The Path of Action ( Karma Yoga )

04/23/2004

Om saha naavavatu Saha nou bhunaktu
Saha veeryam karavaavahai Tejaswinaa vadheetamastu
Ma vidvishaavahai Om santhih santhih santhihi.

( Thaithireeya Upanishad )

( May the Lord protect us. May he nourish us. May we work together uniting
our energies. May our study be illuminating. Let there be no misunderstandings
among us. May there be peace (Aadhyathmika, from self), peace (Aadhibhoutika,
from the physical world), and peace (Aadhidhaivika, from Divine dispensations) ) !

Hello everyone ! Sukravaaram Suprabhaath !

The continuing topic is "Path of Action" (Karma Yoga). Normally it is not that
easy not to engage oneself in some kind of activity, whatever it may be, physical
or otherwise, good or bad, benevolent or malevolent. Geetha (Bhagawad Geetha)
declares: " No jot of time, at any time, rests any actionless; his nature's law compels
him, even unwilling, into act; for, thought is act in fancy. If thinking itself constitutes
a subtle form of act, then, there is almost no escape from action any time.
In advanced stages of spiritual progress, mind which is nothing but thought-flow, is
arrested and finally dissolved. Thus normally the body or mind continually keeps on
acting, except briefly in deep sleep.
There are other injunctions and guidelines which Geetha gives, such as:
" He who abstains to help the rolling wheels of this great world, glutting his idle
senses, lives a lost life shameful and vain" ------ " If knowing thy duty and thy task,
thou biddest duty and task go by, that shall be sin " ------ " Do thine alloted task.
Work is more excellent than idleness; the body's life proceeds not lacking work "
------ " This is better that one do his own task as he may, even though he fail,
than take tasks not his own, though they seem good " ------ " Better thine own
work is, though done with fault, than doing other's work, even excellently " -------
" Abstaining from a work by right prescribed, never is meet (proper). So to abstain
doth spring from darkness, and delusion teacheth it ".

Thus, the preliminary guidelines regarding some aspects of the nature of works
to be performed, have been lucidly enunciated in the holy text. But the more
important aspect of the " Path of Action " is how to perform them, with what
mental attitude to act, the right way of Karma. This will be the topic for the
next Fri - Call.

Now, a poem from my book " Random Musings " :

LIFE BOAT

Life alas ! hath many a test
That baffle thee and rob thy zest.
In seeming wilderness for path in quest
Hither and thither in frenzy thou goest.
Perplexed tosses the boat in tempest
In starless nights and darkness ugliest,
Bewildered which is east and which west.
Life has challenges that seemest
Unmeetable, beyond thy sinews can bearest.
But lo ! Hark to the Sager that sayest
" To the extent thou can, do thy best,
And then to God, Oh, leave the rest ! "

Musings
Next, a few of my musings from " Pearls of Wisdom " :

If we deeply ponder, we will realize that all our beloved possessions,
human or material, however dear and felt indispensable, and kept pressed
to our hearts, would in course of time, as years roll by, slowly and stealthily,
as per Divine dispensation, bid us goodbye, and fade away into a dream
as it were, until everyone assaying to unravel the mystery of that dream,
would themselves get engulfed in it !
* * *
Stuggle is the law of nature. There is no life without struggle.
Bereft of struggle, man is no more man. He is Divine !
* * *
In life, alas, our needs are few, but desires many !
* *
One's real nature, the very substratum of all existence, is Happiness,
serene and eternal. Just as, the real nature of water surface in a lake
is that of being tranquil, serene and mirror-like, clearly reflecting the
yonder landscape and the blue sky, unless disturbed into ripples by
external agencies. As the ripples and waves on the water surface are
merely super-impositions over its natural tranquility, so also, are sorrows
and despairs on an otherwise Blissful Self !