1. The Nature of Karma-Yoga

We find a number of references to Yoga science scattered in the Sanskrit literatures. There have been explained the various ways and means of doing yogic practices. Though Bhagavad Gita has borrowed many ideas from Upanisads, it has transformed and developed them. Bhagavad Gita is understood as a classical text of Karma-Yoga, Jnana-Yoga and Bhakti-Yoga. In this second chapter, the nature of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti as the kinds of Yoga will examine according to relevant literatures such as Bhagavad Gita, Upanisads, BrahmaSutra etc. This chapter is an attempt to present the nature of the three types of Yoga. By that, we can proceed to identify the occurrence of these schools of Yoga in Yoga-Upanisads. 1. The Nature of Karma-Yoga according to Bhagavatgita In the epic of the Mahabharata, a great battle was fought between the royal families of cousin brothers, the Kauravas and Pandavas. Krisna was the charioteer of Arjuna, who was a mighty warrior, but declined to fight with his relatives for the sake of regaining the kingdom. Lord Krisna is adored as an incarnation of Visnu, who sustains Creation in Hinduism. He gave the sermon to Arjuna who wanted to withdraw from the battlefield. This sermon is popularly known to Bhagavatgita. He explained that how the role of action embraces the principle of renunciation and the necessity of action. The lord thus explained how one could go to the battle if it is one's duty, without any desire for fruit of action. Moreover, Krisna

55 advices to Arjuna that he should fight for the sake of justice or dharma. Bhagavad Gita thus states "For the social welfare (well-being), justice will be established by doing one's duty, and one who are intent on the welfare of all the beings, attain identification with the Brahman."158 That is why Krisna inspires Arjuna to fight with a balanced mind and not to surrender to pairs of opposites. Such a manner of doing duty is called Karma-Yoga, which is acting in the mood of equality without carrying any result of good and bad. Karma-Yoga, also, preaches the gospel of action in the life. In Vedic day, karma meant ritual that was performed by only a few people. However, the nature of karma is reformed in the Karma-Yoga, Accordingly by doing duty without running after the fruits of actions, people can get moksa. In the days of the Vedas, it has maintained that only through performing 'yajna,' which has certain desire behind it, could go to heaven. However, the idea of sacrifice changed over a period. It was thought later on that whatever we do would be a kind of 'yajna', which is born of actions. By doing actions with a balanced mind without running after the fruit of actions in daily life, we can also get liberation. It will be the method for breaking bondage of our karma, which determines what we deserve and what we can assimilate. In this sense only attachment, and not action as such, sets in motion the law of moral causation (or karma) by 158 Cf. Bhagavad Gita, V. 11.

56 which a person is bound to the wheel of existence and is born repeatedly." 159 Subsequently, we can also see a broadening in the meaning of samnyasa in the concept of Karma-Yoga. Generally samnyasa means renouncing worldly life, and going to the forest. Nobody can be a samnyasi who has not given up worldly desire. One, who performs his duty without adhering to the fruit of action, is a man of renunciation. 160 As not every one can be a mendicant, this will be an innovative reconciliation of renunciation in the society. This perspective gives a gleam of hope for ordinary people in the present society. You can then sublimate your life itself performing the duty assigned to you. Knowing that what we call samnyasa is the same 161 159 According to law of karma, we are responsible for what we are. What we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in the future can be produced by our present action. Such a moral action is repository of good human quality and leads towards the attainment of liberation. Any action is bound to have a reaction; any cause is bound to have its effect. This is law of karma, which is based on each and every good or bad action, of which will invariably rebound on the doer either reward or desert of punishment. There are, however, certain kriyaman-karmas, which do not instantaneously ripen to give fruits immediately. They remain pending in deposite waiting for the opportune time to ripen and bear fruit at the appropriate moment in future. Until then they are stored away, kept in abeyance and get accumulated in the blance as sancit-karma. Out of the whole stock of sancit-karma those that become ripe and ready to give fruits during present time are called prarabdha-karma. 160 Bhagavad Gita, VI. 1; Anasrita: karmaphalam karya karma karoti ya: I Sa samnyasi ca yogi ca, na niragnirna cakriya: Il 161 Cf. Bhagavad Gita, III. 5.

