Karma Yogam

[Guest guest]

List Moderator's Note: Welcome to the list and discussing all aspects of Karma Yoga is indeed an integral scope of this list. Feel free to ask any question and we look forward to your active participation.

 

 

Pranaams to all,

 

I am not an expert in Advaita philosophy but just a beginner in the

practice of karma yoga. Hope discussing Karma Yoga in this forum is

no digression from the scope

 

I do daily paaraayanam of Bhagavad Gita III chapter but I failed to

notice the richness of the following slokam till it was explained to

me briefly by my friend:

 

Mayi sarvaani karmaani sannyasyaadhyaatma chetasaa;

Niraasheer nirmamo bhootwaa yudhyaswa vigatajwarah

 

This one slokam explains everything about the practice of Karma

Yogam. I will be grateful if the participants provide me more

elaborate explanation for this slokam and any related details that

will be of help for a my karma yogic practice

 

Regards,

 

PB Prabhu

[Guest guest]

advaitin, "Venkataraman" <vidyatheerth

wrote:

>

>

> Pranaams to all,

>

>> Mayi sarvaani karmaani sannyasyaadhyaatma chetasaa;

> Niraasheer nirmamo bhootwaa yudhyaswa vigatajwarah

>

> This one slokam explains everything about the practice of Karma

> Yogam. I will be grateful if the participants provide me more

> elaborate explanation for this slokam and any related details that

> will be of help for a my karma yogic practice

>

> Regards,

>

> PB Prabhu

Srigurubhyo namah

Namaste Prabhu ji,

 

Pl. check out the recent posts from Shri Shyam md. They are rich

with great ideas on karma yoga and the bhakti that the practice of

karma yoga essentially requires.

 

Regards,

subbu

Om Tat Sat

[Guest guest]

Namaste Sri Prabhu;

 

You have chosen one of the key verses in Gita where Lord Krishna

suggests the importance of synchronizing the mind with the SELF.

Refer to my post # 32599, you will notice that this one of those

verses with the focus on the Self. The verse with the translation is

followed by additional comments.

 

Mayi sarvaani karmaani sannyasyaadhyaatma cetasaa;

Niraasheer nirmamo bhootwaa yudhyaswa vigatajwarah.

Renouncing all actions in Me, with the mind centered in the Self,

free from hope and egoism, and from (mental) fever, do thou fight.

 

The word `Cetas' forming part of the compound word `aadhyatmacetasa'

stands for the mind which has developed faith in God the inner

witness of all hearts, after a due recognition of His virtues, glory

and real nature, and thinking of Him constantly and under every

circumstance. He who dedicates his actions to God with the help of

such a mind realizes God to be almighty, all-pervading and

omniscient, the support of all, the universal Lord, the supreme

object of realization, the supreme goal, the greatest well-wisher,

the best and dearest friend, and supremely kind. Such a seeker

recognizes the fact that the body mind, intellect and senses and all

their actions including all objects of the world indeed belongs to

the Lord. The seeker transforms into a jnani who renounces all

attachment and the sense of possession with regard to them. Such a

jnani has the faith with strong conviction that he is absolutely

powerless, and it is the Lord who lends him the necessary power to

perform all the ordained actions. He also believes that everything

that he performs is the will of the Lord and he is just a mere tool

in His hands. He willingly subordinates his body, mind and intellect

to God and goes on performing all actions as a mere puppet for Lord's

sake and under Lord's inspiration and guidance and direction. With

that wisdom he culminates into a jnana-bhakta-karma Yogi who mentally

renounces all connection with his actions and the fruits of his

actions by knowing the Truth that Everything Belongs to the Lord.

Such a perfect yogi is said to have dedicated all his actions to God

with the mind fixed on Him. See also Verse 6 of chapter 12 and

verses 57 and 66 of Chapter 18 where Lord Krishna speaks the

importance of surrendering all actions and duties to God.

 

The sense of possession, hope and mental fever ceases to exist in

those seekers who have thus dedicated all their actions and duties to

God and always keeps their mind fixed on Him. Lord advises Arjuna

through this verse that he should engage himself in the fight to

conquer all these evils. The Lord intends to show that transferring

the responsibility for all his actions to Him, Arjuna should be able

to get rid of all morbid feelings such as hope and the sense of

possession, love and hatred, joy and grief, etc. The subject matter

of discussion of the posting # 32599 will be a more detailed

elaboration of this theme of Bhagavad Gita.

