Liberation through Selfless action

Krishna says in the Bhagawad Gita , Shloka 2.40 – “In this path (of yoga action) there is no danger of unfinished business, nor are there latent within it the opposite, canceling effects of duality. Even a little practice of this religion will free one from dire fears and colossal sufferings (which are inherent in the unceasing cycles of death and rebirth)”.

Swamiji points out that Yoga is inseparable from action. It provides the “How-to” of the spiritual path. Unlike other actions and worldly deeds it is liberating because there are no thwarting cross-currents of ego involved with it. 

Every ego-inspired act has a reaction, a karmic rebound to it. But selfless meditation, service, Guru devotion, kriya yoga done rightly doesn’t bind us, it frees us from action and all karma. The caveat is that it needs to be done in a selfless way.

Swamiji said that all yoga practices – techniques, etc – work because they are cooperating with the natural flow of divine grace and not something that we introduce or bring into ourselves from outside. The key point is to practice with the right attitude of complete selfless giving to God.

Any selfless act is liberating, any self-involved act (thinking what’s in it for me) is binding. This is true for yoga too.

 Swamiji told the story of his brother disciple who practiced kriya yoga and meditation many hours a day but with the thought of getting liberation in return. When he was assigned the job of raking leaves, he stormed out of the Guru’s ashram. Practicing kriya reinforced and strengthened his ego because it was done in a self involved way rather than just complete devotional self-offering.

Strange as it may sound, actually Kriya hastened his spiritual progress as he needed to go through the experience of learning that yoga meditation can’t be practiced thinking of yourself and what you’re going to get out of it.

Selflessness is Saintliness

Our goal is Selflessness. If we can learn to act in complete selfless offering to God in whatever we do whether it’s service, meditation, chanting, kriya yoga or kindness to our family members, that in itself is liberating. Selflessness is saintliness. When we are selfless we become saint-like from inside because then there’s no ego blocking the flow of divine grace through us.

Jivanmukta

Master told a struggling disciple, ’Your job for now is to give to God, don’t worry about all the karma you will still have to complete, let God worry about that. First destroy in yourself the source of karmic involvement, that source is your attachment to the ego. Once the ego has merged in Him then any actions you perform will no longer revert to yourself. Your actions will be like writing on water, they will leave no trace in the mind. 

‘In severing yourself from egoic involvement in any action that you perform, you will have cut the Gordian knot of delusion. This is the state of the Jivanmukta: one who is free from inside even while living in this world. Being inwardly free, nothing he does can ever affect him again’.

Master said that we can choose to act in freedom, in selflessness –  and when we can act in that way we become jivanmukta – like in that moment. The essence of becoming a jivanmukta is to be free, from inside, of the egoic involvement. It can be done in every moment. It may be the most important thing to apply in meditation, Kriya and service .

Kriya = Selflessness

Kriya and karma both have the same root word – action or to act – but karma is binding because there’s ego involved: what’s in it for me, likes and dislikes, the reactive process – so there’s a karmic rebound. While kriya is a pure act of giving to God. Swamiji said that every kriya should be an act of complete devotional self-offering and if it’s not, then it’s not kriya because kriya implies the purity of heart, of giving selflessly.

One of our brahmacharis worked tirelessly over the course of two years, facing many hurdles in getting the approvals for building the monastery. During that period, he never complained, lost faith or doubted. He said that doubt about whether they will succeed or not was never even an option.

There is a deep truth to it – doubt is a choice, an option – and he had decided not to take that option. His attitude of pure selfless giving resulted in not a karmic rebound but just the offering of the ability to build a monastery for others, it was Kriya. The whole process of serving and giving is the way to divine freedom.

In Mahabharata one of the characters, Karna, had the attitude of complete selfless giving. In the final battle between the brothers Arjuna and Karna, Krishna told Arjuna that he can defeat Karna only if all of Karna’s spiritual merit (accumulated good karma) gets used up. To help his disciple Arjuna, Krishna approaches Karna in the battlefield, disguised as a wandering sadhu seeking alms.

Krishna asks Karna for all of his spiritual good karma and merit that he had ever earned. Karna replied, ‘I give you all of the spiritual merit I’ve ever gained in the past, that I am currently earning and that I will ever gain in the future.’

But Krishna wants Karna to follow the ritual of blessing the alms with water. In the absence of water Karna blessed the offering with his blood, gave it to Krishna and fainted. Suddenly he felt drops of refreshing water.

Opening his eyes, he saw the Lord in his full splendor blessing him. It was Krishna’s tears of compassion that he felt as gentle rain drops. Krishna told Karna that his generosity is pleasing and he grants him any boon that he wants.

What would you ask for, if God offered to grant you any wish? Karna asks that in future lives he again be selflessly willing to give to anyone whatever that one asks.

Krishna replied , ‘Your sins are insignificant when compared to the merit accrued by your charity and magnanimity. Your present suffering is due to those sins but fear not Karna, by your final act of surrendering even your merit to me, I myself shall take on the burden of your sins and will relieve you from your physical pain’. Krishna then tells Karna that he will never again have to reincarnate. He became a jivanmukta not because he worked out his karma but because he had developed completely pure selflessness of giving.

We should learn to live as if we were Jivanmukta, with the attitude of selfless giving in everything that we do. Then the Lord himself will come and bless us with the freedom and liberation just as he did with Karna .

Aum Peace Amen