Essence of Karma Yoga

Understanding of action and the fruit thereof

Before going into the essence of what is karma yoga, it is worthwhile to note a common misuse of this phrase. Karma Yoga is loosely used by many to signify actions that are of the nature of service, be it the religious kind such as volunteering in a temple/ashram etc or the secular kind such as working on societal issues like education, poverty etc . Thus we see many make such statements as “I do karma yoga on weekends by offering seva (service)”. This is not a correct use of the phrase. Because karma yoga is not restricted to any particular type of action but about the way of acting itself. This is why Krishna defines Yoga itself as “ease in action” — not any particular kind of action, but ease in all actions. Without this ease, even a pious action can be binding, perhaps more so by feeding the ego with a do-gooder’s high.

So what is this ease in action? It is captured in another famous verse in the Bhagavad Gita and perhaps the most well known, quoted by many as the summary of Karma Yoga: “Do the action, but don’t be attached to the fruit thereof”. While this is the essence and as seen clearly it applies to any action, this again can be easily misunderstood because of a lack of clarity around what is action and what is the fruit.

To exemplify it, someone working on a software project asked “How am I supposed to work on my project without being concerned about the successful completion of the product we are working on?”. The underlying assumption here is that working on the product is my action and the successful completion of the product is the fruit. And then karma yoga seems impractical because one cannot possibly work on any project without a clear end in sight. What is missed here is that the entire project from the start to finish is the karma or action. To divide action itself into start, middle and end and then imagine the end to be the fruit of action is the root of much confusion. Action is the holistic movement of thought, speech and deeds toward any endeavor from start to finish.

What then is the fruit of the action? It is the doer’s motive or the incentive behind the action. To take the example of the software project, if one inquires honestly into what is the motive behind the action, one may realize that the true inner motive is for getting a promotion, an increment in compensation, awards, recognition etc. All such motives are what is defined by the fruit of the action. In other words, the fruit of the action is always for the doer and not for the action itself. So as long as the doer is attached to any such fruit of the action, then the action is corrupted by the motive itself and therefore there is no ease in action. If one frees oneself of all such ulterior motives for the action and engages with full zest in the action just for the joy of acting itself, then there is ease in action. This is karma yoga.

To put it another way, karma (action) is always in the present and any motive or phalam (fruit) is always in the future. If one works for a fruit in the future, then that creates psychological time. This is different from the chronological time of the action itself from start to finish which is true with any action. One has to be engaged in the action fully from start to finish through chronological time to ensure it is completed successfully. If one imagines the successful completion of the task as the fruit, then the resultant wrong understanding of karma yoga can tie one into a knot. It either makes karma yoga seem impractical or results in slacking toward fully applying oneself to the task in the guise of being unconcerned about the result. Working in chronological time from start to finish is essential to any action (karma). But if there is any motive or expected fruit of the action that is separate from the action itself — whether it be monetary gratification, emotional gratification etc, then that creates psychological time for the doer. That is to say, one feels one can gain an “improved” psychological state after the completion of the task by means of recognition, rewards etc. Therefore the payoff from the action is postponed to the future. Acting for the pure joy of acting is not possible anymore due to the imagined future payoff. While recognition and rewards may or may not come after the task is completed, if one is absolutely unconcerned about it but only fully focused on the task itself, then there is no separate doer of the task but only the very movement of action itself which is ease, happiness and peace while engaged fully in action.

Thus karma yoga is the key to living itself and hence the great importance given by Krishna to karma yoga in the Gita. It is the most practical and the most liberating teaching if understood and applied correctly in all our actions — be it at home, work or anywhere else.