Karma Yoga

Karma Yoga, “the yoga of action”

Karma yoga is the yoga of action: doing the karma that the Veda prescribes, without attachment to its fruit, and offering it to Īśvara. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa names it again and again beside jñāna-yoga and bhakti-yoga as a path to Śrī Hari. Done for the pleasure of Bhagavān Vishṇu, the very actions that bind a man to saṃsāra become the means that free him: they purify the antaḥkaraṇa (the inner instrument), wash away the bonds of karma and give rise to jñāna joined with bhakti. Nārada Maharshi teaches it to Vyāsa, the yogīśvara Āvirhotra to King Nimi, Bhagavān Narasiṃha to Prahlāda, and Śrī Kṛshṇa to Uddhava; and Śrī Kṛshṇa himself, the Gītācārya, is praised as the one who set karma-yoga going in the world.

Karma offered to Bhagavān Vishṇu

Nārada Maharshi tells Vyāsa that the remedy for the three kinds of tāpa (affliction), ādhyātmika (from oneself), ādhibhautika (from other beings) and ādhidaivika (from the devas and nature), is to offer karma to Bhagavān Vishṇu, Sarveśvara, the full one. As a disease that comes from one substance goes when that same substance is given as medicine mixed with others, so all a man’s actions, which are causes of saṃsāra, become able to destroy their own bondage when they are offered to Parameśvara. Karma done for the pleasure of Bhagavān Vishṇu becomes the cause of jñāna joined with bhakti-yoga, and those who act by his command sing and remember again and again the names and guṇas of Śrī Kṛshṇa. Without such offering, Nārada says, kāmya karma (action for desired fruit) is the cause of endless saṃsāra, and even nitya karma that is not offered to Īśvara does not shine.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 5

Āvirhotra’s teaching to Nimi

King Nimi asked the nine yogīśvaras, sons of Ṛshabhadeva, to teach him karma-yoga, by which the antaḥkaraṇa becomes pure and a man throws off the bondage of karma and reaches the highest ātma-nishṭhā in this very birth. Long ago, he said, he had asked the same question of the Sanakas in the presence of his father Ikshvāku. Āvirhotra answered:

  • Duty (karma), not doing karma (akarma) and forbidden karma (vikarma) are made known by the Veda, not by worldly knowledge; and since the Veda has come forth from Īśvara, even the learned are deluded about karma.
  • The Veda keeps the truth hidden. As one gives children medicine together with a sweet, it awakens in the ignorant a liking for the fruit and prescribes karmas; but their purport is naishkarmya, freedom from karma, not the fruit. The phalaśruti of the śruti is only to create a liking for the prescribed karma.
  • One who, ignorant and ruled by the senses, does not do the karma the Veda prescribes commits adharma and falls into the stream of birth and death.
  • The sādhaka should do only the karma prescribed by the Veda, without attachment to the fruit, with the attitude of offering it to Īśvara; by that he gains tattva-jñāna. The ātmā itself has no connection with action.
  • To cut quickly the knot of ignorance, “I and mine”, he should do the nitya-karmas and also worship Śrī Hari by the Āgama method, with dīkshā from the ācārya, nyāsa, the upacāras, stotras and namaskāra. Whoever worships Śrī Hari, the Self of all, in Agni, in Sūrya, in water, in the earth, in a guest and in the heart, is quickly freed.

When Nimi next asks about the avatāras, another of the yogīśvaras tells him that Śrī Hari, born as Nārāyaṇa of Mūrti, the wife of Dharma, taught karma-yoga, which the text calls tapas, as the means to the ātmā that has no connection with action, and practised it himself.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapters 3–4

