Krishna & Karma Yoga

OM

Title : Krishna & Karma Yoga

Theme : Positive Transformation through Spirituality

Life is a journey & to make our journey fruitful & ever pleasing we need to understand Life, who we are & who is Lord. Let’s discuss some of the important aspects from our scriptures & see how we can transform & transcend our life in a very practical & optimistic way.

In Bhagavat Gita(Chapter 2-47,48) Lord Krishna has given ultimate definition on Karma Yoga – Achieving Perfection while performing Duty.

karmaṇy evādhikāras te

mā phaleṣu kadācana

mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr

mā te sańgo 'stv akarmaṇi. (BG.-2.47)

The common misconception that many of us have is, Here God is saying “Do your Karma & never expect the result”. It’s not true & not practical too.

The actual message by Krishna here is, “You have the right to do the action, but never be attached to the result, as it is the part of the Almighty to decide & that is exactly based on your perfection while performing the prescribed duties. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.”

If you are attached to the fruit of action, then incase you wont achieve, as per your preconceived notion, you might loose interest in performing your prescribed duties, which is self destructing. On the contrary if you can have firm faith on Lord’s decision, without any deviation while performing your tasks, then in near future you will get to know that the decision which seemed bitter to you is a boon in disguise.

Just to recollect the story of the “King & doctor”, When the king is in trouble, the doctor cut his toe, but in turn thrown in to jail. The next day unfortunately in a jungle king lost his path & caught by a tribal gang who took him to Goddess Kali for Sacrifices. Later when they discovered King without toe, they had to free him, as he was an imperfect sacrifices. Now the king had to realize that the decision to cut his toe has saved his neck!!! When he came back & felt sorry to Doctor, he said, even the jail was for his own goodness. If he was not in jail, mostly he would be with the king & became the perfect sacrifices.

This is just a story, but when we reflect on our past life & analyze deeply, we can also feel the similar bitter events of the past, transformed into a better future prospect. Sometimes it takes a shorter span, or else a prolonged period, all based on our purity in actions.

In the next verse Krishna again emphasizes on it by saying “samatvaḿ yoga ucyate” – Sameness in attitude while performing your duty is called perfect Yoga. You should not bewildered by the success or failure in the life, As success might invoke the ego & failure might eat your energy & enthusiasm. Thus it is advised to have “Arpana Vriti” while performing the action & “Prasada Vriti” while accepting the result. When we offer Lord, we give our best of love & effort in preparing the prasada; same should we follow while offering our work. But while accepting prasada, we don’t discriminate about the quality or quantity of it. Same should be followed while we are getting the fruit of our action. This is the real essence of “KARMA YOGA”.

Many of us heard of the word “TatwamAssi” (Tetraya Upanisad, Book 2, Stanza 1).

Tat is Lord, Twam means Jiva(Living Entity), & Asi means Equation or Equals. That means we all are God. That’s why we have no problem in giving respect to any one, be from any religion or society. When we understand that, we should also treat everyone with the same love & respect as we are expecting from others. This is a life changing attitude one can posses & see things changing from worst to best.

We can get knowledge from books, but Wisdom comes from God.

Hare Krishna.