Karma Yoga - Action And Our Attitude Towards It

“Trust no future, however pleasant !
Let the dead past bury its dead !
ACT- act in the living present !
Heart within and God overhead !”

These words of H.W Longfellow reveals at length the issue of action and the attitude that one needs to have while performing it.

Action is inevitable. We human beings have to act and perform our duties. We are born to act and our every action should be linked with it. Only then we can make our lives meaningful.

Actions can be good or bad depending upon our attitude. We indulge ourselves into action after analyzing the profit and loss which we may have to face in future. But the rule of action says to give up the desire from the past and anxiety for the fruit, which depends on future. Though desire is important for an action to take place, but it results into unstable mind which is frequently disturbed by the thoughts of fruit.So, it becomes necessary to give up attachment and fruit because if while executing our action or performing duty our mind meanders,or rather, goes astray, then the action becomes faulty leading to failure. Desire stands between us and our higher dimensions. The one who performs his duties well without being diverted from the objective, for sure reaches his goal. We should try our best to accomplish the task assigned to us. We must remember that we are here on the earth to make it a better place to live in by our selfless deeds.

Our thoughts should be anchored only in the direction of our responsibilities. Only then lower worthless desires get starved and fall away. A sportsperson has to keep fit, a musician needs to riaz , a student must study. When our mind is focused on investing our energies towards the ideal, we will definitely not indulge in anything that takes us away from our goal.

Our response towards our action plays a crucial role in its success.If once we fail, many get depressed and permanently give it up. But if we only concentrate on our goal and try to enhance our ability, we would definitely succeed. We should not pay attention to the obstacles on our path, rather on our destination. “An obstacle on our mind is worse than an obstacles on our paths”. People should not blame their destiny or fortune, which is something not in their hands. We have only the power to utilize our potential. Moreover, when we act honestly and sincerely we achieve our goals.

We all are on the starting point of success. So, we must not deviate our minds for futile fruits and desires, rather focus on our duty to make this deteriorating world Heaven, where everyone can live in peace and harmony. I would also say that good thoughts, beliefs and actions can change bad ‘karma’ and if we have the power to heal ourselves, increase our feelings of self-worth and improve our emotional state, we can never succumb to negative ‘karma’. Work done in the right spirit and inner renunciation implies self-control and discipline. Remarkable work is done only by a person, who thinks that he has done nothing and has to endeavour continuously till the side of grave.