Joe: Hi Rory, I’m on my second read through of your wonderful Bhagavad Gita book. I have a question about karma yoga if you don’t mind. I just can not grasp what karma yoga actually is, practically. As in, how do I practice karma yoga as I go about my day? Any help would be much appreciated.
Rory: Hi Joe, Lovely to hear from you. Glad you enjoyed the Gita book!
That’s a good question. I’ve found that karma yoga can often be a struggle for people. Even though it’s quite easy to understand at an intellectual level, it can be a challenge integrating it into the nitty-gritty of daily life.
As you know, karma yoga encompasses two basic principles: right action and right attitude. Action is an unavoidable part of living; our daily lives consisting of a succession of actions, most of them likely quite mundane. I heard Swami Paramarthanda define karma yoga as converting life into a field of service. The basic idea is that we look upon our actions as service to God; as a way of paying back the enormous debt we owe Ishvara for lending us a body, mind, and environment in which to work out our karma and experience and enjoy life. Fundamental to the practise of karma yoga is this acknowledgement that life doesn’t owe us anything. It’s already given us everything. Rather, it’s we that owe life, and we repay that debt by offering up all our actions, both great and small, to the divine.
On a practical level, this means converting all our daily actions to worship. Whether it’s eating, cleaning our teeth, sweeping the floor, taking exercise, drinking a cup of tea or spending time with a friend or family member, you can see it as a way of serving God; of keeping the body healthy (the body being God’s temple; a vehicle on temporary loan to us), maintaining the environment around us, and honouring the divinity of another person by seeing the highest and best in them, and treating them with kindness and compassion. Basically, whatever you are doing, you can quietly affirm to yourself that you’re doing it in service of the Lord, and sanctify it by offering it up as a gift. You might do that mentally with the power of your intention, or you might say something like “I give this to you, God,” or “I offer this to you with praise and gratitude.”
Of course, the natural extension of this is ensuring that the actions we perform are worthy of God. Obviously, if we’re spending our days and nights gambling, lying, cheating, taking drugs and chasing hookers, those are hardly offerings fit for God. After all, when we abuse our bodies and minds, what we’re basically doing is abusing Ishvara’s body and mind. Therefore, it’s necessary to weed out tamasic activities and try to minimise the rajasic ones. When you see your life as a field of service, you’ll naturally want to commit to more sattvic actions; those actions that aren’t born of fear and avarice, but which are conducive to our physical, psychological and spiritual wellbeing.
The scriptures outline five basic types of sattvika karma (action). These are a helpful guideline for the day to day practise of karma yoga. Our lives should be governed by the following five basic contributions:
- Worship of God. This is basically what karma yoga is. While the ultimate ideal is to see and worship all forms as God, it’s helpful to choose a form or forms of the divine that you feel comfortable with and drawn to; a symbol that you can use as a focus of your devotion. I am a Shiva bhakta myself, and every morning I do a short puja before a Shiva statue, light some incense and chant some mantras. This has the effect of purifying the mind and cultivating a devotional mindset which then spills into the rest of daily life. In time, you come to see your entire life as an altar to the divine, and you can sing the praise of God wherever you go.
- Worship of your parents. This can be a tough one for those who have challenging parents, for there are no shortage of those. Regardless of any personality incompatibilities and difficult past karma, it’s only appropriate to cultivate a sense of love, gratitude and regard for the people that brought us into the world, which, as the scriptures state, was a great blessing in karmic terms. Healing our relationship with our parents, even if it’s just a case of healing our own thoughts and feelings about them, is tremendously important for purifying the mind and managing our karma.
- Worship of the scriptures. It’s only appropriate to have a high regard and respect for the teachings that lead us to Self-knowledge and liberation. They are a great gift to humanity and should always be appreciated as such. Worship in this case actually means regular study and contemplation of the Vedantic teachings. The more we do this, with consistency and diligence, the more it transforms the mind and enables us to shine as the Light we truly are.
- Service to humanity. It’s impossible to divorce karma yoga from dharma, because dharma should always be at the very foundation of everything we do; guiding our actions and responses to life. By serving the people around us, we are serving Ishvara. That doesn’t mean running ourselves ragged with a martyr complex, intent on single handedly trying to change the world. It simply means responding in a way that is of help and benefit to others; helping those in need where appropriate and living with an attitude of openness, kindness and compassion. That might involve helping out in charitable projects, community work, or reaching out to help those in difficult circumstances.
- Service to all other living beings. Ishvara is basically the environment around us. All non-human beings, including animals, plants, trees and even the mineral world, require us to be responsible stewards and deserve to be treated with integrity, kindness and a mind geared to non-violence and sustainability. Committing to the worship and service of the environment and the living beings around us is a cornerstone of karma yoga and is, essentially, God helping God.
Finally, karma yoga is not only the action that we take, but also our response to that action. We undertake action, as determined by dharma (the dharma of the situation, universal dharma and our svadharma) and offer it up as service to God, and then we must take whatever results come as prasada; a divine gift. On that level, karma yoga is basically a pragmatic and stoic acknowledgement that we, as jivas, are not in control of the results of our actions. However, as long as we do our best, by acting with integrity and a worshipful mind—seeking to serve rather than to get—the karma is purified even if we don’t get the results we might have wanted. Given the sheer complexity of life and all the countless and conflicting factors involved in the chain of cause and effect, there’s never any guarantee the outcome will be as desired. The karma yogi, however, learns to to take the rough with the smooth. As the Bible quote goes, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”
There are many times when we don’t get what we want, only to later discover that not getting what we wanted was actually the best possible thing that could have happened. We can only ever see a fraction of the overall picture, so oftentimes we don’t even know what is best for us. From the perspective of Vedanta, we live in a benevolent universe in which even the sorrows and challenges of life are all leading us back to recognition of who we truly are—and when we can “own” that and fully integrate it, it’s “game over” for samsara!
Incidentally, whatever results we do receive, whether “good” or “bad”, should be offered up to Ishvara; for nothing here actually belongs to us anyway. Moments of supreme beauty and joy should be dedicated to the Lord, as well as experiences of pain and suffering. Similar to the way I dedicate my actions to Ishvara, when results come, I might lift it up by mentally saying “I give this to you, God,” or “I surrender this to you.” In fact, it can be a good sadhanato use these as mantras throughout the day as we experience the dualities of mithya. It’s a tension breaker and helps create that inner peace, poise and devotion that is so essential for a mind that’s fit for self-enquiry and moksha.
I hope that helps make it seem a bit more practical? Basically, treat every action, from getting out of bed, to cleaning your teeth, eating meals, cleaning the house and helping others as service to Ishvara, and you cannot go wrong, because it all is Ishvara.
Joe: Wow! This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a thorough explanation. I really appreciate it.
