How to develop equanimity in Action: Karma Yoga
“Yoga is the art of proper action”, quoted my professor in college while teaching transformational leadership. I first read the book ‘Karma Yoga’ by Swami Vivekananda as part of the curriculum in MBA. While I loved the topic, I forgot all about it after passing out from college and did nothing to imbibe the teachings of Karma Yoga in my life. In fact, I did quite the opposite. Post MBA, the quest was getting into a high paying job and working towards getting faster promotions, better lifestyle and so on. I’d see some of my friends from college with better opportunities, and that made me slightly uncomfortable. I used to compare myself with them and thought, ‘why am I not getting what they are?’. This thought clouded my mind every now and then, and made me restless. Even at work I was compelled to prove myself and make my presence felt in every meeting. This feeling was tearing me apart. Many times I also attempted to start something new, but dropped off in the middle, either because of fear of not being able to achieve it, or because of indolence of putting in effort.
It was on one of those restless moments that I somehow remembered the quote by my prof — “Yoga is the art of proper action”, and I questioned myself, “What is proper action?; Am I doing proper action and if yes, then why it makes me restless?; What am I doing wrong?”. I decided to re-read Karma Yoga and internalize its lessons. What follows here is a recount of the same.
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It is the current nature of a competitive work environment and our non-satiating desire to succeed that are depleting the joys from our lives and making life more stressful. Stress is becoming the major factor predisposing depression, and various other diseases in our physical body, affecting our overall well-being.
So, how can one overcome anxiety and stress related to his/her work? These days we see lot of well-being and meditation sessions for stress management being organized by corporates for their employees. But are they enough? Well, while those sessions could be good for creating awareness, but they are barely scratching the surface and do not solve the root-cause of the problem.
To completely cut down stress and anxiety, one should have proper action and proper attitude towards action. This is the concept of Karma Yoga taught by Lord Krishna himself in the midst of a battlefield to Arjuna.
What is Karma Yoga
As the name implies, Karma means proper action and Yoga means proper attitude. So, Karma Yoga is a path to spiritualize your work with proper attitude. It provides us a way to perform our duties and purify our minds for higher spiritual growth.
Action can be categorized into three types — Sattvic action, Rajasic action and Tamasic action. Out of the three, Sattvic action is a proper action and is the one where the beneficiaries of your action are not just limited to you yourself, but extends beyond, to your family, society, nation, humanity etc. Sattvic action is the best and promotes maximum spiritual growth. Rajasic actions are selfish actions where the motive of work is just to fulfill your and your family needs. They are still better than Tamasic actions, which are harmful actions where the motive is benefit of the self at the cost of harming others.
Proper attitude is the mental state of “Samatvam” or equanimity of the mind.
Karma Yoga is a practice to joyfully involve yourself in any activity without being attached to the action or the fruits of action. It is a way to bring balance and mental equilibrium, so that one is not attached and affected by the work and its outcomes as success or failure.
“Yogasthah Kuru Karmani Sangam Tyaktva Dhananjaya Sidhyasidhyoh Samo Bhutva, Samatvam Yoga Uchyate. “
“Perform action, O Dhananjaya, dwelling in union with the Divine, renouncing attachments, and balanced evenly in success and failure; equilibrium is Yoga.” Gita: Chapter II-48.
Karmanyevaadhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachana Ma karmaphalaheturbhurma te sangostvakarmani.
“Thy business is with the action only, never with its fruits; so, let not the fruits of action be thy motive, nor be thou to inaction attached.” Gita: Chapter II-47.
“Don’t hanker after the fruit”, says Krishna. However, he also insists that one should not be inactive, but act with full energy and skill. The action of the person who acts without desire should be much better than that of the person who acts with desire. The latter is attracted to the fruit, and a part, much or little, of his time and attention will, of course, be spent on thought and dreams of the fruit. By focusing on work alone we can give 100% of our concentration. It is the desire of a result that comes in the way causing anxiety. Whenever emotions are intense, it causes distraction and work is hampered.
Why one should practice Karma Yoga
According to the Vedic philosophy, there are four goals of human life — Dharma (duty), Artha (wealth), Kama (pleasures) and Moksha (salvation). As human beings we have both material as well as spiritual personality. We are a mixture of both matter and spirit, and thus our lives should be well balanced, where we take care of both material as well as spiritual pursuits. Moksha (salvation) is the highest goal and all our other actions, even acquisition of pleasures and wealth, should lead us towards that.
Unfortunately materialistic attractions take away our entire lives, such that, we never recognize our spiritual aspect that also needs to be developed. This pursuit coupled with mental feverishness leaves one exhausted and unsatisfied in life.
Practice of Karma Yoga is a way to purify the mind, destroy pride, selfishness, and inertness (Tamas). It also prepares the ground for a higher spiritual life.
Practicing detachment with karma and its results provides the perfect mental balance needed to accomplish any goal in life. It gives the strength to change things which you can change, and accept the ones that you cannot. A man may rule a vast dominion and yet he can be unattached. A great example of this was King Janaka, who had no attachment with his wealth and estate. Janaka said: “Even if the whole of Mithila is burnt, nothing of mine will be lost.” That was the exalted mental state of Janaka! He was resting in his own Swaroopa or essential nature.
How to become a Karma Yogi
Practicing Karma Yoga is not easy. It is the most difficult thing in this world to work and not care for the result, to help a man and never think that he ought to be grateful, to do some good work and at the same time never look to see whether it brings you name or fame, or nothing at all. But, by practice one can gradually and over time cultivate non-attachment. This five-fold practice helps one to progress on the path of becoming a Karma Yogi:
1. Have spiritual goal as the primary priority of life. One should have the understanding that all other goals are subservient to this primary goal and are transitory in nature. They are subject to arrival and departure. Let material goals be there but spiritual goal be the top priority.
2. Convert work to worship and dedicate all your actions to God so that you don’t dislike the action you do. There could be tremendous mental strain if we do not like the job we do. In case if we cannot get the action that we like, then we should learn to like whatever action we do. This can be developed only by dedicating our actions to the divine.
3. Be prepared for all types of future situations because future is not totally under our control. We should understand that, thinking, that nothing is in our control is fatalistic attitude while thinking, that everything is in our control is arrogance. Thus, one should have the intelligence to be accept the things we cannot change and be prepared to face any kind of unpredictable situation.
4. When success comes, don’t claim the total credit as there are multiple factors which when put together determine your success, some which we call luck, grace etc. Thus, one should have humility in success. And acceptance in failure.
5. Avoid mental feverishness and maintain mental poise, equanimity, and balance by detaching yourself from work and dedicating your actions to God.
We cannot escape work as it constitutes a major portion of our lives. By living life as a Karma Yogi we not only free ourselves of stress, which is mostly self-created, but also get tremendous courage to take up new challenges and perform our duties.
