Dr Hasmukh Adhia: Karma Yoga: Blissful action

We discussed three facets of Karma Yoga in previous article. Let us now see the other three dimensions of Karma Yoga. The fourth facet of Karma yoga is acceptance of whatever results come as Prasad (God's blessings). Having put in one's best efforts, Karma yogi must learn to accept all results which come in his life. While we can have better control on quality of work inputs, we have little control on results which depend on past karmas as well as cooperation of many people. Hence after putting in our best efforts, we must accept what comes our way. All results come to us as per dispensation of God's justice system in which good karmas never go unrewarded and bad karmas never go unpunished. Results may not always be agreeable but it is always appropriate to our karma.

There was once a wise minister of a king who always reacted to every situation saying - "All is well". Once, on a hunting sojourn, the king's thumb got accidentally cut. The minister spoke the same words and the king got infuriated. "How can you say all is well when my thumb is cut?" he exclaimed. He ordered the minister to be put behind bars. In course of the journey, king got separated from his party, lost his way and was caught by local tribals who took him to their tribal king as a possible candidate for human sacrifice. According to their tribal rites, a must have all body organs intact. When examined, his men found the thumb missing in his body and rejected him. Thus, his life was saved.

He then realised the truth in what the minister said. On going back to his kingdom, he honoured the wise minister and asked him a question. "I understand why cutting of thumb was good for me, but what good was there in your being jailed by me?" To this the minister replied, "If I wouldn't have been sent to jail, I, instead of you would have been selected for sacrifice. So whatever happens, it is for the good," said the minister.

If we meet with some unpleasant results in life, no purpose will be served by asking the question "Why me only?" Such a response or non-acceptance of results only aggravates consequences and does not prepare us for action required to mitigate suffering. For instance, if someone is unwilling to accept that he has been diagnosed with serious disease, one will not even go to doctor and, by avoiding treatment, suffers more.

Fifth facet of Karma Yoga is the absence of ego. If extraordinary results come, even then we must not have a feeling of 'I did it'. We must remember that several factors and people are responsible for our success. Parents, teachers, co-workers, family, society, God all play a role in our lives.

The sixth facet of Karma Yoga is to share whatever fruits you have got in life with all others, whether it is money, knowledge or credit. Appropriating selfishly all that God has given to us is against the concept of Karma Yoga.

In short, any activity, done without 'selfishness', without 'carelessness' and without 'ego', can become Karma Yoga - a state of blissful action.

— The author is an IAS officer of Gujarat cadre