Understanding Karma Yoga, properly!
In its most popular version, Karma Yoga is presented as follows: Perform your actions, without
expecting any results. That is, do actions selflessly, nis ̣kāma karma,1 unattached to the results.
This has caused much confusion: How can one do any action without expecting any results?
Why do any action at all if one were not to expect any results? This is not the intention of the
Gītā, as we shall see.
Similar confusion exists regarding the meaning of the word Yoga, as used in the Bhagavad Gītā.
According to J. A. B. van Buitenen, 'The word yoga and cognates of it occur close to 150 times
in the Gītā, and it needs attention.' It is also helpful to bear in mind that in the Gītā, karman
(action) do not always equate with 'Karma Yoga' and jña̅na (knowledge) does not always signify
'Jñāna Yoga.' Secondly, the word “Yoga” is used in several shades of meanings in the Gītā. The
root meaning of the word is ‘union.’ However, at two places, Sri Kr ̣s ̣n ̣a presents the word
“Yoga” in its truest meaning: BG 2:48 and BG 6:23. In BG 2:48, Sri Kr ̣s ̣n ̣a states “samatvaṃ
yoga ucyate”—“equipoise” or “equanimity” is called yoga. The second important sense in which
the word ‘Yoga’ is used in the Gītā is in verse BG 6:23: taṃ vidyād.h duḥkhasaṃyogaviyogaṃ
yogasaṃjñitam—Freedom from contact with sorrow (of this body and material world) should be
known as yoga. According to the Gītā, the complete freedom from sorrow is possible only when
one is established in the Supreme Self (Paramātman).
Some quote the phrase yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam (2.50) to explain that dexterity in action is
yoga. Does that mean that proficiency in pickpocketing will make the pick-pocketer a yogi? This
is not at all the intention of the Gītā, for that will be against the universal moral code (dharma
viruddha). Remember, the first word of the Gītā is dharmakṣetre (1.1), the sphere of moral
conduct, and the last word is mama (18.78), meaning “mine.” Literally, the first and last words
of the Gītā signify: “my moral duty,” my svadharma, like it is the dharma of fire to burn and of
water to extinguish the fire.
Karma Yoga has two aspects:
1. Proper Action: What makes an action proper action? A proper action is that action which
is unopposed to dharma, the universal moral order—the right thing to do, in a given
situation. The rightness of an action lies in its moral valence. When an action is good for
one and good for all, it is called right action. Harmlessness of an action is one easy way
to determine it. On the path of goodness one does not lose ever.2
The Gita divides karma into several types. Nitya Naimita karma: The obligatory duties:
one should perform the obligatory duties such as yajña, dāna and tapas. These three
types of actions, the Gita says, are the purifiers of the wise. These actions are performed
1
Interestingly, the expression “nis ̣kāma karma” does not occur in the Gī tā!
2
न नन ननननननननन ननननननन नननननननन ननननननननन: One, who follows the path of goodness,
there is no misery or misadventure, durgati, for him.
with the attitude that it is my duty and it has to be done. This leads to purification of the
mind or the internal organ of perception (antāhkaraṇa śuddhi). Our daily duties done
properly, makes us fit to understand subtle knowledge.
2. Proper Attitude: Sages explain that Karma yoga has three features that distinguish it from
ordinary action:
1. Dharma aviruddha karma: Action unopposed to dharma, the moral order.
2. Īśvara arpaṇa buddhi: Attitude of offering (all actions to) Īśvara, the Lord.
3. Īśvara prasāda buddhi: Regarding (fruits of action as) Īśvara’s grace.
A karmayogi should have an attitude of being the instrument in the hands of Ishvara, nimita-
mātra. This then is the skill in action, the art of karma yoga: do right actions as an offering to the
Lord, Īśvara, accepting all results as Lord’s grace.
Then the actions will lose their binding effect. Hence the skill!