Śrī Kṛshṇa on karma-yoga

  • Who must do karma. Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava that bhakti-yoga brings siddhi to one in whom śraddhā in his kathās has arisen; but as long as vairāgya has not arisen, and as long as śraddhā has not arisen in hearing and reflecting on his kathās, one must do karmas. The one who, without desire for fruit, keeps his svadharma and worships him with yajñas, and does no kāmya or forbidden karma, goes neither to svarga nor to naraka (Skandha 11, Chapter 20).
  • Nishkāma karma. The sādhaka whose refuge is Śrī Kṛshṇa alone should follow the dharmas of varṇa, āśrama and kula with a mind free of desire, give up kāmya karmas and do the nitya and naimittika acts without desire (Skandha 11, Chapter 10). If he cannot fix his mind steadily in Parabrahma, he should offer all karmas to Śrī Kṛshṇa without desire for fruit and do them well (Skandha 11, Chapter 11).
  • The three paths. “Karma, bhakti and jñāna are the paths of reaching me. Those who abandon these yogas and, with unsteady senses, serve petty sense-enjoyments, wander in saṃsāra” (Skandha 11, Chapter 21).
  • Bhagavān Haṃsa. Appearing as Haṃsa to the Sanakas, Śrī Hari says: “I have taught you the secret of jñāna-yoga and karma-yoga.” He is the support of karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga, satya and the dharma the Veda enjoins, and their fruit as well (Skandha 11, Chapter 13).
  • The message to the gopīs. As rivers end in the ocean, Vedic sādhana, karma-yoga, jñāna-yoga, tyāga, tapas, restraint of the senses and satya all end in the restraint of the mind (Skandha 10, Chapter 47).

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 47; Skandha 11, Chapters 10–11, 13, 20–21

Karma-yoga in the teachings of the Purāṇa

  • At the time of death. Śuka Maharshi tells Parīkshit that the great fruit of a human birth is to keep one’s duty without breaking its rule, practise karma-yoga, gain discrimination between ātmā and anātmā, attain knowledge of the ātmā, and leave the body remembering Nārāyaṇa (Skandha 2, Chapter 1).
  • Narasiṃha to Prahlāda. Bhagavān Narasiṃha tells Prahlāda to fix his mind on him, the Yajñeśvara, and, worshipping him with karma-yoga, doing his actions with the mind offering them to Īśvara, to exhaust his prārabdha karma (Skandha 7, Chapter 10).
  • Saṅkarshaṇa to Citraketu. Practising karma-yoga and sharpening the buddhi, men should try in every way to know that Parabrahma itself is the ātmā; this alone is the purushārtha (Skandha 6, Chapter 16).
  • Uddhava to Vidura. No one who serves Śrī Kṛshṇa, the Yogeśvara, with steadfastness, on the path of karma-yoga or of jñāna, puts his trust in bhogas (Skandha 3, Chapter 3).
  • Śuka on the rāsa. Sādhakas who take refuge in the dust of the lotus feet of Īśvara gain contentment, and by the greatness of karma-yoga they wash away the bonds of all karma and are not bound; how then could Śrī Hari, who took a body by his own will, be bound (Skandha 10, Chapter 33)?
  • The fruit of desireless action. A man who does nishkāma karma reaches Brahmaloka as its fruit (Skandha 3, Chapter 10). Brahmā praises Bhagavān Śiva, who grants the joys of svarga to those who do auspicious deeds with desire and moksha to those who do them without desire (Skandha 4, Chapter 6).
  • The path of karma alone. Parīkshit recalls that the path of karma, told in the third skandha, has as its field saṃsāra, the product of the three guṇas, and brings the sādhaka who lacks knowledge the body again and again (Skandha 6, Chapter 1).

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 1; Skandha 3, Chapters 3, 10; Skandha 4, Chapter 6; Skandha 6, Chapters 1, 16; Skandha 7, Chapter 10; Skandha 10, Chapter 33

Śrī Kṛshṇa, who set karma-yoga going

In the Rudra-gīta, Bhagavān Rudra praises Śrī Hari: Śrī Kṛshṇa, the Gītācārya, of unfailing intellect, who set sāṅkhya-yoga and karma-yoga in motion in the world, is his avatāra (Skandha 4, Chapter 24). Bali, in Sutala, praises Śrī Kṛshṇa in the same words: he alone is Parabrahma, without limit of place and time, the creator, who set going Sāṅkhya-yoga and Karma-yoga (Skandha 10, Chapter 85). At the Rājasūya, Sahadeva says that the karma-mārga of offerings into the fire with mantras, the yoga-mārga and the jñāna-mārga are all meant for reaching Śrī Kṛshṇa (Skandha 10, Chapter 74).

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 24; Skandha 10, Chapters 74, 85

Sources

  • Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 5; Skandha 2, Chapter 1; Skandha 3, Chapters 3, 10; Skandha 4, Chapters 6, 24; Skandha 6, Chapters 1, 16; Skandha 7, Chapter 10; Skandha 10, Chapters 33, 47, 74, 85; Skandha 11, Chapters 3–4, 10–11, 13, 20–21