KARMA YOGA 20

Yoga means union of the human with the Divine and karma yoga means such union by the detached performance of work in the spirit of austerity for the maintenance of the world-order and for the liberation of the self.

This is the most universal of yoga for there is none that can stay without work and, therefore, anyone may practice this science of work to free himself from material bondage. Even an atheist may practice this yoga and arrive at excellence in the performance of work and peacefulness by learning to detach himself from the results of his actions. However, the goal for all in the ultimate analysis is liberation of the self.

The karmic cycle is seemingly unending and is fuelled by desire. Therefore, to stop the Wheel of Karma, the Karmachakra, one must practice desirelessness for only then can one succeed in detaching oneself from the results of work. Desires having been rooted out of the system, the mind is quickly brought under control and detachment in work becomes easy.

But how to root out desires? By the constant performance of work for world-maintenance with a universal outlook and never a sectarian one. Such work must be unselfish and pure, without a tinge of physicality involved and performed without the sense of being the doer but rather as the instrument of the Divine. Only then does the mind get clarified and cleansed of its age-old accumulation of dross and become the shining mirror of the Self of man in which the reflection of Brahman is visible.

The purified mind is the perfected instrument of the Divine and performs work with grace and poise, without attachment or aversion, in perfect equilibrium. Such a worker is the karma yogi and his very work is worship, the adoration of the Divine. And the method he applies in the performance of his work is verily KARMA YOGA.