Pariprasna

Srimat Swami Tapasyananda Ji (1904 – 1991), was one of the Vice-Presidents of the Ramakrishna Order. His deeply convincing answers to devotees’ questions raised in spiritual retreats and in personal letters have been published in book form as Spiritual Quest: Questions & Answers. Pariprasna is a selection from this book.

QUESTION: I am told that one can attain Self-realization through Karma Yoga alone. It seems to me that Karma alone, without thought, is often blind. If this is admitted, we have to admit the supremacy of thought over Karma Yoga. what are your general views on this?

MAHARAJ: Karma without thought is purely mechanical. It will not be Karma Yoga at all, for this word means ‘communion through work’ and communion always implies thought.

The position can be clarified if we bestow our attention on the various types of work known to man. There is work done through the machine, which involves no thought and no reaction in the machine except wear and tear of the parts. Above this, there is animal labour and slave labour. Though the agents are living creatures, they are entirely passive and their only stimulation for work is the fear of the whip. Next higher in the scale is work done with the profit motive, which is the law at the human level and much of what we call human civilization has been motivated by this incentive. Here certainly there is a considerable play of thought but that is wholly directed to personal advantages.

But real Karma Yoga begins only when the incentive of pure personal gain is felt as unworthy and some impersonal incentive (is sought) as the motivation for action. When a man feels that it is unworthy to live for his narrow self-interest alone, he seeks some impersonal motives like patriotism, social uplift, humanism etc., as the sanction for action. Here it is only thought and reflection that raise man to this higher level of life. While the work that a man does with these motives has a sure effect in the external world, it has got a beneficial effect on himself too. By identification with an impersonal cause his self expands and gets identified with higher and bigger ‘wholes’ like country, community, mankind etc. There is thus a kind of Yoga, communion, with these ‘wholes’ and where the identification is sincere and complete, such persons become a conduit for the expression of the energy of the spirit involved in these ‘wholes’. This ‘at-one-ment’ in thought and emotion is the source of the power we find expressing through great patriots, humanists and social revolutionaries.

It was Swami Vivekananda who gave a new turn to the doctrine of Karma Yoga when he declared that it is in itself a self-sufficient path for the attainment of the spiritual goal. In the past it was always considered only as an indirect means or as a subsidiary aid. In Sankara’s system, Karma Yoga or detached and dedicated action leads to purification of mind which is the necessary psychological background for practising the discipline of Jnana or Knowledge of the unity of the Atman with Brahman. In the Bhakti school such action is a part of the practice of devotion to God. Actions are performed as offerings to God. Devotion in its maturity brings the grace of God on the devotees.

Swami Vivekananda’s gospel of Karma Yoga as a self-sufficient path does not seem to impose any metaphysical or theological dogma to begin with. It is a discipline of expanding our narrow self by identification with bigger and bigger ‘wholes.’ The Swami’s novel explanation of the two important technical expressions, ‘Pravritti’ and ‘Nivritti’ makes his attitude clear. Traditionally ‘Pravritti Marga’ is described as ‘an active life in pursuit of worldly values’ and ‘Nivritti Marga’ as ‘abandonment of actions in pursuit of Mukti.’ But Swamiji gives a new turn to these words by interpreting them on the basis of their root meaning. According to him, Pravritti means ‘going towards,’ and Nivritti means ‘going away from,’—a self-centred life. Self-centredness is the original sin, and freedom from it is real freedom. Here the contrast is not so much between worldly life and a life of renunciation of worldly goods and activities. The less we become self-centred, the more we grow spiritually, according to this view. The identification of our little self with impersonal causes and with bigger and bigger ‘wholes’ referred to earlier, indicates the spiritual development of man through pure Karma Yoga. A man may have no theory of God, soul, the hereafter etc, but if he can eschew personal values entirely and get fully identified with bigger and bigger ‘wholes,’ he attains to a state of mental purification in which truth should shine on Him automatically.

Although this idea of Karma Yoga is a novel idea, it will find acceptance today among large sections of people to whom metaphysics or theology is an anathema, and who yet feel the pursuit of pure personal values as ignoble. Here also Karma, if it is to become Yoga, involves thought. As the Gita says, ‘All Karmas find their final end in knowledge.’   

One must perform work. It is only through work that the bondage of work will be cut asunder and one will acquire a spirit of non-attachment. One should not be without work even for a moment. Work saves the mind from going astray. But then, prayer and meditation also are necessary. You must sit for meditation at least once in the morning and once in the evening. That will be like the helm to a boat. When one sits for meditation in the evening, there should be selfexamination in respect of the works done in the course of the day. —Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi