Karma yoga

Introduction

There are many types of yoga. One of them is karma yoga. When our actions are done with an attachment of a result is called karma. There is no such thing as good karma or bad karma. They both are are karmas. Karma is again divided into 3 categories: Karma, akarma, and vikarma.

The idea is not to be in an activity that is fueled by selfish wants. "What you sow is what you grow and eventually, get results". The key is to reduce the effects of karma. Why? Because everything that we do on a daily basis becomes an impression on us. The proof can be noticed when we observe our dreams. We get dreams of the past imprints of our actions.

So what are these karmas?

Karma:

Let's understand with an example. Two people A and B are watching a baseball match on TV. Person A likes team X and person B likes team Y. At the end of the match, team X wins, and person A is jumping in joy because his favorite team has won. Winning is the cause of uncontrolled jubilation. For person B is a great disappointment to see his team losing. In both cases, the two people were attached to the result and prepared themselves for conditioned response.

"When the work is done by investing emotions to achieve the result and attached to a certain expectation, karma starts weaving it's web"

Vikarma:

Person A and B decided to see another match but this time in the stadium. Person B has insecurity and fear of losing and hence decides to murder the best player of the team. Person B approaches in the player's room and attacks the guy. Now, in this case, either the person is going to kill him or the player will hurt 'B' in self-defense.

Person B committed 'Vikarma' which is a region no one should get their foot into. However, in the case of the self-defense, the player has formed his karma as it was not triggered out of hatred

"Any activity is done by having an intense emotion to hurt a harmless animal, human, wildlife etc. becomes our Vikarma. Actions that should not be done"

Akarma:

Akarma is essential to understand. This is an important part of our life. Why do some people become dissatisfied with their lives and others don't?

Person A and B visit the stadium. Both like their preferred teams. But person A's favorite team loses. Instead of reacting in a dissatisfied manner, he says "That was a good game. I really enjoyed the opponent's strength"

Person B: "I totally agree. I think the losing team played well too. They were so strong that they made the game interesting. But in the end the best wins!"

This act is done without an intent to harm, kill, excitement, or disappointment. This made the game and both people happy. They just enjoyed the game.

"When an act is done without investing strong feelings, attachments, and expectations, becomes our akarma"

So is it bad to do a karma?

Karma Yoga

Karma isn't bad at all. Unselfish actions result in good and selfish results in negative activities. Karma yoga is a beautiful concept that teaches us to think about the result as an offering to the Ishwara or Prakriti. Why do we do that? The physical matter of the entire universe undergoes the cycle of birth and rebirth. The human structure is complex. The mind, memories, emotion starts building up the impressions. This is called Vasana. Vasana may be good or bad.

In our daily lives, we do our karma. Shree Krishna in Gita tells Arjuna to perform his duty because running away from the duties also creates unfulfilled karma and remains a part of one's life. This is why running away from duties is not recommended. The duties could be of a doctor, son, mother, daughter, wife etc. Often, the results when received by a person creates some additional emotions of greed, ahamkar (ego), selfishness, or overconfident. These emotions get stored within us which may explode any time out of us. To purify (shuddhi) we follow karma yoga.

The main aim is to do an unselfish action to get out of the web of karma by not anchoring into the emotions or expectations. We find ourselves in a miserable position if we don't get the results we want. Karma yogis think the results as an adhyatmic offering. One must keep in mind that every action should be for the welfare of society, not just a community. If a service is done out of the greed of conversion into a religion, or get money or getting someone's endorsements and praise, doesn't satisfy the needs of the society.

This is one beautiful concept of Yoga which opens up your heart and lets you expand horizons of within. But the question is what if someone you helped hurts you back? In this case, what we are thinking of as hurt or insult is basically an explosion of deep-buried emotions of the other person that he stored within him at some point in his life. It is okay to distance ourselves from that environment. Humans undergo a series of inner evolution. If that person comes back again then it is okay to help in his worst phases. Again if the result is not yours then the emotions you get from the person are also not yours.

The confusing thing about this is how would we know what is the right action and wrong action? Upanishads, Vedas, and many such scriptures teach the proper way to live a life. Isn't this the reason why this culture is called 'the way of life'?

Karma and karma yoga should be practiced by each one of us. Don't let emotions stay withing you too long.

To practice this, we should focus on practicing compassion, thinking about minor details of nature and connect to it, serve the poors, serve parents, have positive emotions, and live a satvik life.

I hope you enjoyed reading this.

Namaste