Karma Yoga Programme

SIVANANDA YOGA VEDANTA CENTRE

Interested in serving others? In deepening into yourself?Karma Yoga, or selfless service, is the first of the Four Paths of Yoga, and according to the great yogis like Swami Sivananda, it is the foundation on which all Yogic practice is based.

Time and again, great yogis guide us to the wisdom of purifying our heart. There is no better way to achieve this than through selfless service.

Our Karma Yoga programme at the Centre is an opportunity to be a part of a non-profit Sivananda organization that extends the world over – a global community of practitioners looking to do good in the world, to deepen their practice, and to live for something bigger than themselves.

Come experience the unique gifts of Karma Yoga. Open into yourself. Cultivate lasting friendships. Observe the transformation that comes with selfless service.

Serve. Love. Give. Purify. Meditate. Realize.

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Karma Yoga

Karma moves in two directions. If we act virtuously, the seed we plant will result in happiness. If we act non-virtuously, suffering results.

Sakyong Mipham

Karma Yoga emphasizes on selfless action and service, while being detached from any reward or result. It states that once you achieve selfless acts, your mind becomes pure. The word Karma means to do and the word Yoga means union. Therefore you’re on a path of union by action. This includes your will and the way you act.

Karma is like an active bank account of actions. Many proverbial sayings are based on this: you will reap what you sow, what goes around comes around and you get what you deserve. Your past karmas will affect your future.

According to Hindu philosophies, certain individuals are born with certain karma abilities, both negative and positive. This stems from past lives and push towards performing actions in the present. This process is said to continue until no more karma remains, (zero balance), then you can achieve pure liberation. Rebirth, with your karmic bank balance, is what Hindus call reincarnation. This will be the basis of your future life. That’s why one child may be born in poverty and one may not.

Karma can also be created in your current life. Your soul records an imprint of every action taken. Since karma is one of the things we take with us when we die, depending on your actions in this life, you can take good or bad karmas with you to the next life.

We must work in harmony with the greater power of the universe and not be egotistically driven and have obsessive desires regarding the future. If we follow this, then we can live fully in the present moment.

We are each responsible for our own destiny. We are born to be balanced physically, mentally and spiritually. Until this happens, we will continue to be reborn. Once we are balanced, we get liberated from this earth cycle, and no more rebirths will take place.

We should work with a cheerful attitude and inner peace doing what suits us best and not focus so much on the end result.

How to Change your Karmas

Increase your good karmas by doing good deeds.

You can erase bad karmas and earn good karmas with your actions.

Positive thinking with appropriate actions, will generate good karmas.

Practice meditation to resolve your karmas. Realize your problems and solve them.

Prayers are also a powerful way to resolve karmas.

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About Karma Yoga

Lord Krishna says in the Bhagwad Gita: “Tasmat sarveshu kaleshu mam anusmara yudhyacha”. Which translates as “Therefore, at all times think of Me and fight”. This means to give the mind to God and the hand to work. Half-hearted service is no service at all. Give your whole heart, mind and soul when you serve. This is very particularly important when you practise Karma Yoga.

Some people have their body in one place, mind in another place, and soul in another place. This is the reason why they do not attain any substantial progress in the path. Do not forget not the goal of life amidst selfish activities. The goal of life is Self-realisation!

The mind is programmed so as to always expect something in return for little work. When you smile at someone you expect a smile in return. When you raise your hand in salutation, you expect a salute in return. Even when you give a cup of water to another man, you expect him to be grateful. When such is the case how can you perform Nishkama Karma Yoga? We must prepare the mind for Karma Yoga by applying diligently to selfless service with the right mentalality. In other words practicing selfless action.

A true Yogi does not see any difference between menial and respectable work. It is the ignorant man who makes such a difference. Some aspirants are humble in the beginning of their spiritual career. However when they acquire the name, fame, followers, admirers, devotees and disciples, they become victims of pride.

By purifying the heart through service, all the kindred nagative qualities such as Egoism, hatred, jealousy or superiority and all the kindred negative qualities start to vanish gradually. Humility, pure love, sympathy, tolerance and mercy will be developed. The sense of separateness will be annihilated. Selfishness will be eradicated. We will procure a broad and liberal outlook on life. We begin to feel oneness and unity. Eventually we obtain knowledge of the Self. We realise “One in all” and “all in One”.

We experience unbounded joy.

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Karma Yoga is the path of selfless action

Karma yoga basically consists of entirely selfless service, in which the Ego is given up to the desire to serve God in every thing, be it man, animal or plant. Karma Yoga is also the path of doing the right thing, of following ones’ personal Dharma and accepting destiny as it comes. If the Karma Yogi is a householder, he will accept that role as much as he would accept the role of a servant to any in need, without seeking any remuneration in the shape of wealth, satisfaction, name or fame.

Karma means action, including all acts done by the individual from birth to death. One who is not attached to his actions and performs actions because they are unavoidable, performs karma with a disinterested interest and does not adopt wrong means.

Karma performed by right means does not harm anybody and is in accordance with the law of dharma. That is karma yoga. Some people think karma has something to do with karma sutra, but such a thing does not exist. Only the kama sutra exists, with the Kama being the god of desires. That is an entirely different story.

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Karma Yoga and Equanimity of Mind

Developing equanimity that remains steady under all circumstances whether favourable or hostile is a paramount teaching of the Gita. At the same time, cultivation of equanimity is indispensable for practising Karma Yoga. Attainment of liberated status of soul that remains unmoved by what happens in the outer life is the end of all yogic pursuits. This free status of self is attained when one develops the power to remain immersed in his inner life completely surrendered to the Divine. In case of Karma Yoga, one can perform actions in life as given to him by the Divine without being distracted by the outer life disturbances from his immersion in soul life.

Equanimity is difficult to attain, given constitution of human nature. We, the humans, are egoistic, emotional beings. We principally deal with the world emotionally as the power of reasoning is still a very weak force in our life.

However, as we progress in yoga our detachment with life deepens. As we grow increasingly detached, the normal reactions to the life situations fall off from our nature and consequently, equanimity becomes stronger in us. The Gita says that true equanimity comes straight from the soul. Equanimity attained through mind is unstable.

Karma Yoga in its true sense cannot succeed if we fail to attain the free status of our self that is ever unmoved by the caprices of outer life. This free status of self is not affected in the least even if we are dynamically involved in multifarious activities of life.

The Gita is emphatic on the point that one cannot do yoga, much less Karma Yoga unless one acquires the power of conquering life’s normal reactions to pleasurable and painful situations, suffering and enjoyment, love and hatred etc. These are the dualities of life and one who practises yoga must be free from these dualities and relativities and remains settled unshakably in the yogic consciousness that does not grumble while suffering and does not rejoice while enjoying.

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