Chapter 17 - Karma Yoga
As we have repeated more than once, Hatha Yoga is but a preparation and is often practised without any admixture of religious or even only philosophical considerations. The exercises which we have described have as their purpose the conscious control of physical and mental activities which ordinarily are not subject to such control. The goal is to teach us to perceive directly what is going on within us, in our inner physical and mental world and to direct these activities in a conscious and voluntary manner.
But this is yet only preparation. All Yoga is intensification of consciousness and of an evolution, of which Hatha Yoga is only the preparatory stage. There are several paths or methods by which the goal may be reached. One of these is Karma Yoga. It is, in reality, more a collection of ethical and moral precepts for those who live "in the world", than a system. This is so because, according to Indian thought, no one has the right to devote himself exclusively to the development of his inner self until he has paid his tribute to life. The Hindu knows four distinct periods of life: To his eighteenth year, man should be a student; to his fortieth year he is a griheshu or householder; after that he is allowed to abandon "life in the world" and to consecrate himself entirely to mental and spiritual development. If, in the course of this period, he feels himself called to the highest development, he may become a Sanyasin, leaving all earthly cares behind him, taking to the road, clad in the orange coloured gown of the beggar-monk, living on alms.
The much criticized Indian caste system divides men roughly into those who follow a spiritual life from the start (Brahman), warriors (Kshatriya), and the doers, the followers of practical life, merchants and peasants (Vaishias). It is a division of society similar to that in clergy, nobility and bourgeoisie of the middle ages in Europe.
Karma means action and Karma Yoga takes action as the way to salvation. The ideal here is the active life as praised by the Bhagavad Gita, the most beautiful and deepest of Indian holy books.
"Action alone concerns you, never its fruit,
Stability in success or failure, this balance is called Yoga."
The two priviliged castes, Brahman and Kshatriya are highly esteemed in India because they are (or should be) ready to pay for their privileges with special sacrifices. If the warrior must be ready to give up his life at any time, the Brahman is bound by any number of rules and precepts, apt to develop a purely spiritual type of man. The Hindus knew early, to what extent a certain diet will influence mental attitude. Even the attitude, while eating, is prescribed. For the Brahman, the taking of food is a holy rite. Only "innocent" food is permitted.
Karma Yoga praises action (Karman), without attachment to the fruit of action. The following legend shows how this is to be understood.
A king came to a Yogi living in solitude to learn about Karma Yoga. They sat together under a tree and the Yogi began to recite the verses of the holy scriptures. High up in the tree two birds had built their nest. As darkness began to fall and the two men had not finished their talk, the male bird said to his female companion: "We have guests and I must see to it that they are made comfortable. As it is getting cold I shall gather some wood and start a fire." Thus speaking it flew off and gathered some dry twigs. Soon a bright fire flared up and king and Yogi gratefully warmed their hands on it. The two birds were glad to see their hosts content, but after a little while the male bird said to his wife: "The men must be hungry. Let's see if we can't get them something to eat." "Alas, we have nothing fit for them to eat," said the female, "but we cannot let them go hungry." The male said: "It is our duty as hosts to feed them. If there really isn't anything else, then I shall sacrifice myself." Thus saying, the bird threw himself into the fire. The female, however, said to herself: "How can two big men possibly eat their fill on such a little bird? I shall follow my husband's example and sacrifice myself also." And she too threw herself into the flames.
The two men below understood too late what the birds were trying to do and cood not save them. The Yogi rose and said to the king: "Now I do not have to tell you anything further regarding Karma Yoga, O king. An example is worth more than all the words in all the books. Whosoever does his duty in such a way that he is willing to give up even his own life to it, he is a true Karma Yogi."
Karma Yoga glorifies action and for this reason, is very close to the occidental mind. A Karma Yogi is not required to believe anything or in any kind of dogma. He follows no other idea than to work for work's sake. In this respect, the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita closely resembles that of Buddha who was adverse to any kind of metaphysical speculation, repeating over and over: "Be good and do good."
