Karma YogaKarma Yoga is the Yoga of Selfless Service, of consecrating all of one’s actions and their consequences to the Supreme. Karma Yoga is the Yoga of doing actions in union with the Divine. In this practice the individual is free from attachment and remains balanced both in success and failure, alike.
Karma Yoga is selfless service unto all of God’s creation. It is the Yoga of action that purifies the heart and prepares the heart and the mind (Antahkarana) to receive the Divine Light or knowledge of the Supreme Self. However, it is mandatory that you serve humanity devoid of any attachment or egotism whatsoever.
Some sort of action or the other is inevitable for all creatures. You can’t keep quiet for even a minute. What ties us to this phenomenal existence (Samsara) is not the action. It the idea of doership and enjoyer-ship the thought or feeling “I do”, or “I enjoy”. When done with a selfish motive, Karma binds,. Meaning to say, it is the expectation of fruits of action that binds. But when you perform the same act free from any expectation of fruits, that action is liberating.
The individual who acts as instrument in the hands of the Lord, as a participant in the cosmic activity of Nature, devoid of any expectation of fruits, his / her Karma will not bind that person. In that case, the individual’s actions become Karma Yoga. So in the Bhagavad Gita Sri Krishna exhorts Arjuna to work unselfishly. Believe you are merely an instrument with the Supreme is working through you. The password is surrender. Yield all the fruits of your the Supreme. It is then and only then, that the individual is freed from bondage of Karma. Then we start to enjoy peace. The practice of Karma Yoga, further, prepares the individual to receive knowledge of the Supreme Self. |
