Karma yoga IX: Evolution via Karma yoga

[Guest guest]

Stages of Karma yoga:

 

For convenience, we can think of three stages in Karma yoga. We

recognize that to transform karma into yoga we need to bring Iswara.

Iswara means the Lord who is the author of this entire universe. People

consider some things as man-made and some thing as natural. There is

nothing that is really man-made. The possibilities for a man to make

and the laws governing for making (as well as for breaking) are already

available in nature. Man only discovers and makes use of these laws and

creates or assembles using his intelligence. The creation is only an

intelligent assemblage of existing matter since both matter and energy

are conserved in nature. Krishna provides in the second chapter an

absolute law of conservation. ‘naasato vidyate bhaavo naabhaavo vidyate

sataH|’ That which is non-existent cannot come into existence and that

which is existent will not cease to exist’. Therefore Oh| Arjuna| There

was never a time I was not there, never a time you were not there and

these kings that we see in front. There will never be a time when they

will cease to exist. Creation therefore cannot be some thing out of

nothing but only a transformation of something into some other thing

using the laws that are available already in nature. A scientist does

not invent a law only discovers the law. The potential for modification

or transformation already exists in the Nature, just as ornaments from

gold. That is, gold has the capacity to transform into ornaments. The

creative power arising from intellect is due to Iswara. Hence, Krishna

says – ‘buddhiH bhuddhimataam asmi’ – I am the intelligence among the

intellects.

 

There is a difference between action and labor. Intelligent action or

purposeful action is karma in contrast to mechanical action, which

constitutes labor. We do many actions mechanically, starting from

getting up from bed to taking bath, cleaning, cooking, washing, walking

(regular as well as for exercise), etc. Vedas considers these as part

of samskaara karmas or purification rituals where a routine action is

converted into a prayerful action.

 

Thus, even if there is routine obligatory action, engaging the available

mind in thinking of the Lord is an intelligent way of performing that

action. I remember my mother chanting Vishunusaharanaama, Mukundamaala

and other sthavas continuously while cooking and cleaning. This frees

the mind from indulging unnecessarily into the past (regrets of the

past) and worries and anxieties about the future. Even though the

chanting can become mechanical, the thinking about the Lord becomes a

natural by the saadhana. Hence, Krishna says:

ananyacetaaH satatam yo maam smarati nityashaH|

tasyaaham sulabhaH paartha nityayuktasya yoginaH| 8-14

Whoever thinks of me all the time, without any other thoughts in his

mind, and who yokes his mind fully to Me, he will reach Me easily. If

one engages in thinking of Him all the time, he cannot but think of Him

in the last moments while leaving this body, and whoever thinks of Me

and nothing but Me, while departing his body, he cannot but reach Me

alone, and there is no doubt about it– says Krishna.)

( antakaalepi ca maam eva smaran muktvaa kalebaram,

yaH prayaati sa madbhaavam yaati naastasya samshayaH|| 8-8)

This can be achieved by constant practice (abhyaasa) and giving up the

unnecessary indulgence of the mind in useless thoughts (vairaagya or

dispassion). Krishna stresses these two aspects again and again,

constant practice, abhyaasa, and dispassion, vairaagya, as the essential

ingredients for a success, in any field.

 

Nature of the mind:

 

If we examine the mind and see its operation, we find there are three

distinct ways it engages itself. The mind is nothing but flow of

thoughts, vRitti dhaara. Flow involves a direction. The direction is

primarily set by the vaasanaas, which manifest as desires at the

intellect level, agitations at the mind level, and actions at the body

level. As we discussed earlier, vaasanaas only provide the environment

for us to act, but as a human being with intelligence, we are given a

choice to choose the direction of our thinking in spite of the pressure

from the past. Thus, we are not just prisoners of our past but masters

of our future. By redirecting the mind towards Him, we change our

future vaasanaas until our mind flows naturally towards Him. Of the

three distinct ways the mind functions, the first and the most useless

avocation of the mind is ‘stray’ thinking. Whenever one is functioning

mechanically, the mind also functions in mechanically thinking, jumping

from one thought to the other, one topic to another, without any pause.

Ninety percent of the time, our minds, sometime even our conversations,

are wasted in these unproductive engagements. This happens even when we

sit for meditation as we are carried away by the thoughts without

knowing how our minds were hijacked by our thoughts. For consistent

flow of thoughts towards higher, a vigilant mind is needed. This can be

achieved only by constant practice with full devotion towards the

higher. For example, instead of listening to the junk music during a

waking exercise, one can listen to the bhajan or to that which can

direct the mind to higher. Some people put a tape recorder on but

instead of listening, the mind slowly drifts back to ‘stray’ thinking.

It is important therefore to engage both speech and the mind in chanting

the prayers, particularly when one is involved in routine actions. By

engaging the speech also in chanting His sthava one avoids useless

speech. The routine actions such as taking bath, taking food, etc.

become yagnas, if we bring in the Lord.

