Karma Yoga in Daily Life

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"Karma Yoga in Daily Life"

Q u e s % o n : Our rst ques%on is, we would like for you to dene the term Karma Yoga and the second part to that would be how would you suggest that we, as lay people, manifest that form of yoga in our lives?

R a m D a s s : Well in the simplest sense you could say that Karma Yoga is using your Karma as a way of coming into union with God. It's using the stu of your life. It is usually used as the way in which you do work in the world. And whether or not that work in the world is a vehicle for spiritual awakening. In books like the Bhagavad Gita Karma Yoga is specied as Krishna saying to Arjuna "Do what you do, but oer the fruits of it to me." That's what Karma Yoga is. So in that sense, it has a devo%onal quality to it. And it's interes%ng that in Vivekanada's book on Karma Yoga, Karma Yoga and Bhak% Yoga are usually put together in the liQle volumes. They are published together because there is such a rela%onship. Because Karma Yoga really has that you serve others as a way of serving God. You serve others as a way of puRng owers at the feet of God, of honoring God. And you do seva or service as a technique of doing that. Once you are star%ng to awaken, you look around for prac%ces to purify and to help you awaken. And most people see medita%on clearly as a prac%ce, because medita%on doesn't get anything else done, so it must be geRng you enlightened. It's a clear, simple yoga. And you say, "Well, I do yoga, and I do my medita%on and then I go to work or then I live life. Or then I'm going to do good." Or something like that. Karma Yoga is the taking of the things you do every day with other people, of service, things like that, and making those all into an oering. And so it's an aRtude that one has. It's an aRtude of oering, and it's an aRtude of seeing how the ac%ons you are performing are more than. . . We'll talk about this in the money and work group, so I'll save the issues of money about it. So, the way we are going to talk about it though is the act of doing service. And what is the rela%on of the service you do or the task you do, and what is the rela%on of that to your coming to God. And there are dierent ways that works. It can work in a devo%onal sense, where I am talking to you as my oering to Maharajji. This is my Karma Yoga. I am doing this now as service to you, but it's an oering to him. And that's work on myself. You hear all of those components of that? I also can do it without the devo%onal component, but doing it from a medita%ve point of view, called Medita%on in Ac%on. Those of you that might have seen Chgyam Trungpa's book called Medita%on in Ac%on in which when I'm washing a pot, I don't wash the pot as the oering to Maharajji. I just come into the process of washing the pot un%l I'm fully in the moment, and I quiet my mind into washing the pot un%l there is just washing of potness going on. And that is also Karma Yoga. Karma Yoga is that which will bring you to yog or union into the One, and it takes the stu you do every day to do that. Q u e s % o n : Would you please speak about right ac%on? R a m D a s s : Speak about right ac%on. In the nal analysis, right ac%on is what is called doing one's Dharma. It means ac%on that does not have associated with it aQachment or aversion. And therefore it does not create Karma in and of itself. Now this is a very complex concept, and I don't want to get too head trippy but I'd really like to get this one through because it is an interes%ng one. In the Bhagavad Gita there are two injunc%ons that are very clear about ac%on. One is Do not be iden%ed with being the actor. Krishna is saying to Arjuna "You are a warrior and this is a Dharmic war you are going to ght. Go ght it, but don't think you are the ghter. It's really me, God, that's doing it. You are just an instrument in it. Don't get so caught. Don't let your ego run away. Don't think you're doing it." So the rst injunc%on is Don't be iden%ed with being the actor. In other words, let your mind pull back from iden%fying with the doing. We are all. . . Like the common thing in this culture is "What are you
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Karma Yoga in Daily Life

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doing?" "What do you do?" "Hi, what do you do?" See, doing is the iden%ca%on. And we're constantly sucking each other to iden%fying with the doer. "I worked all day." "I made love." "I ate." "I walked." "I did." The other way of looking at it, and it's a dierent... it's a cri%cal shi[ of consciousness -- is "I am" and there is doing. It's a dierent place. Like your heart is bea%ng, but you're not bea%ng your heart. You're not saying, "Beat, damn it. Beat. Beat. Beat." "I'd like to talk to you, but I'm busy doing. Excuse me." "Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat." So you're not. It's all going on automa%c so to speak. Or base brain. Or whatever you want to call it. So, we're talking about non-iden%ca%on with being the actor is the rst component. Now think of all the things in your life that you do, and then imagine them happening, because they are. Like when you drive a car, most of you are doing it without being iden%ed with being the doer. You are usually thinking about something else while you are driving. You are not being the driver. Now take the next injunc%on. The next injunc%on is Be not aQached to the fruits of the ac%on. Like if you are a parent raising a child, rst of all don't be iden%ed with the fact that you are "raising the child". You are a being. All of this is happening because it's the appropriate ac%on that is happening. You are res%ng in your being and there is doing happening. You are being careful of the biological safety of the child and the love and so on. The other thing is how the child turns out is how the child turns out. Your aQachment to how the child is going to turn out is going to aect the way you do the act. You did the act as impeccably as you can. Because that is your Dharma. It is your duty. It is your role to play. You nd yourself in that unique Karmic predicament. Your Karma denes your Dharma. The situa%on you nd yourself in denes a condi%on under which there are appropriate ac%ons to be done. And the place you do those appropriate ac%ons from is a place of rest inside your being. And then the ac%ons occur and the outcomes happen. And you stay at rest. That's the pure act of Karma Yoga. So, that is right ac%on. But see, it's a hard one to hear. Did it come through? Did you hear that issue? I mean it is so far out for us to hear that, because it runs so counter to the way we think about the way we act every day. We'd never think of that. But in India, it's interes%ng. They have a very deep sense of the term Dharma. Of doing my Dharma. It's just an appropriate thing you do. Because that's the part you play. And as I listened in, I realized that like in my taking care of my father in those last years, my being in that rela%onship, I was taking care of my father. And I no%ced that at the beginning of it, because I was a Westerner, I was sort of milking it a liQle bit. You know, here I am taking care of old Dad. And then a[er a while I heard it more clearly, and there was just the appropriateness of I was the son, and he was my father, and I was honoring the father and he needed help and there I was. And I ended up playing the part, but when we were together it had very liQle to do with that. I mean that was all going on, but the bed pans and all were all just part of our process of being together. And I did as I could, and some%mes he was happy and some%mes he wasn't. But I was doing it as well as I could. A lot of our anxiety is because we are aQached to how it is supposed to come out, when doesn't allow God to play. Because I could do everything I could do for Dad as impeccably as I could and he wouldn't no%ce it. If my doing it was connected with how he responded, then I was unhappy. But it was an oering. It was my part to play. And I was just feeling my way into my part. And then not geRng caught in being the player. So the part was just happening. It was just happening. My father was being cared for. And there was honoring of father and here we were.

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