By Luna Cabasés Corral
What is Karma Yoga and what drives us to be engaged in this spirit of Karma Yoga?
In a nutshell, Karma Yoga is an act of awareness and a complete offering of oneself to the Divine.
Fundamentals of Karma Yoga: Awareness, Detachment, Consecration
Here, you can already start to see some of the fundamental aspects of Karma Yoga itself. Saying that it’s an act of complete offering of yourself, you already tap into the practice of consecration: an offering to the Supreme Reality of all the fruits of whatever actions will unfold. You don’t offer to something relative, but to that which bears in itself the essence, and that is only and always the Self, the Absolute, Pure Consciousness, the Supreme.
Karma Yoga is an act of awareness in which you are in complete surrender to the Supreme of yourself and the fruits of all that is done through the vessel of your being, which points to another fundamental aspect of Karma Yoga: detachment.
First of all, detachment from the fruits of these actions that you’re performing. This means that you act beyond success or failure. It’s not the result you are interested in but just the act itself that you’re fully offering yourself to. It is an act that involves detachment from the ego, from the personality, and from identification with limited aspects.
So Karma Yoga as an act of awareness also implies a thinning of identification with personhood, which brings a sense of transparency, nakedness, and intimacy with that which is much more authentic and which lies at the core of All That Is.
Putting it all together, Karma Yoga is an act of awareness that implies consecration (whether spoken formally or silently in your heart) and brings a constant remembrance of detachment, of acting beyond success or failure, and detachment from identification with the limited personality.
Karma Yoga in Daily Life
So now, let’s put that in a very practical domain. Starting today, as you go out into your daily activities with the intention of treating them as Karma Yoga, ask yourself: “What drives me to perform these actions? Am I only following my personal, self-serving motive? Am I trying to be seen in a certain way? Do I want to impress myself or others?”
Or is there a genuine longing to let go of all that is unreal, of all the veils, with a real pure intention to be fully used as an instrument in the hands of God?
You can ask yourself at different times throughout the day: “What is driving me right now?”
And then, you can also use this space of Karma Yoga to start investigating what resistances and challenges appear. Maybe there’s a sense of comparison, envy, or competitiveness. Perhaps a need to be nice, or to please others, or maybe a need to control, or a lack of self-confidence, etc.
Start seeing what your resistances are and the tendencies that pull you out of Presence. Any time you find yourself somewhere else than in that very Moment, it’s a time to introspect and ask yourself: “What is now more relevant than this Moment? Where am I placing my interest, attention, and awareness?”
Moving from Identification to Intimacy
Let’s say you’re cooking dinner for your family. You might ask yourself, “Am I peeling carrots in full presence, in complete undivided attention, or am I lost in thoughts? Am I already thinking about what I’m going to do next or worried that the food will not taste good? Or am I fully mindful of this Moment and in a very intimate offering of myself without any preconceived ideas, expectations, or attachments to the outcome?”
As you dive deeper into the real spirit of Karma Yoga, you will find yourself more and more present in the very tiny little details of each moment. You start discovering a transparency, and the actual harmony of the Present Moment starts being revealed to you. In that, you are not serving your personal, limited needs, but you are serving the needs of this Moment.
So then, you might realize: “Well, indeed, a little bit more salt is needed,” but not because you want to impress those who’ll eat the meal but because, out of the spontaneity of this Moment, this is what is needed. No longer pointing back to “me,” it’s the unfolding of Life as it is right now.
As you step out of identification with the person, you start developing an intuitive intimacy with what’s most appropriate, what can bring more harmony. In this way, you begin to taste that Karma Yoga is both an act of awareness and an act of creation.
And in that creation, you can also very much inquire: “Who is the creator?” Is the “creator” this limited personal understanding of myself, or is it the Self that is unfolding through the vessel of this body and mind?
This is an excellent starting point for us to engage in Karma Yoga. Seeking what is truly driving you, you can then be very attentive to what resistances appear and how you can relax those resistances. You can let go of your preferences or preconceived ideas by coming back to that Pure Intention, that Consecration of this act to a higher purpose and to the Supreme itself.
Karma Yoga in Meditation
And how does Karma Yoga function in meditation?
Everything we’ve covered so far about detachment and letting go of any expectations applies equally to meditation.
Let’s say at some moment in meditation, you find yourself with a very dynamic mind. You’re getting lost in thoughts, being very curious about the various ideas the mind is presenting you.
How would Karma Yoga take place in this situation? In that same way that we’ve described before, bring an awareness that right now, the very fact that you notice that you’re more interested in thoughts than in being present in meditation is an act of awareness. That very act of awareness brings spaciousness.
Suddenly, you’re not just the story that the mind is telling me, but you’re the one who is observing the story and overserving the fact that you’re interested in going into the story. In that very moment, spaciousness arises and an opportunity for us to detach from thoughts.
It’s a chance for you to let go of that personal interest, not to feed the mind anymore. And as an act of detachment, you’re also affirming your longing to recognize the most profound dimension of your being, to settle in the authenticity of your being.
And it’s not a story, it’s not an identification, it’s not the resistance or the longing to be somewhere else. It’s not the thought, “What’s next?” or “How can I benefit?”
In meditation, we can see that Karma Yoga reflects this act of surrender of the interest in the personality and fascination towards the mind, and an affirmation of this deeper domain of oneself, resting in the Heart and letting go of personal interests.
Luna is a Hridaya Yoga teacher and contributor to our blog.
