Convert Your Actions into Yoga
(Excerpts from Satsang of Pujya Sant Shri Asaramji Bapu)
How
can we realize God while being engaged in karma (doing action)?
In
this context, Lord Sri Krishna says in the 16th sloka of the 4th
chapter of the Srimad Bhagwad Gita:
"What is action and what is
inaction? As to this even the wise are deluded. Therefore, O Arjuna!
I shall explain unto thee what action is, by knowing which thou shall
be liberated from the evil of sansara ?the wheel of birth and
death."
It is verily karma that earns one religious merit or
sin. Religious merit binds one to heavens, makes him indulge in sense
pleasures and thus creates bondage. Sin also creates bondage and
takes one to hells or lower life forms, thus causing misery. We
cannot remain without action. We may abandon all activity and sit
idle; still we will be doing something or the other through our body
or the mind. We can renounce action neither by shirking from action
nor by being engaged in action. One only has to be careful while
engaging in action.
Have you ever heard of a horse or an
elephant having a heart attack? Why do only humans have heart
attacks? The reason is that human beings have taken upon themselves
the sense of responsibility and doership of action. Actions create
bondage only because of the desire for the fruits thereof, the sense
of ?mine? and attachment. Actions devoid of the desire for the fruits
of actions, the sense of ?mine? and attachment take one to
Naishkarmya Siddhi, uniting one with God. ?Uniting one with God? is
also a misstatement, because every living being is ever united with
God. We never were, nor are, nor can ever be separated from God. Even
so, desire for fruits of actions has deprived us of divine bliss. A
sure and simple way to divine bliss is to abandon the desire for the
fruits of actions, the sense of ?mine? and attachment.