being a continuous principle immanent in all forms of creation and is, therefore, worthy of respect and adoration. This is the realistic aspect of Karma.

(ii)                 Sincere and loving feeling toward all living creatures from the so-called lowest to the highest. This is the emotional aspect of Karma.

(iii)                Karma must be performed with an active will, without fear of punishment or hope of reward. It should, in other words, be spontaneous, flowing automatically from one’s specific Nature (swadharma), i.e., from a sense of duty – work for works sake and not under any restraint or compulsion. Man is not merely a creature of circumstances, but has a will whereby he can modify his environment and direct his own destiny. This is the volitional aspect of Karma.

 

A man who lives completely for others does not live for himself, nor would he allow his ego to get inflated by thoughts of possessiveness. With his spirit fully detached, a karma yogin lives in complete dissociation from his ordinary self.

 

He does the talk

Dictated by duty,

Caring nothing

For the fruit of the action

He is a yogi.

 

BHAGAVAD GITA

 

In brief, “selfless devotion to duty” is the keynote to success on the path of action. In the performance of duty, one must rise above the sense-objects, the senses, the mind and the intelligent will, so that whatever is done from the fullness of one’s being will be a spontaneous act in the light of the atman, and a righteous action; enabling one to see action in inaction and inaction in action, and to be a still point in the ever-moving wheel of life, which is at once in action and in inaction. In this way, both the “action rightly performed” and action rightly renounced” lead to the same goal, for it is the right understanding of the Nature of action that brings the yogic state.

 

These then are the three main type of yoga designed and fashioned according to human Nature. Each one receives the mystic call, as one may be inclined temperamentally. To the reflective philosopher gifted with a logical mind, it comes as – “Leave all else and know me.” The spiritual aspirant endowed with an emotional minds get it as –“ Leave all else and lose thyself in my love;” while a highly practical and active mind gets the call as – “Leave all else and serve me.”

 

As has already been said, these three approaches tend to overlap and cannot be wholly separated. Something of the bhakta and the karma yogin is present in the true jnani; something of the janani and Karma yogin in the true bhakta; and something of the jnani and the bhakta in the true Karma yogin. The matter is not one of exclusiveness but of dominant tendency.