Karma Yoga - November Newsletter

Here's a little something that was written up for the November Newsletter. Enjoy!

Karma Yoga, the action of giving back, is one of the many paths to liberation and is discussed flawlessly in the eternal classic, The Bhagavad Gita. In this text, Krishna (as a manifestation of the divine) explains that our attachment to our actions keeps us bound to an unending cycle of karma creating repeated births, deaths, and misery as we reap the seeds of our previously selfish actions. The only way for us to end this suffering is to end these attachments.

Our attachments are many. We're attached to comforts, to our families, to our possessions, to our titles, our ideas about ourself, and even to our spiritual practices (including yoga). A yoga practice based exclusively on the physical aspects can lead towards self-indulgence as we fixate on our newfound skills, our abilities, and other related obsessions. Resist the urge to pamper the ego and instead, try to exchange these thoughts for others - a mantra, a prayer, something devotional (this can be a non-secular devotion). It requires a concentrated effort to adjust the workings of the mind, but it is not impossible. Shifts come little by little and stick with us if we make the effort to catch ourselves "in the act" and redirect to something that is deeper and ultimately more rewarding.

It is for this reason that work without expectation is so beneficial. If we can do for others, without reservation or hesitation, and without the expectation of any reward whatsoever (this is a hard one - no thank you, no feeling of personal satisfaction, nothing!), then we are performing Karma Yoga. Even as we lessen these attachments (this is not an over night practice), we begin to see the true benefit and purpose of our work. We are a part of the bigger picture. We see something that needs doing and we do it. Tough, but ultimately, a practice that can be rewarding on the deepest levels imaginable (or currently unimaginable) as we explore below the surface of our Selves.

"But verily, the man who rejoices in the Self and is satisfied with the Self and is content with the Self alone--he has nothing for which he should work. He has no object to gain by what he does in this world, nor any to lose by what he leaves undone; nor is there anyone, among all beings, on whom he needs to depend for any object. Therefore always do without attachment the work you have to do; for a man who does his work without attachment attains the Supreme." - Krishna speaks to Arjuna in The Bhagavad Gita