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Chapter 3
KARMAYOGA (YOGA OF SELFLESS AND DESIRELESS ACTION)
13. Obstacles In The Way Of Karmayoga
11. A karmayogi’s work is much better than that of others. For him, work is worship. We perform pooja[1] and receive prasad thereafter. But is the prasad a reward for the pooja? If one performs pooja for the sake of prasad, one will, of course, get it. But a karmayogi seeks to see God face to face through performance of pooja. He does not think that the value of his pooja is so trivial that the prasad is its only reward. He is not prepared to underestimate the value of his work. He does not measure the value of his work in gross terms. The fruits of actions depend on the outlook behind them. A person with a gross outlook and gross aim will receive reward in gross terms. There is a saying among the farmers: ‘Sow deep, but sow in a moist soil.’ It is not enough to sow deep; there should also be moisture in the soil. Then only the yield will be high. There should thus be depth, that is, thoroughness and excellence in the work and there should also be the moisture, that is, devotion and surrender to God, dedication to God. A karmayogi has depth in his work and he then dedicates that work to God. We have developed some absurd ideas about spirituality. People feel that a spiritual seeker need not do any work. They wonder how a farmer or a weaver could be a spiritual seeker. But they do not raise the question how one who feeds his body could be a spiritual seeker! But the Lord of the karmayogis— Lord Krishna—massaged horses, mopped the floor after people had their meals at the time of Pandava’s Rajsooya Yajna, grazed the cattle. The ruler of Dwarka (Lord Krishna) would play flute and graze the cattle whenever he visited Gokul, his childhood abode. The saints have sketched the picture of such a karmayogi God; and the saints themselves have attained liberation while working as a tailor, or a weaver, or a gardener, or a potter, or a grocer, or a barber, or a tanner. 12. A person slips from the observance of such a divine karmayoga on account of two reasons. We should keep in mind the peculiar nature of our senses. They are always caught up in the duality of likes and dislikes. We are attached to or fond of what we want and are averse to what we do not want. Love and hate, desire and anger pounce upon a man and prey on him. How beautiful and infinitely rewarding karmayoga is! But desire and anger are always after us, driving us to hanker after something and reject something. The Lord is warning us, at the end of this Chapter, to shun them. A karmayogi should also become an embodiment of self-restraint like the sthitaprajna.[2]
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