Posted on: 03 Oct 2006
[Message on Dasara, Day-2] Yoga means attainment. Attainment is meaningful if you attain something other than yourself. After traveling some distance if you say that you have attained yourself, it is meaningless. Only when you attain the Superself (God), who is other than yourself, can you use the word Yoga. God in human form is attainable by your effort. Just as you have your family, God also has His limited family, which consists of a few liberated souls. For you, your family is more important than society, which consists of the general public. You maintain business with society but love with your family. God also behaves like you. In business, you serve people in society in a two way traffic [mutual give and take]. But, in love, your service is a one-way traffic [there is only giving, no taking or expectation]. Similarly, God serves the public in a two-way traffic since they express artificial love through their different forms of worship. God too postpones their sins to their future births and cheats them by giving an impression that He has cancelled their sins. This balances their cheating God through artificial devotion; they show devotion to God only for solving their worldly problems. Regarding the liberated souls, His service to them is without any account due to real love. God transfers their sins onto Him and relieves them from the sins. You too sacrifice your happiness for the welfare of your family. The human form of God has such a program of enjoying the sins of the liberated souls, which were committed by them before liberation.
In the Gita, the word Karma Yoga means the service to God, which is in fact practical devotion. The word Yoga denotes the attainment of God and the word karma means service. The word karma means the necessary work or job (service) to be done in order to maintain oneself or one’s family. Even an unmarried Sanyasin [monk] has to do some job to earn his livelihood if he does not have sufficient ancestral property. In the Kali Yuga [present age of materialism], a Sanyasin has no value if he depends on society for maintenance. People misunderstand a Sanyasin that the aim of all his preaching is only to get food from them. Then they neglect all his knowledge and his effort in preaching goes waste. If the people are sure that the Sanyasin has his own food already arranged for, they will be very much attentive to his preaching and will also compel him to take food in their home. A householder cannot reject his family since during his marriage ceremony, he has promised before God to maintain it. He has the responsibility to maintain the family especially when the family is also devoted to God and does not oppose his practical devotion to God. In any case, work or having a job is essential if sufficient ancestral property is absent. Such work to earn one’s livelihood is called as karma. Since the basic needs of one’s body or the family are the essential basis for the divine service, this karma is a part and parcel of Karma Yoga. In that case, the aim of karma is God alone and not the self or the family. Then you are not the doer (Karta). You cannot be the enjoyer (Bhokta) of the basic facilities needed to maintain your body or your family because your aim is to please God by your service and not to please yourself or your family. The basic needs cannot be called as enjoyment (Bhoga).
Thus, in the path of karma, you are not bound by the merits or defects (sins) of such karma. When your aim is to please God and not to please yourself and other souls, a sin committed in such a path cannot touch you. Kannappa, a hunter, killed rabbit (a soft natured animal) and offered the flesh to the Lord and he maintained his body too by the same hunting. His body was maintained with only one aim which was the service to the Lord. His sin did not touch him in any way by the grace of the Lord (Ahamtva Sarva Papebhyo—Gita). A priest, a businessman, a job holder etc., who maintains himself and his family through justified work without any sin, neither goes to hell nor does he become a member of the family of God. Such a fellow will be born as a bird or a soft natured animal which only concentrates on its livelihood. The aim of this very rare human birth is to achieve the grace of God and not merely earning one’s livelihood.
The word Akarma means leaving the work to earn one’s livelihood and depending on the society for one’s basic needs. Such a lazy fellow who is not active even to earn his livelihood cannot be active in divine service either. Activity is very important and is the basis of Rajas (Rajah Karmani—Gita). Knowledge is the basis of Sattvam. Tamas is determination. Knowledge leads to determination, which leads to activity or practical devotion or divine service. This sequence is required even in your worldly job. By knowledge, one understands the concepts and clears all doubts which results in determination and finally ends in practice. The worldly job is required to avoid worldly stress like hunger etc. Similarly, the divine job is necessary to avoid the stress of hell after death. If you compare the stress of the hell and this worldly stress, you can understand the difference. Then you will realize how much more the divine knowledge is important than this worldly knowledge.
Human Being Blind to Realization Get Useless Births
Human beings being generally blind to this realization concentrate only on worldly education and completely neglect spiritual knowledge. Such people may not do sins but they do not understand that such actions will result in their useless future births of birds and animals. Such births are also considered as another form of hell on earth. The human birth is a chance of getting a huge profit. A birth as an animal or bird is neither profit nor loss. The neutral state is relatively minus with respect to the plus. Therefore, such a neutral birth is also considered as hell with respect to the state of salvation. This neutral state generally tends to minus. People first think of earning their livelihood for themselves and their families. There is no problem up to this stage because God arranges for the basic needs for every living being in this world. But after sometime, since the concept of God is not realized through spiritual knowledge, these people extend their desires for more and more facilities (Bhoga). Then they start earning wealth by doing sins. Even after attaining the highest facilities, their earning through sin does not stop because they become addicted to the process of earning. A drunkard cannot stop drinking after sometime. Such people are thrown into permanent hell. Such work, which started off as earning one’s livelihood but got extended to earning endlessly for pleasure and luxury through sinful means, is called as Vikarma.
What is the solution for such Vikarma if the person realizes it? The only solution is to sacrifice back such wealth for the welfare of society. Rich people often speak about such social service by saying that since they have taken from society, they have to return at least something to society. The solution is justified because the sacrifice of extra wealth (karma phala tyaga) is equal to the sacrifice of work. Wealth is the fruit of work and therefore, it is another form of work. Work is energy and wealth is matter. Energy and matter are inter-convertible forms. Thus, the person who sacrificed some wealth is equal to the person, who has sacrificed work that was done to earn that much of wealth. You should not say that a rich man purchases heaven by sacrificing wealth. Since, sacrifice of the fruit of work (matter) is equal to the sacrifice of work (energy) according to science, you cannot object to this concept. Moreover, if such an alternative did not exist, what would be the fate of that sinner who realizes the truth before his death? You cannot condemn him since he has realized his mistake. There must be a way for the repentant soul. Therefore, such sacrifice is not purchasing heaven by money.
Jesus said that a camel may pass through the eye of a needle but a rich man could never reach God. From this statemet, it appears as if all rich people are permanently condemned. But, Jesus always showed path to the people who repented. Therefore, that statement of His applies only to the rich people who did not repent. If you close the doors for all rich people permanently, irrespective of their repentance, what work can be done by the devotees, who only sacrifice work? A person, who only sacrifices work, is either a poor householder or a sanyasin. Both cannot do any divine service without money [money is required for any activity including divine service such as the propagation of divine knowledge]. The situation will be like that of two sanyasins rubbing their shoulders against each other. What will be the result? Only some ash applied to their bodies will fall down! Therefore, there is always a way for the repentant soul even on his deathbed. Thus, even Vikarma has a solution. The Gita emphasizes the sacrifice of the fruit of work by giving it the highest place (Dhyanat karma phala tyagah) by stating that mechanical practice of tradition without analysis (Abhyasa), knowledge (Jnana), theoretical devotion (Dhyana) and sacrifice of fruit of work (karma phala tyaga) are in the increasing order of importance. Again here you must note that the sacrifice of the fruit of work also stands for the sacrifice of work. Between these two terms (karma samnyasa and karma phala tyaga) any one can be used to mean both.