Karma Yoga and Freeing Ourselves Together

Reflections on the Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita is an epic chapter of a much larger text called the Mahabharata. Effectively, the Mahabharata is India’s equivalent to Homer’s Odyssey from Ancient Greece. The Mahabharata is so extensive that it consists of every experience that a human being can have. The entire text consists of the lead-up and aftermath of a battle, which is described in The Bhagavad Gita. It is important to understand the context of religious texts to glean from them the full significance of their instructions. In the Bhagavad Gita, there is a great war between two warring sides, and Arjuna, one of the best archers and warriors at the time, has been hired by one side to fight. While riding in his chariot, overseeing the battlefield, he is overcome with grief when he sees his teachers, uncles, and friends in the opposing army. In despair, Arjuna decides to put down his bow and become a pacifist. At that moment, the chariot driver becomes the embodiment of Lord Krishna, and Lord Krishna begins ministering to Arjuna about the deep spiritual truths of battle and, in the process, prescribes an understanding of how to overcome the battles of day-to-day living. One of the most potent of the spiritual truths shared by Lord Krishna is that everything is made pure when it is offered as a sacrifice to the divine. Even war is seen as pure and just when the fighters are serving God with their actions. So, too, in this way, a person finds fulfillment and peace in their life when they act in a gesture of offering the fruits of all action to the divine. The Bhagavad Gita instructs that all of our relationships and work can never bring us deep fulfillment when we participate in them to serve our egoic and mistaken needs. So, too, when we are spiritually ready to give all of our possessions, relationships, and the fruits of our actions to the divine, we are engaging in what Krishna describes as Karma Yoga. When we are in a relationship or choose to see relationships in such a way, we are committed to liberating ourselves and the other so that everyone involved can attain the supreme bliss of Union with God. Supposedly, this supreme bliss is the goal of all life, and it can only be attained when we have surrendered all of our egoic and mistaken desires. When we find a partnership that values the pursuit of God over the pursuit of egoic needs, we are intentionally and willingly engaging in the practice of Karma Yoga. It is a powerful and necessary quality primarily because of how deeply embedded into our lives the relationships we carry are. Yet even the most tumultuous and difficult relationship can be transformed instantly into an offering for God and can provide the practitioner with an experience of liberation, meaning, and peace.

Take, for example, two beings that are engaged in a partnership that is missing a central aim or purpose beyond fulfilling mental, emotional, or physical desires. These beings are likely to experience frustration when the other person is unable to fulfill in them the longing of their heart to be fully at peace and fulfilled. Additionally, the two people will struggle when the natural challenges of relationships arise, and they have no substance or direction with which they can contextualize why they are together and why the work that they are doing is significant beyond worldly pleasures and pursuits. In the practice of Karma Yoga, the challenges that arise in the relationship become the grist for the mill or the fires of purification through which each devotee can cleanse themselves of ignorance and come to know the peace of God directly. Relationships are one of the most powerful tools for clearing one’s own psycho-energetic body because the other person will bring up unconscious tendencies or patterns, known as blindspots, that the person may or may not be able to awaken in their private spiritual practice.

A relationship founded on the ideals of Karma Yoga, however, will recognize that anything that comes up that is fearful, jealous, insecure, shortsighted, or, in other words, unnatural to God is something that has yet to be forgiven and released. When we are in a conscious partnership, we support the other person to realize their own shortcomings and highlight the ways in which both of them can get closer to God. Relationships, in this way, are like mirrors that can help us to see where we are still stuck and where we can bring our attention and intention to know God deeper and ever with more fervor. Unanchored in the pursuit of God, the relationship fails to surpass the individual and couple’s human tendencies to be imperfect and in need of the love of God. When we place the pursuit of God at the center of our lives, we invite God to support us in being more and more like the divine love of God that is our essence. When we realize all of the ways that we have been unconditionally accepted and embraced by the love of God, we can further extend that to our partners and be an embodiment of God’s love in the world. In this way, however, it is essential to have a north star, or a transcendental goal, to pursue together.

So, too, beyond intimate relationships, we can apply the ideals of Karma Yoga to our communities, nations, and the entire collective. Each person is walking their own path home to God, and when we see through the lens of Karma Yoga, we recognize that each interaction is an opportunity to facilitate and expedite our own as well as each other's liberation. Ram Dass has a great quote, “We are all just walking each other home.” The sentiment of Karma Yoga can additionally be captured in the quote by Kabir, “Do what you will with another human being, but never take them out of your heart.” The battle in the Bhagavad Gita is a representation of the battle that we all fight on a day-to-day basis.

In another beautiful sentiment, the chapter describes how the relationship that the individual has with God is similar to a bird that is pecking anxiously at the fruits of a tree. Seeing that there is less and less fruit on the branch, the bird becomes more and more nervous. All the while, there is a companion bird, sitting in a nearby branch, who is watching silently, witnessing with compassion the struggle of the anxious bird. It is said that if the anxious bird were to glimpse for one moment at his companion friend, the anxiety and suffering of the bird would dissipate immediately. So, too, are we called to see God amongst all of the tribulations of our day-to-day lives. These events, on the surface, are what can be called the melodramas of our lives, and they have been present with us in varying shapes and sizes since the beginning of time. With the support of Karmic and intentional relationships, we can support each other in turning our attention away from the apparent lack and illusions that cause us to suffer and instead turn our focus on the compassionate, perfect, and ever-present gaze of the divine.