 

With my warmest regards,

 

Ram Chandran

 

 

advaitin, "Venkataraman" <vidyatheerth

>

> Mayi sarvaani karmaani sannyasyaadhyaatma chetasaa;

> Niraasheer nirmamo bhootwaa yudhyaswa vigatajwarah

>

> This one slokam explains everything about the practice of Karma

> Yogam. I will be grateful if the participants provide me more

> elaborate explanation for this slokam and any related details that

> will be of help for a my karma yogic practice

>

> Regards,

>

> PB Prabhu

>

[Guest guest]

Shree Prabhuji - PraNAms.

If you go to advaitin archives a series of posts on Karma yoga is stored in file. You may be able to down load it for you study.

Hari Om!

Sadananda

 

 

Venkataraman <vidyatheerth (AT) (DOT) co.in>

 

 

This one slokam explains everything about the practice of Karma

Yogam. I will be grateful if the participants provide me more

elaborate explanation for this slokam and any related details that

will be of help for a my karma yogic practice

 

Regards,

 

PB Prabhu

[Guest guest]

advaitin, "Venkataraman" <vidyatheerth

wrote:

 

>>

> I do daily paaraayanam of Bhagavad Gita III chapter but I failed to

> notice the richness of the following slokam till it was explained

to

> me briefly by my friend:

>

> Mayi sarvaani karmaani sannyasyaadhyaatma chetasaa;

> Niraasheer nirmamo bhootwaa yudhyaswa vigatajwarah

>

> This one slokam explains everything about the practice of Karma

> Yogam. I will be grateful if the participants provide me more

> elaborate explanation for this slokam and any related details that

> will be of help for a my karma yogic practice

>

>>

Namaste Shri Venkatraman

 

You have picked one of the most significant shlokas of the Gita for

discussion. May I recommend to you to read, in addition to the

archives of the files on the list, the following web page where

this shloka and similar significant shlokas, pertaining to Karma

Yoga, are focussed and discussed under the title: "Dexterity in

Action"?

 

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/livehappily_9.html

 

PraNAms to all advaitins.

profvk

[Guest guest]

advaitin, "Venkataraman" <vidyatheerth

wrote:

>

> List Moderator's Note: Welcome to the list and discussing all

aspects of Karma Yoga is indeed an integral scope of this list. Feel

free to ask any question and we look forward to your active

participation.

>

>

> Pranaams to all,

>

> I am not an expert in Advaita philosophy but just a beginner in the

> practice of karma yoga. Hope discussing Karma Yoga in this forum is

> no digression from the scope

 

 

Dear Prabhuji,

 

Namaste

 

First of all let me extend my warmest welcome to the group. Honestly

speaking this is one of the best and most catholic group in hinduism

i have ever come across. Hope you will find the threads of the

groups very useful.

 

As far as your quiery regrding Karma Yoga is concerned i am giving

below the desciption of Karma Yoga by Swami Nikhilanandaji who is

the author of the celebrated book "The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna",

which was given in the introductory part of his Gita translation. I

strongly recomend you to read the book. It was written primarily

keeping the needs of the people of the west in mind.Infact that

Swami was cut for that as he was scholar in both sanskrit and

English. He explains the concepts in a simple manner and of great

help to the non sanskrit knowing sadhakas. He draws mainly from the

bhashya of the Shankara Bhagavadpada.Translation by Swami

Chinmayanandaji also is very much useful.

 

Quote runs as under:

 

 

Here we come to the main discipline of the Gita for the attainment

of liberation. It is karmayoga, or the performance of work as yoga a

method of communion with the Godhead. Everyone must work.Inactivity

is impossible for an embodied being. his eating, his moving, and

even the functioning of his bodily organs, mean action. Work is the

effective means of self-expression in the relative world. Even God

hmself is an ever active Power. "I have, O Partha, no duty; there is

nothing in the three worlds that I have not gained and nothing that

I have to gain. Yet I continue to work."But behind a man's work

there may be different motives. He may work for his own

satisfaction, or he may work to please God. In the former case he

regards his individualised self as the doer, is elated by success

and depressed by failure and clings to the result, which is the

satisfaction of the doer himself. In the latter case he knows that

the Lord alone is the doer and himself only his instrument; he then

works viewing alike success and failure, for the fruit of the action

belongs to God alone. Ego-centric action creates bondage for the

doer, where as action performed to please god leads to liveration.

Through such action the heart becomes pure, and the man of pure

heart aquires the fitness to cultivate self-knowledge. Through self

knowledge he attains liberation. This is called karmayoga, the

performance of duty as a yoga. Yoga is the secret ot work. To remain

unperturbed in success and failure is yoga.