 

There was once a drunkard who went to a priest and asked, ‘Sir, can I

drink while we are praying?’ – The priest said, ‘No. You should not do

any other action that takes your mind away from the Lord’. The drunkard

thought about it and changed his question. “Sir, Can I pray while I am

drinking?”. The priest said immediately, “ Yes, you can always pray,

whatever you are doing”. Hence, Krishna says, “yat karoshi yat ashnaati

… tat kurushva madarpaNam” 9-27, whatever you do and whatever you eat,

offer it to me with full devotion.

 

We discussed the mechanical thinking mind with stray thoughts. By

disciplining our mind to bring in deliberately the name of the lord

while we are involved in mechanical actions, we curtail the mind from

being carried by the ‘stray’ unproductive thoughts.

 

The second function of the mind is the objective thinking or

intelligent thinking. This mind is useful mind that is needed for any

inquiry. It is the discriminative mind, viveka, which is used for

inquiry into the nature of Brahman. The objective mind can be

classified into two types a) a sharp intellect, tiikshNa buddhi and b) a

subtle intellect, suukshma buddhi. A sharp intellect as the name

indicates is the mind that divides and analyzes the object. Hence, it

is also termed as ‘analytical mind’. All scientific investigations are

done using this mind. In any objective field, the more one dissects and

investigates the more the system reveals, and the field of investigation

becomes narrower and narrower. One becomes a super specialist.

Ultimately, in these investigations a stage comes where the field of

investigation will be affected by the very process of investigation.

Objective investigation becomes subjective in the sense that the

observed data becomes subjective.

 

The subtle mind, suukshma buddhi, in contrast, is the mind that

integrates or synthesizes. It is this mind that is called as Viveka.

Viveka is defined as the mind that can discriminate the eternal from the

ephemeral. It is the synthetic mind, which sees oneness in the

plurality. It requires wisdom to see the oneness, which is changeless

and eternal in the multitude of changing plurality. A mind that is

fully detached and that has the equanimity to witness all turbulent

onslaughts of ups and downs in life without getting affected by them.

That mind has gained what Krishna calls as samatvam or equanimity. It is

this mind that is capable of inquiring the highest nature of reality

that goes beyond understanding. The mind is cable of inquiring even the

notions about oneself and about the mind itself. It is this mind that

discovers the truth about itself as well as about the objects and the

associated thoughts. ‘mana yeva manushyaanaam kaaraNam bandha

mokshayoH|’. Mind is responsible for both bondage and liberation. Mind

has the notions about one self, as I am this and this, etc. In the

realization of oneself, the notional mind drops out leaving behind an

objective mind, which has clear understanding of the true nature of

oneself and still functions ‘as though’ it is mere equipment for the

self, which is limitless and eternal.

 

There is the third type of mind or thought flow which is called a mind

with aavesha or possessed mind. It is this mind that becomes a

problematic mind. In the second chapter, Krishna warns how human mind

can degrades itself by developing intense attachments. Krishna says by

constant thinking about the object one develops a desire for the object,

the desire can lead to anger when it is not fulfilled, anger leads to

delusion, delusion leads to loss of discriminative intellect and makes

one to perform actions that cause him complete down fall. One is

‘possessed’ with intense desire leading to intense anger or jealousy etc

that drains the energies of the individual and makes him incapacitated.

One can become neurotic with such a mind which requires even medical

help to put it to rest since one has lost complete control of it. It is

important to be attentive so that one does not get into such an

irreparable damage. The medicine is as Shankara sates in bhajagovindam:

sat sanghatve nissanghatvam, nissagatve nirmohatvam|

nirmohatve nischala tatvam and nischala tatve jiivan muktaH||

 

Mind associated with the good will lead to detachment, and detachment

will lead to loss of delusion and loss of delusion will lead to mind in

meditation and mind in meditation will lead to liberation. Thus, just

as mind attached to lower will cause to down fall, the mind attached to

higher will evolve to liberation. Hence, only way for the mind to go

towards higher is to redirect the mind towards the higher so that

notional mind can drop out in the understanding of the nature of the

reality.

 

In the first stage of Karma yoga, we train the mind to recognize the

higher nature of the reality and offer all the actions and thoughts to

the Lord as naivedyam or kaikaryam.

 

In the second stage of karma, yoga involves recognizing that He is the

Lord of the entire universe and nothing moves without His support. He

is like a thread that supports everything together as ‘suutre mani gaNaa

eva’. I am only His servant like an ambassador functioning on behalf of

a Government. Ambassador does everything but only as the representator

of the government only that which is beneficial to the Government that

he is representing. In the same way, I have to perform all my actions

that are beneficial to the Lord. Since Lord is everywhere and is not

different from the totality, everything that benefits the totality is

beneficial to the Lord. When you are taking care of the lowest of the

lowest, you are taking care of Me, when you clothing the lowest of the

lowest, you are clothing Me. When you are feeding the lowest of the

lowest, you are feeding Me, says the Bible.