57 as Yoga (even-tempered activism), because nobody can be a yogin who has not given up his worldly desire.162 The Karma-Yoga also represents how action and renunciation can go together-"perform your obligatory duty without any ego centric desire and anxiety for fruit of action." It insists on action as a fundamental spiritual practice. There arises a question in this ideal of action, how one can remain poised, unperturbed and calm, abandoning desire under all circumstances while performing action in the midst of life. The successful performance of Karma-Yoga presupposes the necessity of the yogic practice, which gives purity, and stability of minds. 163 Such a state of the mind could be achieved by concentration on one's self. 164 Restraining oneself firmly by the practice of yogic discipline, one lives life as if one were in a cave where a sound could not reach him. That is the ideal of Karma-Yoga. A person disciplined in Yoga and the knower of truth, should think that he is not doing anything at all, even though he is seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, drinking, walking sleeping, breathing, speaking, ejecting, grasping, opening and closing (the eyes). He should always hold that it is the sense organs, which are active among their objects. 165 In doing Karma-Yoga, it is, thus, necessary to maintain the meditative state of mind. 162 163 Bhagavad Gita, VI. 2: Yam samnyasamiti prahuryogam tam viddhi pannava l Na hyasamnyastasamkalpo vogi bhavati kascana ll Cf. Bhagavad Gita, IV. 27. 29~ 30. V, 27-28. VI. 10~14. VIII, 12-13. XVIII, 57. 104 Cf. Bhagavad Gita, VI. 20. VI. 12. 165 Bhagavad Gita, VI. 8. 9: Jnanavijnanatrptatma kutastho vokitendriya: 1

58 In doing Karma-Yoga, it is essential to control the sense objects through yogic practice. Bhagavad Gita describes in a beautiful stanza how one who withdraws his sense from senses objects like a tortoise who withdraws his limbs from all sides, is said to be a man of well-equipoise intellect.166 He is so called a man of well-equipoise intellect (sthitaprajna). 167 Therefore, Karma-Yoga is performing actions with a stabilized intellect, with sense Yukta ityucyate yogi samalostasmakancana: Il Suhrnmitrarvudasinamadhyasthadvesyabandhusu l Sadhusvapi ca papesu samabuddhisisyate ll It is also the Buddhist technique of meditation on the observation of body (kayanupassana). The meditation is that of which whatever one does; an ardent meditator is always clearly aware in the midst of life. We are, here, able to see the trace of the technique of Vipassana, which means to see things as they are; to see things in their true perspective, in their true nature. Moreover, according to K. N. Upadhyaya, the Nikayas of the Pali canon constitute earlier than Bhagavad Gita It would not be impossible. from this chronological point of view to consider the Bhagavad Gita as having been composed under the impact of the newly developed thought of Buddhism. Cf. K. N. Upadhyaya. Early Buddhism and the Bhagavadgita, pp 58-59. Mahasa; tipattana- Suttam (2. B), also states; Puna ca param, bhikkhave, bhikkhu gacchanto va 'gacchami' ti pajanati, thito va 'thitomhi' ti pajanati, nisinno va nisinnomhi' ti pajanati, sayano, va 'sayanomhi' ti pajanati. Yatha vatha va panassa kayo panihi hoti, tatha tatha nam pajanati. tr. Vipassana Research Insutitute, Mahasatipattana- Suttam P. 7. Again, O monks, a monk while he is walking, he knows properly; "I am walking"; while he is standing, he knows properly; "I am standing"; while he is sitting, he knows properly; "I am sitting"; while he is lying down, he knows properly; "I am lying down." In whichever position he disposes his body. He knows it properly. 166 Bhagavad Gita II, 58; Yada samharate cayam kurmaamganiva sarvasa: 1 Indriyanindriyarthabhya: tasya prajna pratisthita ll Cf. Bhagavad Gita, II, 67-68. VI, 24-26. 167 " Bhagavad Gita, II. 55; Atmanyevatmana tusta: sthitaprajnasatadocyate ll Cf. Bhagavad Gita, II. 56-57. 61. ,

59 control, without running after fruit in the matter of doing duty. It retains equipoise during action. 168 recognizes inaction in the action (naiskarmayakarman). If the mind is pure, without attachment of actions, they cannot defile it even when they performe. In other words, one acts but remains mentally inactive; action in inaction could be identified with utter silence. So to speak, when the mind is fully disciplined by the practice of yogic concentration and the mind does not go astray, the yogin, ultimately, attains liberation, endowed with purified intellect, restraining oneself firmly, renouncing sound and other objects of senses and casting aside passion and hatred. 169 He attains the highest goal, after controlling all gateways, restraining the mind within the heart, concentrating his life breath in the crown of his head, resorting to yogic meditation, repeating the sacred syllable 'aum' which is the single syllable Brahman, meditating on Me, and abandoning the body. 170 Through such a way of renouncing all desires and moving to freedom from attachment, without sense of my-ness and without egoism and so on, one attains supreme peace, which is the brahmanic state." He goes to the nirvana of the Brahman. 172 168 169 Cf. Bhagavad Gita, V, 18 Bhagavad Gita, XVIII, 51: Buddhya visuddhaya yukta dhrtyatmanam niyamya ca l Sabdadinvisayamstyaktva ragadvesau vyudasya ca II 170 Cf. Bhagavad Gita, VIII. 12-13. 171 Cf. Bhagavad Gita, II. 71. 172 Cf. Bhagavad Gita, II, 72. The nirvana, here, means neither the nirvana of late Buddhism nor the samadhi of the Yoga-Sutra The brahmanic state is a state of perfect mystical union between the soul (atman)