Karma-Yoga Action - Trevor Leggett

In karma-yoga defined by Sankara in II.39 commentary, there are three elements: (1) Calm endurance of opposites, (2) yogic action, (3) samadhi practice. The first of these can be roughly summed up as Independence, and was looked at in a previous chapter. This chapter is concerned with the yogic action, from which karma-yoga takes its name.

Yogic action is presented, in the Gita and in Sankara, in slightly varying ways:

• Abandonment of, or evenness of mind towards, results good or bad;

• Dedicating, or consigning or depositing, results of actions, to God or Brahman;

• Dedicating, etc., the actions themselves to God or Brahman;

• Having no personal motive for actions;

• Giving up attachment to action as such;

• giving up attachment to inaction.

It may be asked, why is inaction brought in? In the yogic analysis, even one sitting still, thinking ‘Now let me be happily at ease’, is still classed as acting. His choice is itself an action, and it soon changes. In a modern analogy, the safety catch has been put on, but the gun is still loaded and still in the hand. He is still a marksman.

The Gita text mainly recommends actions based on traditional virtues such as those listed at the beginning of XVI: Such actions are to be done without any personal motive of outer gain or recognition, or even inner self-satisfaction. Self-controlled action, uprightness, purity, generosity are typical. It has been noticed how many of them consist in restraining one’s own life, rather than direct interference with the lives of others. To set a good example of independence, and not injuring others, is most important in the Gita ethics.

‘Apart from no greed for fruits, there is to be no attachment for action itself. Some people simply want to keep busy, without any personal interest in the particular results, though they often work hard. It is sometimes bossiness (as Dr. Shastri remarked), but more often a way of asserting personal significance. It is not yogic action; it is motivated by a fear of becoming nothing.

II.47 Your right must be to the action alone, never to its fruits;

Let not the fruits of action be your motive, nor be attached to inaction.

48 Set in yoga perform your actions, casting off attachment; be the same in success or failure: This being-the-same is called Yoga.

© "Realization of the Supreme Self" published (1995) by New Age Books, A-44, Naraina Phase I, New Delhi 110 028. Website: www.newagebooksindia.com. Reprinted with permission.

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