The principal rules of Karma Yoga are contained in the two ordinances of Yama and Niyama. Yama is concerned with conduct towards other, not killing, not stealing, truthfulness, disinteredness, these are its prescriptions. "Six enemies in us we must fight," it says, "greed, anger, non-discrimination, lust, pride and jealousy." These are the passions which incite us to the above named sins of killing, stealing, lying etc. They are all equally reprehensible, whether they are done, caused or merely tolerated. Since they are deeply rooted in human nature, they are hard to overcome. Good will alone is not sufficient. An act of the will, in regard to our mental world, usually gives rise to a thought the exact opposite to the one desired. Repression through an act of the will, of the thought of lust, for example, stimulates lust. It is not possible to overcome the enemy in this manner. If, however, we concentrate on the idea of purity and sacrifice, the new idea will usually prevail. The right procedure, therefore, is to replace a wrong thought such as anger, jealousy, lust etc. by a new and contrary idea and to hold on to it until the first impulse has been overcome.
It is also possible to philosophise about one's faults and to analyze their sources. One can ask, for instance, "Why should I not steal? It would be very nice if I had that piece of bread. I am hungry and the other fellow surely does not need it as much as I do." Why not? A Christian will say: Because it is a sin. The Hindu says: Because it is an error, born of ignorance. You think you are doing yourself a favour; in reality, you only hurt yourself. The stolen food will poison you.
This is a typical Indian idea and it is based on the Hindu philosophy of food. In terms of occidental medical science, the idea would appear in this way: A thief has a bad conscience. We know that fear causes certain changes in metabolism. We also know that the symptoms of such emotions are brought about with the collaboration of certain hormonal substances which, in the long run, can adversely affect the organism. This is the material side of the question. And the spiritual side? A theft, for instance, is always an intrusion of egotism into a foreign sphere of the will. Our attachment to material things is a result of egotistical activity. A man who wishes to tread the path of spiritual evolution will not take on new fetters ... In this way, all "enemies" and all "sins" are analyzed in meditation and overcome.
The rules of Niyama, on the other hand, are concerned with our conduct in regard to ourselves. They are outer and inner cleanliness, contentment, chastity, study and devotion. A first sign that we have achiveved a certain degree of inner cleanliness is contentment. It is a purely Christian superstition that a religious person should have something of the mien and bearing of an undertaker. Quite the contrary is true. A really pious person is always joyous and content. The rule of chastity is not a rule of asceticism; it is merely significant of moeration. This is, incidentally, the fundamental note of Yoga: Harmony, Moderation.
Hindu literature, and especially the Gita, is full of references to the active life, without attachment to the fruits of action. There is, for instance, the story of Narada, the holy man who passed his days in praising God in prayer. Vishnu was very pleased with his zeal, but at the same time he wanted to pont out to him the weaker side of his conduct and so he said to him: "Go to the first house of the next village. There you will find a man even more pious than you." Narada immediately set out to find so holy a man. But what he found was only a peasant who told him that he called upon the name of God once in the morning before going to work and once in the evening before going to bed. Narada returned to Vishnu and reproachfully remarked: "I cannot see much piousness in that man. Twice a day he calls upon Thy exalted name and apart from that attends to his wordly affairs." Thereupon Vishnu bade him take a pail of water and carry it through the village without spilling a drop. Narada did as he was told and on his return proudly exhibited the full pail from which not a drop had been spilled. Vishnu, however, asked him: "And how many times in carrying the pail did you call upon my name?" "Not once," Narada had to admit, "I was too busy watching the pail." And so Vishnu said to him: "During your small task you have not given me a single thought. How much more pious is the peasant who, with his hard day-long work finds time to call upon me twice."
Men work for the most varied reasons. But we should learn how to work without any special motive and without regard for the fruits of work. One works for glory, another for money, yet another for power. Many hope that their actions will find their reward in heaven. But who works selflessly? Perhaps an artist who works for his art, whether recognized or not, or a scientist who only lives in and for his research, sometimes at the risk of his life. Such men are the real "elite" of humanity.
The Hindu ideal is not an ascetic idea. In opposition to Christianity, Hindu thought is of the opinion that wealth is not necessarily a curse. What matters is whether the rich man is at every moment ready to abandon his riches, if necessary, the point being that no man should attach himself to his earthly possessions, which is the secret of real liberty. A beggar possessing only a few rags can be more attached than a wealthy prince like Buddha, who from one day to the next abandoned kingdom, wealth and family as soon as he recognized that this was necessary for his inner liberty. "He who acts in dedicating all his actions to the Eternal One, abandoning all attachment, is not troubled by sin, the same as a lotus leaf is not touched by the water." Thus the Karma Yogi can go through life and enjoy life; he can enjoy it, but shall not attach himself to it. Nothing is really yours except your good works. He who learns to abandon his egotistical desires develops immense power. To deny oneself is often a more heroic deed than a victory on the battlefield of war or of sport.
