GLORY OF KARMA YOGA.

BY Sri Swami sivananda.

(sai sudha june 1944)

0 Karma! 0 Yoga of selfless service! 0 Nishkatnya Karma Yoga! Thou art beginningless. Thou art all-powerful. Salutations unto Thee. Upasana or worship is mental karma. Nidhidhyasan or meditation is also mental karma. 0 Karma ! these are Thy subtle forms. I cannot forget you. I cannot condemn or despise you as some vedantins, Raja yogins, and Ehaktaa do. Thou art the very foundation of all yogas. In Thee rest all other yogas. Thou hast purified my heart and helped me to attain the goal of life, the highest peak of perfection. Thou hast helped me to keep good health. Thou hast brought the wants of the-body also. In times of relaxation, thou hast comforted me in keeping the mind fully occupied and preventing evil thoughts to enter the mind.

I am speaking and will always speak of Thy glory only even on the platform of vedantins and yogins. Some vedantins speak of Thee as the means to attain Gyana. Some vedantins, yogins and bhaktas are not able to reach the goal because they have not purified their hearts "by selfless service. I can even boldly assert with all the emphasis at my command that Thon art the means as well as the end itself. When the heart is perfectly purified by Thee, knowledge dawns by itself even without sravana, manana, hidihyasan, through the special grace of the Lord, just, as the Bhakta gets initiation into the mysteries of Atma through the grace of Hiranyagarbha. Lord Hrahma initiates a Karma yogin into the mysteries of Vedanta. When I was enveloped by gross darkness, when I was a baby walking with tottering steps in the path of spirituality, you came to rescue me, refined my mind and pushed me to the heights of divine splendour and glory. Thou art my adhi guru or first teacher to open my eyes. Thou art indispensable for the maintenance of the body (sereerayatrapi). You can never bind one when he has understood Thy real nature.

A Karma-yogi is either a Karma-bhakta yogi or Karmaa gyana yogi. He works with either the bhav of a Bhakta or Gyan

Gita speaks of thy glory in glowing terms " Yoga is skill in action," " Yoga by action is better than renunciation of action," 'Children not sages, speak: of the sankhya and karma yoga as different; he who is duly established in one obtains the fruits of both. That place which is gained by the sankhyas is reached by the karma yogis also. He seeth who seeth that the sankhya and karma yoga are one.'

Sri Sankara never condemned selfless service or nishkamya karma yoga. He condemned the performance of rituals with selfish motives. He had in view, while preparing his commentary, the purpose of chiefly combating the baneful effects which blind ritualistic had brought to bear upon Hinduism. He himself was the greatest karma yogin which the world has ever produced.

How can a sage who rejoices in the welfare of all beings (Sarva bhuta hite ratha) remain quite without serving them ?

Certain qualities such as kindness, mercy, tolerance equal vision, humility which are aids to gyana, can be cultivated through selfless service and service alone.

Glory to Karma yoga ! Glory to Karma Yogins ! The world is in dire need of Karma-gnana-yogins but not of mere Mayavadins or lip vedantins who always indulge in vedantic gossipping only but who do not turn out something very practical and useful to the world at large.