Bhagavad Gita Commentary–Fourteen
by Swami Nirmalananda Giri
The Virtues of Karma Yoga
“I have explained to you the true nature of the Atman. Now listen to the method of Karma Yoga. If you can understand and follow it, you will be able to break the chains of desire which bind you to your actions.”
The prerequisite
In studying any text, sacred or otherwise, it is sometimes as important to notice what is implied–or even not said–as well as what is actually written. This verse is a case in point. Krishna says that he has explained the true nature of the Self and now will outline the path of karma yoga. The implication is that karma yoga is impossible without our first being established in a correct understanding of the Self. For karma yoga–as is bhakti yoga and jnana yoga–is based on the nature of the Self. Without a correct perspective our attempt to follow those paths will be fraught with uncertainty and an almost sure incidence of misstep and failure.
Karma
“Karma” comes from the Sanskrit root kri, which means to act, do, or make. It is exactly the same as the Latin verb ago from whose form, actus, we get our English words act and action. Both verbs are “all purpose” words–that is, they can be applied in many situations to express the idea of many forms of action both mental and physical. This is important to know so we can realize that karma yoga covers the entire range of human action that is beneficial.
Karma, then, means any kind of action, including thought and feeling. But it also means the effects of actions. For karma is both action and reaction. Being a fundamental principle of existence it may be thought of as the law of causation governing action and its effects in the physical and psychological plane. It extends back to the moment of our entry into relative existence and extends forward to the moment of our exit from relative existence–even if that exit is a matter of transmutation of consciousness rather than external cessation of manifestation in a relative form or body.
Yoga
“Yoga” comes from the Sanskrit root yuj, which means to join or connect or even to unite in the sense of making many into one. It can also mean to bring together. But in the scriptures of India it always is applied in a spiritual sense, meaning both union with God and the way by which that union is effected. Yoga, then is both spiritual life and the culmination of spiritual life. Yoga is union with the Supreme Being, or any practice that makes for such union.
Karma yoga
Karma yoga, then, is the path of union with God through external action performed in a detached and selfless manner, dedicated to God alone Who is seen as its origin and its goal. This includes the performance of one’s own duty and service of humanity, but always in complete dedication to God. This is an essential distinction, for many people do good because they consider it a personal virtue. They themselves are the measure and the purpose of the act. Others act for the welfare of others, whose benefit then becomes the measure and the purpose of the act. Karma yoga is utterly different, for it is performed as an expression of divinity for the revelation of divinity, all other benefits, individual and communal being secondary–even insignificant.
Psychological
Although karma yoga involves physical action its focus is completely psychological. That is why Krishna says: “If you can understand and follow it, you will be able to break the chains of desire which bind you to your actions.”
First we must be able to intellectually understand the principle and the practice. Then if we follow it the result will be not be the benefit of others or satisfaction with ourselves for having “done the right.” Instead it will be the breaking of the bonds of egoic desire which bind us to the wheel of birth and death, forcing us to act and to reap the results of our actions.
To even conceive of erasing the capacity for desire from our minds is audacious to the maximum degree. To strive for it is courageous beyond calculation. No wonder a battlefield and imminent war is the setting for Krishna’s teaching.
We must understand that desirelessness is not a mere absence of desire or indifference or detachment. It is an absolute incapacity for desire. That is, desire cannot arise in the mind, conscious or subconscious, of the perfect karma yogi. Obviously we are going to be imperfect karma yogis for quite a while yet!
People usually make the same mistake about karma yoga that they do about Patanjali’s Yoga. They think that just not thinking is the state of yoga and just not caring is the state of karma yoga. But they are much, much more. Yoga is the state in which the mind substance (chitta) has evolved to the point where no modifications (vrittis or waves) can arise. Karma yoga is the state in which desire can no longer arise. These are high ideals virtually beyond our present comprehension, but not beyond our attainment.
The safe path
Krishna continues to amaze us. Next he states: “In this yoga, even the abortive attempt is not wasted. Nor can it produce a contrary result. Even a little practice of this yoga will save you from the terrible wheel of rebirth and death.”
Even to try the path of karma yoga for a while and then abandon it, or to try it and fail, or to follow it and die before making any significant progress–all these will result in tremendous benefit. Not one calorie of expended energy will slip away from us. This is incredible, and reveals the profound nature of authentic karma yoga. Karma yoga (the real thing, that is,) inaugurates such a profound change in our entire mode of existence, such a deep-reaching extension of our higher will, that it cannot help but come to full effect in time. So powerful is the psychic restructuring accomplished by even a little successful karma yoga that we are permanently changed, as Krishna will expound later.
Even more: no negative effect can accrue from karma yoga. In other endeavors failure or abandonment often produce psychic damage, weakening, or loss in some form. Not so with karma yoga. So mighty is its effect that even walking away from it cannot cancel its positive and inevitable results. Only good can come of our attempts. For even a little practice of this yoga will save us from the terrible wheel of rebirth and death by breaking the chains of desire–or rather, the weakness and ignorance that render us capable of desire.
The secret of its effectiveness
“In this yoga, the will is directed singly toward one ideal. When a man lacks this discrimination, his will wanders in all directions, after innumerable aims.”
In the practice of karma yoga there is only one ideal: liberation of the spirit (moksha). Nothing else can be a motive. It is like threading a needle. The thread cannot have fibers sticking out, otherwise it cannot be put through the needle’s eye. In the same way the mind must be focused on the single purpose: freedom in union with the Divine. Many types of actions may be engaged in and many “goals” may be aimed for or achieved. Yet, to the yogi they are nothing in themselves. The final result alone matters and alone is ever before his inner eye.
It is much like the rays of the sun. They can be very hot in the summer, but if even in the winter they are focused by means of a magnifying or “burning” glass they will cause any flammable object to catch fire.
The narrower the point of a weight the more pressure is produced. A brick weighing a pound or two will cause no discomfort if held in the hand. But if the corner of the brick is brought to bear on the palm it will be painful.
The idea of both these examples is that the more united or “pointed” the mind is, the more powerful–and therefore effective–it is.
Single purpose
To lack this single-mindedness in relation to moksha is disastrous to the karma yogi. This cannot be overemphasized because karma yoga is almost universally thought to be nothing more than noble selfless service to others rather than the intense form of liberating sadhana Krishna envisions and which impels him to say: “When a man lacks this discrimination, his will wanders in all directions, after innumerable aims.” Lost in the labyrinth of many goals and focusing on a multitude of objects, the aspiring karma yoga becomes lost in confusion and frustration. Krishna’s picture of such a person was presented by the Canadian humorist Stephen Leacock when he wrote about a man who leapt on his horse “and rode madly off in all directions.” In the Bible several times people are urged to walk straight forward without turning to right or left. The meaning is the same as Krishna’s.
As Swami Premeshananda was wont to say: “Go Forward!”
Read the Bhagavad Gita online: The English text of the Gita posted on this Web Site is arranged according to the meter of the original Sanskrit text so it can be sung–as it is done every morning in our ashram and in most of the ashrams of India.
1) Bhagavad Gita 2:39
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2) Bhagavad Gita 2:40 [Go back]
3) Bhagavad Gita 2:41 [Go back]
4) Proverbs 4:27; Deuteronomy 5:32, 28:14; Joshua 1:7. [Go back]
5) Swami Premeshananda, affectionately known as “Premesh Maharaj,” was a disciple of Sri Sri Ma Sarada Devi, the wife of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa, and a renowned monk of the Ramakrishna Order. His letters have been published in two volumes under the title Go Forward, as that was his habitual advice to spiritual aspirants in reference to a parable often told by Sri Ramakrishna. [Go back]
