The Atma Jyoti Blog

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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.” (Bhagavad Gita 2:40)

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.

Next: The Secret of the Effectiveness of Karma Yoga