The Vision of Karma-Yoga

The purpose of this article is validate my understanding of the vision that Bhagwan has hinted in chapter 3 of Srimad Bhagavad Gita. Please provide your comments, thank you!

The attitude of performing actions without attachments as self-sacrifice in the form of worship to the higher is Karma-Yoga. In chapter 2 Bhagwan prescribes this method of action so that Arjuna can remove his grief and set the path to reach the Higher. How did Bhagwan arrive at this prescription for Arjuna? What is the broader vision behind this prescription?

In chapter 3 Bhagwan provides the vision behind Karma-Yoga in verses 14 and 15.

Verse 3.14: “From food, comes forth beings; from rain, food is produced; from sacrifice arises rain, and sacrifice is born of action”.

Verse 3.15: “Know you that action comes from Brahmaji (the Creator) and Brahmaji comes from the Impersihable. Therefore, the all-pervading Brahman (God-Principe) ever resets in sacrifice”

Rain produces food, food is eaten by beings, beings work in the spirit of sacrifice (Yajna spirit) which produces rain. This cycle is referred to as a the “Wheel-of-Action”. This is a metaphor to something deeper that Gurdev hints in this commentary on these two verses, the following is my elaboration.

A deva (diety) presides any field of activity that a worker is employed in, for example, a physician, a scientist, a developer etc. A person working in that field is blessed by the diety with the productive potential if the worker approaches the work through yajna spirit (verse 3.11). We even do a puja* to this diety during Navarathri.

If everyone in the society works in the yajna spirit (self-sacrifice) in their respective fields then favorable conditions are produced for the deity to shower (rain) the society to produce productive work (food). Others in the society benefit (consume the food) from this work and thus improve their quality of life. Having reaped greater benefits (i.e. better quality of food) they deliver greater productive work (through yajna spirit of course). The cycle continues to improve progressively, hence a spiraling-up of progress. Gurdev says this “Cosmic wheel of Co-operation” produces the period of golen eras of social and cultural life**.

Taking this even higher, all actions emanates from Brahmaji (the Creator, the Total mind) and Brahmaji is nothing but Brahman in different form (verse 15). We are Brahman, our actions are Brahman and it is dedicated as an offering to Brahman, which Bhagwan elaborates in verse 4.24 (Brahmarpanam…).

Thus Karma-Yoga is a prescription to Arjuna (and for us), it is a cog in the larger vision of the Cosmic wheel of Co-operation. The wheel functions well when all cogs perform actions (through us) in the Karma-Yoga attitude.

What happens if the cog does not fit the wheel? i.e. when actions are not performed in the yajna spirit? Bhagwan clearly says he who enjoys the objects given by Devas without performing actions in the yajna spirit is a thief (verse 3.12) and they will eat nothing but sin (verse 3.13). We see this playing about all around in our daily lives from a worker to a politicians to the president of a certain country. Individuals working for greed and selfish motives causing grief to themselves and to others around them. Many such cogs that don’t function in the society in the yajna spirit will obviously slow down the wheel of co-operation and cause a spiraling down of progress of the society.

You cannot but stand back and appreciate how deep and profound is the thought process that even after 5000 years the Bhagavad Gita provides the lens through which we can “see” the world clearly around us today.

My pranams to Gurdev who has blessed us with the grace of knowledge through which we can understand the Lord’s song.

Hari Om.

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• *The Ayudha Puja is considered a meaningful custom, which focuses specific attention to one’s profession and its related tools and connotes that a divine force is working behind it to perform well and for getting the proper reward.- Wikipedia.
• **We have an example from the past. The Gupta period (315 to 551CE) is considered the Golden Age of India. The high points of this period are the great cultural developments which took place during the reign of Chandragupta II. All literary sources, such as Mahabharata and Ramayana, were canonized during this period — Wikipedia.
  I don’t know if they worked co-operatively but the evidence of the cultural developments from that period suggests such achievements are possible not by coersion but only by co-operative process of self-sacrifice for the greater good by many in that period.