 

All actions can be performed as yoga. Even an apparently violent

action, inficting suffering on others, as on a battle-field, can be

a yoga and therefore spiritual, if the motive is not the

aggrandizement of the individual or communal or national ego, but

the establishment of truth and justice.

 

The relative universe consists of pairs of opposites good and evil,

pain and pleasure, vitue and vice, life and death. They are like the

two sides of the same coin and are indispensable to complete the

picture of the world. A perfect world, containing goodness or

happiness aloone is a contradiction in terms; an undisturbed balance

is possible only in the state of dissolution. The act of cration

begins precisely when that balance is lost. When everybody will be

perfect the world will cease to exist. The only active and the

intelligent agent behind these ceaseless activities of the universe

is the lord himself. His will alone is operative in every action He

is the only conscious entity that exists; but He acts through

embodied beings using them as His instruments. In his foreordaining

mind everything that is to be accomplished has already been

accomplished. Both pas and the future are only a present moment in

his infinite consciousness. For the purpose of carrying out his

plans in the relative world, he cooses DIFFERENT BEINGS FOR

DIFFERENT ACTIONS, APPARENTLY GOOD OR EVIL ACCORDING TO THEIR INBORN

DHARMAS. He expects them to be conscious of their instumental

nature. Men suffer because they regard themselves as doers. When

once they realise that the lord alone is the doer, then their duty,

whatvever its nature may be, will bring them joy and satisfaction.

It will bring them spiritual success. 'By worshipping Him through

the performance of duty does a man attain perfection.' man is

essentially of the nautre of God. Therefore any work done for the

satisfaction of God must also satisfy man's ture self.

 

In the Gita, Sri Krishna emphasises svadharma, one's own dharma. The

word Dharma is really untranslatable. Religion, duty, righteousness,

and the other english equivilants give only a partial meaning.

Dharma is derived from the root dhri, meaning to hold or to sustain.

The word signifies the attitude behind a man's action or duty that

sustains him in his present stage of evolution and also helps him to

realise his ultimate destiny. The dharma of a man is determined by

his past experiences and tendencies. The beginningless soul assumes

different forms in different births for the gaining of experience.

The works performed in every birth leave impressions, whicha re

stored up in the subconscious mind and are not destroyed with the

death of the body. When the soul assumes a new body, these

impressions begin to operate. Thus they form his svabhava or

character;they determine his dharma of duty, his religion, his sense

of right and wrong. Education and environment only help a man to

manifest what he has inherited from his own past. Heredity supplies

him with the physical means of working out his dharma. So a man's

dharma is the basis of his thought and action. He cannot get rid of

it any more than a dreaming person can get rid of his dream. To try

to act against one's dharma is to do voilence to one's nature. The

duty determined by a man's dharma is his natural duty. That is the

only real thing for him; all other duties are alien to his nature,

imposed for outside and therefore sources of confusion. Krishna asks

Arjuna to cling to his kshatriya dharma though it does not seem

perfect from other standpoints, " Better is one's own dharma, though

imperfectly performed, than the dharma of another well performed.

Better is death in the doing of one's own dharma; the dharma of

another is fraught with peril." He who does the duty ordained by his

own nature incurs no sin." As a poisonous substance does not injure

the worm born in that substance, so he who acts according to his

inborn dharma does not incur evil.

 

Dharma imples a man to righteous or unrighteos actions, which

produce good or evil results. Both the evil and the good operate as

barriers to the knowledge of rality, which is the transcendent and

beyond such pairs of opposite. Dharma and adharma, righteousness and

unrighteousness, may be compared to clouds of different thickness

that hide the respledent sun; what is called good is only a lesser

evil. The light of the sun is seen in its full brilliance only when

the clouds are totally removed. Likewise, the true glory of the self

is perceived only when the mind remains free from all the tendencies

created by its good as well as its evil actinos. This condition of

mind is produced when a man acts according to his dharma in a spirit

of utter detachment. The organs may then be active but the mind does

not retain slightest impresion of the action. This is the meaning of

Sri Krishna's advice to Arjuna to workd and surrender the results to

the lord. It is the only way to exhaust the past tendencies and at

the same time prevent the formation of new ones. By freeing the mind

of attachment and delusion a man ultimately realises that his

supreme dharma is to worship god. and god alone. " Abandon all

dharmas and come to me alone for shelter. I will deliver you from

all sins; do not grieve." Thus through our worldly dharma, we

acquire fitness to perform the supreme duty of human evolution,

which is attainment of the self knowledge.

 

JAI JAI RAGHUVEER SAMARTHA

 

Yours in the lord,

 

Br. Vinayaka