CONVERTING KARMA INTO KARMA YOGA
What transforms ordinary actions into yoga, a means of communion with the Absolute? The Gītā explains that Karma yoga has three features that distinguish it from ordinary action:
- Dharma aviruddha karma (7.11): Action unopposed to dharma, moral order.
- Īśvara arpaṇa buddhi: Attitude of offering (all actions to) Īśvara, the Lord.
- Īśvara prasāda buddhi: Regarding (fruits of action as) Īśvara’s grace.
In the Gītā’s abiding vision, selfless performance of actions as a service or as an offering to the Supreme sustains the cosmic order. In turn, such actions purify the mind and make it a fit vessel for the reception of self-knowledge which alone is the true means to spiritual freedom. Indian philosophy postulates that all actions produce results, visible or invisible (dṛṣtādṛṣta phala), which are binding on the doer.
Spiritual liberation, mokṣa, lies in attaining freedom from the endless cycle of actions-effects-actions-effects. This is then the skillfulness in action—yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam (2.50).
What constitutes the art of karma yoga?
Do right actions as an offering to Īśvara, accepting all results as Lord’s grace.
Then the actions will lose their binding effect.
No higher teachings about actions exist.
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