KARMA YOGA

How does an average person work? He works with a sense of weight and
drudgery or he works with feverish intensity. Either will break him. If he
works with indifference you cannot expect him to achieve anything
significant. Because his heart is not in it and his mind and his energies
are divided. If he works with nervous excitement, he will not last long.
Sooner or later he will break down himself.

The truly great do not differentiate between big tasks and little tasks.
They want to do well what they do whatever may be the task. Men of
vision, men of genius, never feel that any work is beneath them. There
is nothing beneath us and nothing beyond us. That should be our
attitude. “There are no menial jobs, only menial attitudes.” said William
Bennett. By doing well small tasks whole heartedly, with concentration
and skillfulness, we evolve within ourselves a power which will enable us
to perform greater tasks. Opportunities will come when we have proved
our fitness.

Karma Yoga is the predominant topic of the Bhagavad Gita, though the
book deals with other Yogas as well. Lord Krishna says in the Gita “Thy
right is to work only, but never with its fruits; let not the fruits of action
be thy motive, nor let thy attachment be to inaction. (Gita, Ch. 2, Verse
47). Every action, following the causal law, will surely produce its fruit;
why long for it? ‘Wretched are they who work for results.’ If an action is
done without attachment to its fruit, evenness of mind is sure to follow.
Action should be natural and spontaneous, prompted by the exigencies
of a situation.

Swami Chinmayananda said beautifully, “In fact, the reward of an

action, when we understand it properly, is not anything different from
the action itself. An action in the PRESENT, when conditioned by a
FUTURE time, appears as the fruit of action. In fact, the action ends or
fulfils itself as reaction or fruit in future.” Lord Krishna’s advice here is a
call to man not to waste his present moment in useless dreams and
fears, but to bring his best to the PRESENT and vitally live every moment
because future shall take care of itself without fail.

Karma Yoga is not merely work. Karma Yoga means to perform work to
the best of our ability and with awareness, without being overly attached
to the outcome or the results (or to the fruits, the term used in Yoga and
in the Bhagavad Gita. Ideally, moment to moment, work is an end in
itself, the sense of self-importance diminished and work is done more

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and more without the obsessive sense of ‘me’, ‘I’ and ‘mine’. One becomes
an instrument of action.

In fact, Karma Yoga flies in the face of what we have been conditioned to
expect from work since the day we were born: payment, a pat on the
back, self-expression, a sense of achievement. Yoga is not saying that we
shouldn’t be paid, nor that we shouldn’t enjoy our work or develop our
talents. All this is a natural part of life. It is not renunciation of action
itself, but renunciation of the longing for the fruit, that is the secret of
karma yoga. When we do that we are able to be open to inner guidance
and to flow in the stream of grace. The Intelligence-Power that sustains
the universe has a plan and a purpose. When we are in harmony with It
we are free, even while involved.

Martin Heidegger, the German philosopher, once said: “The artist should
turn himself into that which wants to be revealed and permit the process
to happen through him.” This doesn’t only apply to art: it also applies to
every act in our lives. Karma Yoga is the endeavour to transform every
act, every thought and every feeling into a work of art. Acts should be
revealed through us. The Ineffable, the Inner Presence, should be allowed
to express Itself perfectly, moment to moment, through the medium of
our personality. Then we become an artist in the real, or Spiritual, sense
of the word.

In our ignorance, we feel that ‘I am doing’. This creates pride in us and

brings about strife and disharmony. We don’t know, or realise, that we
are only given the mandate to be able do or act by an ineffable
Intelligence which is far vaster and more all-encompassing than our
personality. If we know this - really know it - then the ego-sense tends to
diminish; moreover, we start to see the same Intelligence working
through everyone and everything in the universe

When the individual no longer considers himself the doer but only an
instrument, then work becomes spiritualised. The individual becomes
efficient in action and develops equanimity of mind at all times and in all
situations.

In every form of success or accomplishment, let us try to give less

recognition to the ego, and more to the Intelligence which underlies
everything. After all, as personalities, there is a severe limit to what we
can do, even though we may think otherwise. The following story from
the Mahabharata illustrates this point very clearly:

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“After the war, Arjuna was crossing a city with some possessions when
some robbers attacked him. Exercising his fighting skills, Arjuna fought
with all his strength against the robbers, but could not overcome them.
All of his divinely given weapons were useless against them.
Since Krishna had already departed from the earth, Arjuna, totally
despondent, went to see Sage Vyasa in order to find out why his weapons
were so useless. Vyasa explained, ‘Oh Arjuna, those weapons never
possessed any power, nor did you possess any power within yourself. It
was all Krishna’s will that made you victorious during the Mahabharata.
Now those weapons no longer have any purpose, so you may as well
discard them.’ Arjuna then went and threw his weapons into the ocean’

Though the path of Karma Yoga has been explained in detail by

Bhagavad Gita, references to it can also be found, directly or indirectly,
in other religions. Jesus said "Thy will be done." The entire essence of
Karma Yoga is contained in this pithy statement. One tries to tune in
with the underlying Intelligence that exists in all things and act
accordingly.

Let us have a great ideal, an ideal that will startle us with its greatness. .
Every act can be done in such a way as to uplift us or to drag us down. It
is not what we do, but how we do it that determines the merit of each
action. So work like a master and not as a slave. Little by little our
imperfections and difficulties will vanish and instead of regarding life as
drudgery, instead of shrinking from it, we shall bless this life with many
opportunities.

-N.GANESHAN