On the other hand, the Hindu despises him who makes duty a mania. Many of us are only slaves of duty. Duty, and no time to eat in peace, no time to enjoy nature, no time to take stock of ourselves, no time to live. We are foolish to let duty rob us of our inner freedom. The mechanism of the world is a dangerous machine; once we are in its clutches we are in danger of being crushed by it.
Indian thought refers here, as always, to the law of Sattwa, the law of the pendulum which is everywhere characteristic of life. Inspiration is followed by expiration, work by play, extraversion by introversion. Every faithful Hindu begins and closes his day with meditation; what he has expended in the extravert activity of the day he takes back again in the introversion of meditation. To be stable, a tower, a skyscraper needs a deep foundation. Our generation is superficial and always in danger of losing its balance. Modern psychiatry knows this and in the analyticial technique leads the mentally ill back into the past. Former generations, grounded in faith and mystical introversion had no need of this aid. A man who combines the two poles in himself through religion or Yoga remains tranquilly serene in the midst of the turbulence of modern life as though he lived in solitude.
With our work we help only ourselves. It is a gathering of experiences. Those who believe that we work in order to help improve the world, to "make the world a better place to live in" etc., are in error. The world cannot be helped. The same needs and cares it had a thousand years ago it has today and will still have a thousand years from now. All we do, in this respect, is to move the problems from one plane to another, that is all. When the waves rise in one place, they fall in another. And as with waves, so with fortune and misfortune, divided in the world, but their sum is always in balance.
"What do you want to do with the world?
It is made.
The Lord of Creation has thought of everything."
It has been said that the world resembles a spiral which we continually seek to straighten out. But as soon as we let go at un end, the spiral forms again. An Indian legend tells of a man who was tired of his daily work. He called upon a magician and asked him for a Djinn, a demon, who could do his work for him. The magician warned him that a Djinn was a powerful spirit who needs work all the time. "If you cannot keep him busy at all times he will devour you." The man laughed and said: "Please do not worry about that; I have plenty of work for the strongest Djinn!" And so the magician gave him a Mantram, an incantation which would get him a Djinn. The man did as he was told and behold, a towering powerful spirit stood before him and asked in a resounding voice: "What do you want from me?" At first the man was a little scared, but took heart and ordered: "Build me a palace at once!" - "Here it is." - "Cut down yon forest!" - "It is done." - "Bring me gold!" - "Here it is." - "Build me a city!" - "There it stands." Every wish was fulfilled almost before the man had time to express it. In despair, he ran to the magician and begged him on his knees to help him once more. "I do not know what to order anymore and the Djinn threatens to devour me." The magician smiled and said: "In truth you scarcely deserve a better fate, but nevertheless I shall help you once more. See the dog over there, the one with the curly tail? Go cut it off and tell the Djinn to straighten it out. He will be busy with the job as long as the world lasts." The man did as he was told and the Djinn is still busy with his task. Every time he lets go, the tail curls again. Every generation tries to change and reform the world, but it remains as inadequate as ever.
When once we have recognized that our actions serve only the gathering of experiences and thus our own salvation, we realize how important it is consciously to live every day of our life. To live consciously is to live in the persent. Many people in their thoughts are constatnly a day, a week, a year ahead. Do they really know if they will still be alive next year? In our dreaming about the future we are apt to miss the experiences which the present offers us for our edification. Let the day take care of the day.
Living conscously, learning from life, we come close to the metaphysical interpretation of our actions, characteristic of Indian thought, close to the idea of Karma, of the consequences of our actions, not only of the actions of our present life, but also of former lives.
Western thought says: "By their fruits shall you know them." Eastern wisdom replies: "All created beings are owners of their works, heirs of their works, children and slaves of their works." Karma, Law of Consequence. To escape Karma is possible only if we change what we are to what we would be. Everything that happened to us today is conditioned by previous actions and desires. Unconditioned, however, is our inner attitude towards our self-made destiny, whether we say yes or no to it, whether we learn from it or deny it. Unconditioned also is the determiniation to new aspiration, to new endeavour which will lead us further on the path of liberation.
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