Condensed from Talks by Pujya Guruji Shree Rishi Prabhakarji from RishiVani.
Yoga means to be in tune with your higher nature.
Karma means action. So Karma Yoga means activity, which is done being in tune with your higher nature.
Karma Yoga does not mean just going to your office and coming home. That is only Karma.
You are going to your office so that you and your family can have something to eat. That is not Karma Yoga. It is only Karma.
Unfortunately when you go to your office and come back what you bring home is Naraka (hell), you bring back Asthma, Blood Pressure, Diabetes. Almost 99% of the people go to their office and bring home Naraka. Then they expect their wives to create some Swarga (heaven) at home.
Most people go to work not because they want to work but because they have to go to work. Given a chance they would not want to work as they work under a sort of compulsion. Hence they constantly look forward to their holidays.
Very few people want to go to work because they really enjoy going there and want to contribute to everybody’s life. And they know that by their going there, they are doing work by which they are providing a useful service to every-one.
Karma Yoga is truly being committed to making yourself absolutely useful in the world.
In the Bhagwad Gita, Krishna tells us the secret of Karma Yoga. He says “Yogastha Kuru Karmanei” – which means be rooted within, be stationed in Yoga and then carry out your actions. This is Karma Yoga.
To be able to work well you require a rested body and an attentive mind. Not only that, you need an-other condition, which is called contentment.
What happens when you go into Samadhi meditation?
When you come out of meditation, all your fatigue is gone, you feel comp-letely relaxed, and are able to be focused. There is an enormous shift in the level of concentra-tion. Also, you come to a state of contentment.
When you meditate you become totally content within yourself.
So, when you work out of this state of contentment, you don’t seek contentment in the world. This is called Karma Yoga.
Anybody who is seeking content-ment through work will never be satisfied. He will always be discont-ented and will always want to grab things for himself so that he can get contentment out of the world.
He cannot trust any-body. So he tries to get something out of the world fast. This is an automatic reaction of a person who is discontented.
So, here is a totally new way of operating in the world.
Earlier it came from “a taking” consciousness, now it comes from “a giving” – consciousness.
The secret of Karma Yoga is that you must have the ability to go back into yourself. So, establish yourself in Yoga, in your higher nature and carry out your actions.
When you meditate, all the qualities necessary for you to be successful in activity, happen automatically.
So what is Sanyasa?
Sanyasa is working so that everybody can have that what you want for yourself. Go to work so that you can share everything you have, and make yourself useful.
