How can a person do karma yoga?

[An online spiritual discussion was conducted on December 13, 2020, in which several devotees participated. Some of the questions of devotees answered by Swāmi are given below.]

[Reply to a question asked by Smt. Rekha.] Swāmi replied: Karma yoga is practical devotion and God Datta tests the devotee only in this practical devotion. Karma yoga always follows bhakti yoga or devotion and devotion follows spiritual knowledge or jñāna yoga. As you become more and more informed about God through jñāna yoga, you develop more and more devotion to God. As you develop more and more true devotion to God, practical service and the sacrifice of the fruit of your work also result. Both the practical service and the sacrifice of the fruit of your work (offering of wealth) done to the contemporary Human Incarnation of God are called karma yoga or practical devotion. This practical devotion is the proof of your theoretical devotion. Looking at the devotee’s theoretical devotion alone, one cannot be sure whether the devotee’s theoretical devotion or theoretical love is true or not. Karma yoga is the test to detect whether the theoretical love shown by the devotee is true or not. God tests whether or not you are able to practically sacrifice to Him some item with which you are really attached. If you prove that your bond with God is really true by sacrificing that strongest worldly bond of yours for His sake, you will win the full grace of God. God will not test you in the other worldly bonds because that single test of your strongest worldly bond is sufficient to prove that you really have the strongest bond with God. Hence, the tests of God Datta in the case of devotees are always practical and not theoretical. Of course, theory is the mother of practice. But without practice, theory is useless.

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