The Art of Doing Karma III

Sri Ramakrishna

oi-Staff

By Staff

Wednesday, September 2, 2009, 15:34

We have to create a right attitude to work. We can discover this right attitude for doing work either through Jnana-Yoga or, Bhakti-Yoga. In Jnana-Yoga it is said, you do everything, at the same time you do nothing.

Pralapan visrijan grihnan
unmishan nimishan api;
Indriyani indriyartheshu
vartanta iti dharayan—(Gita, 5.9)

A jnani lives like a lotus leaf in the water. So many things are done by the senses but he is not disturbed. He (the knower of truth) says, 'I don't do anything; all work goes on by itself. I am only a witness.' How many people can do that? To most people it is very difficult because we are attached to the body. Yet Jnana-Yoga can form a basis for the Karma-Yoga. Gita (4.18) says:

Karmani akarma yah pashyed
akarmani cha karma yah;
Sa buddhiman manushyeshu
sa yuktah kritsnakarmakrit.

'One who sees inaction in action, and action in inaction, is intelligent among human beings, he or she is a yogi and a doer of all action.'That buddhi is the most intelligent, which sees akarma in karma. What does it mean? Do everything but be detached. Karma becomes akarma and akarma becomes karma when we are attached. We may not be working but desiring many things. Thus Jnana becomes the basis of all understanding of karma and akarma. It is a question of who does the work and to whom goes the bank balance of karma. The truth is that it is our attitude that counts. As this is very difficult to follow for most, one can take help from Bhakti-Yoga.

Shankara says in one place that whatever is done as ishwara arpana, as dedication to the Lord, does not cause bondage. You may say, 'Of course, I do everything and dedicate it to God', but are you feeling like that? In Sri-Shiva-manasa-pujana-stotram, it is said: Yadyatkarma karomi tattadakhilam shambho tavaradhanam. 'Whatever I do is thy aradhana.' From morning to evening whatever a devotee does, he offers it to the Lord, with a feeling of worship. Converting all that we do as worship, which means not only going to the temple or doing yajna, homa, but even ordinary things that we do as offering to the Lord is worship.

Sri Ramakrishna calls this vaidhi-bhakti, which means following bhakti according to the rules; externally you are engaged in various rituals and actions but inside the heart a change takes place. This is the aim of Karma-Yoga: a change of heart, an attitudinal change. For example there was one Brother Lawrence, in France, some 300 year ago. He was not much educated. He was working in the monastery as a cook. And in course of time, he got spiritual enlightenment. Everybody was astonished and even his superiors were eager to know how he managed to attain to that state. He said that he did not know anything, but he practised remembering God at all times in whatever work he did, trying to feel the presence of God. That is how the transformation comes. He did karma as yoga, so he was not attached to the result of karma. What we need is total dedication to the ideal.

Don't connect your salary with the karmaphala. Do your duty as seva. In Hindi they say sarkari seva (servant of the government). The name seva has been used for the service like Indian government service. But today's scenario is something different. The work they do is not seva at all; whether they work or not, they are paid salary. Even the higher officials make use of their post only to amass wealth. If a little dedication to the Lord can be brought in the work they do, that very work, which otherwise causes bondage, will become a means to Moksha.

This is what the Gita says: All the work that you do, offer that to the Lord. In the Mahabharata, Yudhishthira is seen to offer everything to the Lord. And the Lord says: offer only good things; do not offer the bad things, for they will return to you with manifold intensity

About the author

Swami Smaranananda is the General Secretary of Ramakrishna Math and Mission. This is the edited text of his talk delivered at Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, during the spiritual retreat held on 8th February 2004.

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