Karma Yoga
Karma Yoga is one of the four paths of yoga. It is the path of action, often suited to people with an outgoing nature. It teaches you to act selflessly, without seeking personal gain or reward, and thus purifies the heart. By letting go of attachment to results and offering the fruits of your actions to God, the ego is gradually refined and uplifted.
Karma Yoga is the practice of selfless service, through which the mind is purified quickly and its limitations are overcome. The karma yogi applies him- or herself both physically and mentally, aiming to dissolve ego and attachment, serve others without expecting anything in return, and recognize unity within diversity.
In order to meditate successfully, we need to free our mind from attachment to day-to-day actions and concerns and from their effects, whether good or bad. This is the practice of detachment or non-attachment, and the state of dispassion towards what we do and what we own.
Actions and possessions in themselves do not bring unhappiness, but our attachment to them and identification with them bring worry and anxiety. Detachment does not mean a shirking of duties, of responsibilities, or of work, nor does it mean owning nothing. It implies the freedom of allowing actions and possessions to be as they are without ownership or doership attaching to them.
Just as water remains unaffected on a lotus leaf or oil floats on water without being affected in any way, so also should we be in the world unaffected by troubles and difficulties as well as pleasures.
If we identify with our actions and our daily life, then these same activities will continue even when we sit still for meditation. Our eyes may be closed, but our minds will be restless. As detachment increases, it is easier to disassociate from our activities when we meditate, and the mind remains unperturbed; it will have been trained to focus inwardly at all times.
One of the most powerful ways to learn detachment is through the practice of karma yoga, or selfless service; detachment is learned fully only when we have learned to serve.
A Karma Yogi knows the secret of work: to perform work for work’s sake without any motive, and for the sake of the common good in a spirit of sacrifice, with neither attachment nor egoism. The success the Karma Yogi expects from work is the work itself. Work becomes worship; work becomes meditation.
Many people complain that they have insufficient time for their practice; they are too busy, or disinclined to do asanas or to meditate. In Karma Yoga, the work itself is the practice, if performed with the right mental attitude.
Karma yoga has several approaches to work that incorporate the spirit of selfless service, each requiring an attitude that initially may be hard to grasp, but with practice becomes rewarding and joyful.
Equanimity is characterized by tolerance and patience, by an absence of any feeling of grudge, remorse, or resentment. It is working without thinking that the work we may be doing is beneath us, and not expanding with pride because of the type of work we are doing. Feel instead: This person has given me the opportunity to serve. I am thankful.
Equanimity is having the ability to leave a task without regret and without the feeling of ownership, being able to move from one task to another without grumbling or feeling hard done by.
Look upon yourself as merely an instrument of a higher power: consider that you are only an agent in whatever you do. This path is characterized by the surrender of the will, and the dedication of all actions to this higher power. When you serve others you are in fact serving this higher power directly. In this light, all actions become sacred.
Work without expectation of reward, without expectation of thanks, without motive. Try to work for others without thought of personal gain. Work unselfishly and with disinterest, taking delight in serving others whether they are your employer, your family, or your friends. Try not to expect even the return of love, appreciation, gratitude, or admiration from the people whom you serve or for whom you work.
The Bhagavad Gita is an exposition of three of the main paths of yoga – Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Jnana Yoga – and is a practical guide for life.
"Action performed as duty, without attachment, without love or hate, without desire for fruit, is called pure."
"Free from attachment, not egotistical, endowed with firmness and enthusiasm, unaffected in success and failure, that person is called pure."
The Bhagavad Gita teaches that an action is completely selfless when that action is performed, to the best of one’s ability, with the feeling that one is not the doer but that God works through the body and the mind; further, when one is unattached to the action, balanced in success and failure, and offers the fruits of the action as a sacrifice to God.
To work in this way without attachment is without doubt a difficult practice, but the rewards are immense. By working selflessly you purify and expand the heart; you develop inner strength; your spirit of self-sacrifice grows and selfishness is eradicated; you develop humility; conceit and pride diminish. Pure love, sympathy, tolerance, and mercy grow, along with expansion and broadening of your outlook on life.
Try to develop enthusiasm for selfless service. Karma yoga requires a willing heart to serve humanity. Be kind to all. Love all. Serve all. Always scrutinize your motives when you work to check they are pure. Karma yoga is the foundation on which meditation is built; no meditation is possible without it.
