Why is the path of karma yoga eternally relevant?
The Bhagavad Gita caters to humanity as a whole. The Bhagavad Gita is about the wisdom of yoga, though it was given in the midst of war. Conflict is the nature of the world; comfort is the nature of the Self.
Amidst conflict, find comfort. When you are tired of conflicts and the games of the world, get into the comfort of the Self. When you are bored with comfort, get into the games of the world. People who love peace do not want to fight, and those who fight do not have peace. What is needed is to be peaceful within and then fight where the need so arises. Face the conflict while seeking the comfort of the Self. This is the whole message of the Bhagavad Gita: Krishna tells Arjuna to be centred in peace and to fight at the same time. This is the essence of Karma Yoga.
A Karma Yogi is not someone who has dropped everything and is doing ‘tapasya’ in the Himalayas. One who doesn’t hate or doesn’t crave anything is a real Karma Yogi, and he is free from all bondages. When you are only craving joy and happiness, you become weak.’Yoga’ brings deep silence within, and ‘Karma Yoga’ brings dynamism. ‘Karma Yoga’ is about working with total responsibility. A person can do the same job either following the principles of Karma Yoga or in an imperfect or ‘ayogya’ way. For example, a teacher can be a ‘Karma Yogi’ when they take an interest in the overall development of a child. However, if the teacher’s interest is only in the salary that they would get on the first of every month, then they aren’t Karma Yogis.
The whole essence is to act without being attached to the fruits of the action. This is the main philosophy of Karma Yoga. The Bhagavad Gita is all about your attitude. How do you manage yourself when you face a war-like situation? The worst situation in life is when you have to face a battle and when you have to fight not with an enemy, but with some of your own people. When you have to fight with your own brothers and sisters, how do you handle your mind? It is easy to fight a war with an enemy, someone you don’t like.
But fighting with someone who is part of your own family is the worst and most difficult act to do. The Bhagavad Gita begins with Arjuna’s dilemma and Lord Krishna’s eternal wisdom to uplift a despondent human spirit.
At the beginning of the Kurukshetra war, Arjuna is completely reluctant to fight. He would say to Lord Krishna, “Why are you asking me to fight this war? It is going to bring me a lot of sin. I am going to be miserable. Even if I win the war, I’ll be miserable. If I lose it, I’ll be even more miserable. I am going to quit now.”Lord Krishna imparts the knowledge of Karma Yoga to Arjuna to uplift his spirit.
A Karma Yogi isn’t feverish about the fruits of an action, nor does his or her happiness depend on the outcomes. That person is a real Karma Yogi. A yogi is not one who has dropped everything and is sitting in the Himalayas. But if you are doing your action in the path of yoga, you purify yourself, your soul, you have a say over your senses, and you win over your mind. And you realise your true nature as part of the Self. The Being that is in you is in everybody else. And you are part of everybody. When you act from this understanding, even though you act, you
will not be bound by the action. The consequences of that action will not bind you or make you miserable.
Even as you act, you will find you are merely a witness and that you are separate from these actions. You are not the doer. You remain unfazed by actions and their results. And this is what Karma Yoga is all about. A Karma Yogi has an equanimous state of mind under all circumstances. They aren’t on cloud nine when they succeed, and neither do they break down when they lose. They see victory and failure, profit and loss as temporary in the context of time.
A devotee once asked me, “If everything is predestined, why should I act and put effort?” When Lord Krishna manifested his Vishwaroopam to Arjuna, he emphasised that the battle was a significant part of the cosmic destiny. All the warriors had already chosen their destinies by either supporting or opposing Dharma. So, even after knowing that everything is going to end, one has to fulfil their duties as their Dharma. In fact, there are two attitudes to lead a perfect life. One, when you want to retire to bed, at that time you should say, “Everything is fine and everything is being taken care of. Not a blade of grass moves without Divine intervention. God has kept us like this, so let it be.” This is known as ‘Nivrutti’.
This helps you go inward and relax. However, when you wake up in the morning and go to work, seek perfection in even the smallest act. Wherever you see imperfection, pay attention to how you can correct it. When you act, see where you can bring improvement and what you can change. This is known as ‘Pravrutti’. You need a balance of both ‘Pravrutti’ and ‘Nivrutti’ in life. It is like breathing in and breathing out.
Nature has designed our lives in such a way that we work for some time and then we rest for some time. But what do we do? When it is time to rest, our minds keep working; we keep thinking about things to be accomplished — “I want this, that, and the other.” This keeps us away from getting deep rest. And when it comes to activity, we come up with these questions — “Anyway, everything is going to end, why should I act?”
This is applying the wrong knowledge at the wrong place. It is like asking, if I have to get off the bus anyway, why get in? You get in somewhere and you must get down at some other place. See if you can live without doing anything? No, you will get restless and fidgety.
You must have seen people who keep moving their fingers and hands because they are so restless and agitated. You have been given all this energy, and you have to utilise it in some way. You have to use it for some meaningful work. You cannot live doing nothing.
Of course, you can have periods of non-action — that is what meditation is, that is what silence is — but then you have to resume your activities. If you don’t, your mind will act and bother you. There is no enemy greater than your own mind. The skill in action is to act without craving, aversion, or feverishness for the outcome. Action without attachment to the outcome is ‘Nishkama Karma’, one of the central tenets of Karma Yoga. Liberation is acquired by Nishkama Karma. When you practise Karma Yoga for a long time, you become a witness to your actions. This is what Karma Yoga is all about. To purify oneself, a yogi keeps doing work either through the body, the mind, the intellect, or just through the senses, without getting attached to the work or the result of that action. In one of the shlokas, Lord Krishna says that the Divine is present in everybody’s heart.
Hence, you see me in everybody and everyone in me. Leave all your worries to me. I am here for you. I will wash away all of your sins. Don’t grieve. You surrender yourself to me. I will provide you with refuge. See me in everybody. Everyone is part of one universal spirit. And I am that. You are that. Everything is that. Knowing this, one can act without doership and get established in Karma Yoga.
