Karma means any action that you do in your everyday life. It also includes the repercussions of those actions. I have followed Karma Yog for many years now and I have seen how fulfilling and satisfying it can be. It is very simple, but what seems to be simple can be one of the most challenging to accomplish.
In this fast paced world, people don't have time to even reflect into themselves and see where they are heading. The competition is immense. People slog at their workplaces, students struggle to get the highest marks, parents push their children to their limits. This leads to stress and then its derivatives which I don't have to reiterate. If I look at the whole picture then I realise that we are pursuing a less than ideal path towards growth.
People work for a variety of reasons. Some work for power, some for money, some for status and some just for pleasure. I am not saying these Karma are all bad, but I will definitely say that they are not the best. And working just for pleasure is the most foolish Karma, a man (includes women with due respect) can do. Even after achieving all such goals in life, there will always be a place in your mind saying "This is not enough, I want more!". And after achieving more, it will again say "More More More!". There is no end. You are always dissatisfied with what belongs to you or what you have earned.
The ideal Karma Yog is to do work for the sake of work, selflessly. There should be no expectations of what comes out of it. The heart should be bound to God and hands to work. This, as the great sages have discovered, is the best way to be happy in life. No worries about marks, ranking, promotion, salary hike, appreciation, etcetera. Everything will fall into place. God will give you what you deserve, and only your Karma can determine how your future will be, just like how your past actions has brought about your present. Even if you are in the worst situation, and you are an ardent follower of Karma Yog, then you would not even bother about the situation, nor about whether your actions, good or bad, will bear fruits or not. Why bother, when you have selflessly worked all the way? Definitely you may have your goals, but you need not keep hope of achieving it. Whats important is that you have selflessly worked towards it, while loving your work for the sake of loving it!
Nice!
ReplyDeleteFood for thought!
I'm so happy to see such a serious and thought-provoking post from someone who has never written anything beyond a "compulsory" school essay in his entire life! And what a choice of topic to start your serious writing.Well done. You are a "jeeta-jaagta" example of someone who has practised "Karma Yog" all his life. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteGood to see 'La Familia' rallying around your post! :D
ReplyDeleteIs karma yog a more spiritual term for 'Hakuna Matata' ? :D
But I agree with your points that karma like power, wealth and status only serve as a metric which you use to compare yourself with others.
gud gud.. :) bare asa...
ReplyDelete@Janaki: Thanks!
ReplyDelete@Di: I was least interested in reading literature during school days because I am not fond of it. Non-fiction is good for me. And i am not a "jeeta-jaagta" example, I still have a lot of loopholes to plug-in before I perfect the art.
@Anzil: La Familia is always around me. Hey maybe Hakuna Matata does share some meaning here. Yes, you are right, it only leads to comparison and it never ends...
@Amrita: Thanks! Tui bare aasa.
That is quite a thought-provoking post! I agree with most of what you said - but I wouldn't call it KarmaYog. In fact, I would replace "selflessness" with "self-satisfaction" in your post - and that is what I believe holds for me. Do the best you can do, and do it to your satisfaction. Eventually everything else will fall in place.
ReplyDeleteThanks! What I have observed is that Karma Yog is usually described in a way that is too abstract, ambiguous and with a lot of jargon. This becomes difficult to follow and practice in real life. I have summarized this concept from the sayings of Swami Vivekananda. I feel he had the ability to tone down the abstraction and leverage the practicality of the spiritual side of Hinduism. I agree that the post promotes "selflessness" with "self-satisfaction", but I disagree that it is a replacement. You are right that eventually everything else will fall in place and God will always give what you deserve.
ReplyDeleteHey ,I really don’t feel there is selfless deal exist in the world .I feel your definition of Karma Yog is kind of theoretical .In mythology we always heard about Rushi’s doing tapasya scarifying their all temptations of life in search god. We can’t say they were karma Yogi as they had hunger of meeting god. There is always some kind of hunger is involved all type of actions, be it be money, power or great pleasure by doing social work. We can’t do work for sake of it. If we have achieve some goal we have go through all types of hungers knowingly or unknowingly, we have to feel competitive to be focused , we have to feel bad for failure to achieve success. We as human are born with all types emotions with expressing power which differentiate us from other few creatures. May be we should focusing in better ways of handling stress rather then acting something which we are not (karma yogi)
ReplyDelete@Mukta: You are right that there is a hunger in every action we do. You are also right that we have to stay focussed to achieve your goal. And I have said nothing less by saying that we should do work for the sake of it. A hunger will typically define your goal and the path you have to take towards pursuing the goal. But a hunger which is associated with obsession, expectation and selfishness may eventually lead to your goal. But on the way you will have gone through a lot of misery and pain, which is a direct consequence of obsession, expectation and selfishness. All I am saying is, have the hunger and the fire to do the same hard work, but be selfless while doing it. The results will happen if they are to happen. I am sure you will agree that even if you are competitive and focussed and you want to feel bad for failure to achieve success (as you have claimed), can you guarantee success? If no, then why go through all the misery and pain, when you can be focussed, hard-working and pursuing the same goal selflessly without stress by being a Karma Yogi?
ReplyDeleteKarma Yog is not theoretical but mythology is. If we follow these simple steps enlightened by Karma Yog, then there is no difference between the Rushi doing Tapasya, and a common man doing hard work selflessly in this harsh world. Both will progress spiritually and eventually achieve eternal bliss (be happy forever).
There are many ways of handling stress. To name a few which we are used to doing are as follows,
1> Lock yourself in a room and cry or go to sleep.
2> Watch a nice movie.
3> Go for shopping.
4> Transfer your stress to another person, by shouting, giving silence treatment, assaulting etc.
5> Anger management
6> Work over-time (usually without sleeping) to complete the pending work. And then use up a sick leave as a consequence.
7> Just enjoy your life aimlessly for a period of time (months/ years) hoping that there will be a time when seriousness will return.
8> GOOD ONE: Do Yoga and a morning jog/ gym.
9> Just be with your beloved (provided the beloved has time to be with you).
10> And so on...
As you can see, most of the ways are superficial, temporary and does not really differentiate us from "other creatures". They do not solve the root cause as to why the stress happens in the first place. Karma Yog can break the very chains which are holding you down as a slave in this world and lead you towards true freedom of mind. I hope I have not offended you in any way while explaining. My intention was always for the good :-)
@Siddhi: Thank you. I would like to add some more. Every action has a reaction (direct or indirect). There is no action which is completely good or completely bad. Even if you clap with your hands, you are killing thousands of micro-organisms. So is this bad news? How then can you be good if you end up doing some bad with any action?
There is an answer to this. There are two kinds of behaviours. One is which is directed inwards (Pravrutti) like being selfish, possessive, and the other which is directed outwards (Nivrutti) like morality and selflessness. Pravrutti is bad and Nivrutti is good. If your action is bad then you are exposed to the bad reactions of that action. If your action is good then you are exposed to only the good reactions and necessarily immune to the bad reactions.