Karma Yoga: The Art of Working (The Most Authoritative Treatise on Karma Yoga)

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The Bhagavad Gita is the most beloved scripture of India. It occupies a position next only to the Upanishads or to the holy Veda Bhagavan. It is considered as a summing up of the Upanishads. In Gita Dhyanam it is said that all the Upanishads are cows, the milker is Sri Krishna, the calf is Arjuna, the enjoyers are the wise ones and the milk is the fine nectar that the Gita is. The Gita is a constituent of the threefold canon Prasthanatraya of Hinduism; the other two being the Upanishads and the Brahmasutras. The Srimad Bhagavad-Gita occurs in the Bhisma Parva of the great epic the Mahabharata and comprises 18 chapters of which the third one is the chapter of Karma Yoga, the Yoga of action. The scene of the delivery of the Bhagavad Gita, "The Song Divine", by Sri Krishna and Arjuna is laid on the battlefield of Kuruksetra where the Pandavas and the Kauravas had assembled their armies for war. According to tradition the battle was fought at the end of the Dvaparayuga, before the Kali Yuga has started. Kali Yuga is believed to have ascended the throne of the Kauravas at Hastinapura. The teachings of Lord Krishna in spite of being beginningless were lost to the world through a long lapse of time because of the absence of the sages who could impart it. Lord Krishna describes how this ancient Yoga was handed down from ancient times and proves how it existed from time immemorial.

The message of Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita is the perfect answer for the modern age, as well for any age: the Yoga of dutiful action, of non-attachment, for God or Self-realisation. The path made by Sri Krishna is the golden path for both the busy man who has his duties in the material world and for the highest spiritual aspirant who has renounced the world. This path helps us to fulfil our righteous duties on this earth, it leads us to Self-realisation, to the true Self. Sri Krishna was one of the greatest examples of divinity, because he lived and manifested himself as God, an Avatara, and at the same time performed the duties Arjuna, a great sage Nara in his previous life, took birth them spiritual associates from past lives to assist them in their present mission.

Vedavyasa, the great Rishi, sage and compiler of all the Vedas, Puranas, in the Mahabharata does not only describe a historical battle on the plain of kuruksetra in North-India, he also describes a universal battle – the one that rages daily in man's life. This is an important point. Man has to fight innumerable battles in each incarnation right from the moment of conception to the surrender of the last breath. Man has to fight between good and evil, life and death, knowledge and ignorance, health and disease, self-control and temptation, discrimination and blind sense mind. The whole intent of the Gita is to align man's effort on the side of Dharma or righteousness.

In the third chapter the discipline of action is described, in which a person – by performing actions for the welfare of others, without any selfish motive – attains equanimity. Bhagavan Sri Krishna says very clearly, 'Na hi Kascitksanamapi jatu tisthtyakarmakrt", no one can ever be without work even for a moment. Can you imagine, without work human civilization would be a jungle of diseases, famine and confusion. It is not necessary to flee the responsibilities of material life. Start by bringing God here where He has placed us, no matter what our environment may be. Surrender all actions to Him, and with the mind concentrated on Him, free from desire and egoism, perform actions. He, Lord Krishna, says clearly, "Karmanyevadhikaraste ma phalesu kadascana" – Perform all your duties being stabilized in Yoga. Devote thyself to Yoga. Yoga is skill in action, "yogath karmasu means that he has a desire for the fruit of actions and possibility of the performance of forbidden actions. Even a Karma Yogi renders service to the body but does not let the body become sleepy, indolent, heedless, idle and pleasure-seeking. Even he renders service to the senses but does not allow them to be engaged in worldly pleasures. He also renders service to the mind, but does not allow the mind to think of doing harm to others or thinking of sense objects or futile things. He serves the intellect by not allowing it to think of the duties of others. He serves all of them by having neither the feeling of mineness nor attachment.

So the teachings of the Gita are based on man's experience. Lord Krishna makes it very clear that the body and the soul are totally different from each other. The body is unreal, limited and perishable, the soul eternal, real, omnipresent and imperishable. That's why we should never feel sad at the time of destruction of the perishable nor should we have a desire to maintain the imperishable. When a human being discriminates the self from the body which is a necessity in all actions and disciplines of Yoga, the desire for liberation is aroused.

Every person deserves God-realisation. The human body has been given to us to realize Him alone. As soon as a man sincerely resolves to attain liberation, God-realisation, his attachment and attractions to the material world begin to disappear. Attachment to pleasure and prosperity are the main hindrances to attaining God-realisation.

Back of the Book

This book is a commentary on Chapter 3 of the Bhagavad Gita, which is the chapter providing spiritual guidance on 'The Art of Working'. The message is as much for the modern age as it was for the past, both for the seeker of the meaning of life who has commitments in the material world, and for the devotee who has renounced the world.

The author, Sri Prabhuji, through his deep scholarship and spirituality, has brought to life the meaning of the exquisite Sanskrit words of the Bhagavad Gita in his English-language commentary, illustrating its truths with examples drawn from life.

Prabhuji was born in the year 1932, and he has been residing in Rishikesh for the last 20 years on the banks of the Holy River Ganges in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains. This has been a place of saints and sages for centuries where seekers after truth come for guidance. Many seekers have been coming to Prabhuji to seek wisdom from him, and now he shares this wisdom with the world in this book.