 

As the mind evolves and contemplates on the nature of the reality along

the direction indicated by the Vedas that one recognizes that he is and

was never a doer. The actions are done by the prakRiti itself in the

presence of the Lord. If everything is Lord, and whatever that I can

point out is nothing but the Lord, then this body, this mind and this

intellect which are part of prakRiti and therefore belongs to the Lord

and not to me. All actions are done by the body-mind-intellect complex

that is enlivened by His presence. Hence, Lord says:

prakRitiH kriyamaanaaNi guNaiH karmaaNi sarvashaH|

ahankaaravimuuDhaatmaa kartaa2hamiti manyate|| 3-27

All actions are being done by the prakRiti propelled by its guNa

(satva-raja-tamo guNa). However, the egocentric individual because of

delusion says that he is the doer and claims that which does not belong

to him and suffers the consequence of that misunderstanding. It is like

a villager who traveled in a train. Feeling sorry for the train for

carrying so much load, he wanted to share some burden of the train.

Hence he kept his big luggage on his head while sitting in the train and

traveling. He started complaining that that the luggage is too heavy

for him to carry any further. That is exactly our status.

 

Recognition that prakRiti itself is performing the action in my presence

becomes a knowledge. Although the appropriate actions are being

performed in response to the situation through the body-mind-intellect

complex, which is part of the prakRiti, there is no more delusion that I

am the actor. ‘akartaaham abhoktaaham ahamevaaham avyayaH’ – I am

neither a doer nor an enjoyer, I am that I am, that inexhaustible source

of happiness that I am – will be the knowledge that arises in the

realization of who I am. There is nothing for him to do since there is

nothing he is going gain by doing or loose by not doing. If at all

anything is done by that body-mind-intellect complex by the Lord, it is

only for loka kalyaaNam. That karma yogi evolves to jnaani who

recognizes that he is never a doer while appropriate actions are being

done in his presence.

 

Thus, karma yoga is needed to gain the jnaana yogyata, or to gain

qualifications required to do jnaana yoga, and jnaana yoga is what helps

to recognize that I am never a doer in spite of all the doings. Thus,

there are three stages of karma yoga:

1. First recognition of role of the Lord and his presence in all my

activities and offer all the actions as a prayer to the Lord. At this

stage, there is still a notion that I am doer but I am doing as an

offering to the Lord. Hence, I do my part my best in the spirit of

yagna.

2. The second stage involves performance of the action as an ambassador

or His trustee. This includes taking care of my spouse, my children, my

office, and all my transactions. I am no more accountable for any of

the actions, as long as I perform them as His representative. I have to

make sure that ‘His will’ will be done and not mine.

3. The final stage is actually the culmination of the knowledge itself

that I am and I never was a doer while all actions are being done in my

presence. Krishna also provides this vision in the third chapter while

discussing the karma yoga. This is the culmination of all

understanding. The purpose of life itself is fulfilled. Whatever He

does will only glorify the universe. He is called kRitakRityaH, who

accomplished what needs to be accomplished. ‘kulam pavitram jananii

kRitaarthaa vishambaraa punyavatiica tena’ – The whole lineage is

blessed by the presence of such great one, his mother is blessed for

giving such a son of the world, and the whole universe is blessed by his

presence. It is only the result of merits of many lives that one

achieves that state of understanding.

 

This is the very purpose of life and any other pursuit in life is not

worth the effort. Krishna assures that again that it is important to

start the life of a karma yogi since even a little bit of effort in that

direction will take us a long way.

nehaabhikramanaashosti pratyavaayo na vidyate|

svalpamapyasya dharmasya traayate mahato bhayaat|| 2-40

Once one starts, the effects of this yoga gets compounded fast. Nothing

gained will be lost if one could not pursue further and there will not

any disastrous side effects either when one stops doing karma yoga.

However if one does even a little bit, that will take him a long way in

the pursuit of his ultimate goal. However, Krishna has already warned

that it is not a choice. It is a choice less choice since if we do not

perform with the attitude of karma yoga, we will get more and more

entangled in the ocean of bondage and cause our own self-destruction.

The choice is ours – says Krishna.

 

With this optimistic note and Krishna’s warning, we end the discussion

on Karmayoga, which I started writing after listening to Swami

Paramaarthaanandaji summary talk on Gita Ch. 3. Someone asked me how I

could take so much notes in one hour class. I must say I have been

blessed with the association of great souls starting from my own

teacher, Gurudev H.H. Swami Chinmayanandaji, and many other swamis in

and out of Chinmaya Mission. I try to avail every opportunity I can to

listen to mahaatmas, and also avail every opportunity that I can to talk

about it. Writing this notes in fact motivated me to write from Ch. 1

as Geeta Navaniitam series. Let us see how He wants that to proceed.

 

My thanks to all those who provided me encouraging comments and this

list moderators for providing me a vent for my expression.

 

Hari OM!

Sadananda