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PERCEPTIONS
Eternal India
encyclopedia
Seeing that the tree on which it built its
nest is being felled by cruel hands, the bird
giving up attachment leaves its home and
attains to well-being.
KARMA
(DUTIES OF HUMANS)
Karma Yoga
does not ask you to re-
nounce action but to act rightly. Any
karma
or action will not produce freedom, but an
appropriate action done with the right atti-
tude will surely bring freedom. What counts
is how you do something, not what you do.
The word
karma
itself means both action
and reaction, and also implies duty. Cause
and effect is an indisputable law of both
science and spirituality — "as you sow so
shall you reap." Experience shows that an
action which produces a reaction does not
die there, but produces a chain reaction, an
unending process of attraction and repulsion
called bondage.
Karma Yoga
means self-
less action.
Karma Yoga
is the right to act,
but not to the fruits thereof. Selfless action
does not mean no reaction at all, but rather
no reaction in which you bear a selfish mo-
tive.
Union through
karma
implies, then, self-
less action in which you do not react out of
motive and impulse. You act with equanim-
ity and serenity because that action is right,
because it should be done. The more spiri-
tual you are, the more your talents are re-
fined and sharpened.
It is for the benefit of others that trees bear fruit.
It is for the benefit of others that rivers flow.
It is for the benefit of others that cows yield milk.
It is for the benefit of others that the body is given.
— Baba
karmano hyaapi bodhyam bodhyam cha
vikarmanaha
akarmancha bodhyam gahanaa karmano
gathihi.
“For verily (the true nature) of ‘right
action’ should be known; also (that) of ‘for
bidden (or unlawful) action’ and of ‘inac-
tion’; imponderable is the nature (path) of
action.”
Bramhanyaadhhaaya
karmaani
sangam
thyakthvaa karothi yaha
lipyathe na sa paapena padma pathrami
vaambhasaa
He who does actions, offering them to
BRAHMAN, abandoning attachment, is not
tainted by sin, just as a lotus leaf remains
unaffected by the water on it.
Life means activity. Life being dynamic,
it cannot, even for a moment, cease to func-
tion. Activity, therefore, is the very corner-
stone of life.
LIFE
Actions to be done (Actions to be avoided)
----------------
Nitya
(daily duties)
-------------
Naimittika
(duties on special occasions)
----------
Kamya
(desire-prompted duties)
Periods of activity create man. This
creative-period depends upon what type of
activity we venture upon. According to the
ancient Seers, activities can be of two
types, constructive or destructive. Con-
structive activities which contribute to-
wards the evolution of the individual are
termed as
Karma.
Destructive activities are
those that are totally condemned by the
Sastras,
because they tend to devolve the
individual, and those are termed in our text
books as
Vikarma.
The constructive activi-
ties (Karma) can be of three kinds :
Nitya -
-
constant duties,
Naimittika
—
special
duties on special occasions, and
Kamya
—
work purposeful and self-determined for
winning a desirable result or reward.
-Swami Chinmayananda
"The Holy Geeta"
Happy is the man who is steady in the
discharge of his duties, and is neither over-
joyed nor depressed at the fruition or failure
of their results. (Duties must be done
whether they repay or not).
-
Yoga Vasisthd
If you are unable even to practise
Abhyaasa-yoga,
be you intent on doing ac-
tions for My sake; even by performing ac-
tions for My sake you will attain perfection.
One should perform work until one has
got disgusted with it, or until one has de-
veloped a veneration for listening to tales
about Me and that kind of thing.
O Uddhava, a man discharging his own
duties and performing sacrifices without
any desire for results, goes neither to
heaven nor to hell, unless he practises evil.
Such a man, becoming sinless and pure
attains to pure knowledge, or perchance
devotion to Me, remaining in this very
world.
The wise man should seek neither
heaven nor hell, nor desire to return to this
world, for he comes under delusion through
attachment to the body.