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Wednesday, December 28, 2005

A question on karma yoga

"You say it does not depend on what one does but on with which attitude one works. On the other side it is said in Gita that everybody is just following his nature and that it is stupid to try to go against ones nature. That implies to me that everybody also has to find a work that suits to ones nature andtendencies. Otherwise the work itself gives so much strain and disturbance that it is very very difficult to have a positive attitude during and towards work. My practical experience is also that i cannot neglect the aspect of WHAT i´m doing. To say :WHAT i´m doing does not matter at all and just take any work which I can get and try to have a positive attitude and be detached would not be a wise decision. Isn´t it? For me both aspects are important. The work i´m doing has to fit to my temper, and interrest. And with which attitude i´m doing that work is important to transform work into yoga. What do you think about the aspekt of WHAT kind of work one is doing? And how is it connectet with the attitude towards work?"

I totally agree with you markus that one has to find the work he does according to his nature as Krishna in Gita suggests. Otherwise one will land in all kinds of problems. Even if you may be a failure in your work if the work is according to swadharma according to ones own nature it is all right!That is the reason one has to choose the occupation which suits his or her nature. If ones nature is sattva it is good for him to go for sattvic activity and same way with rajas and tamas. He will be comfortable doing the work of his nature in general.But unfortunately life is not the same all the time. We have to face situations where in we may have to go ahead and do the activity which is not necessarily our nature. Bu these situations are not there all the time. They are emergencies or unforeseen situations! If we can anticipate such a situation we can always make necessary arrangement. In such cases we have higher nature of ours which is the freedom called we can switch between the natures smoothly without getting into feeling totally unpleasant until the situation is crossed over! This freedom is also our nature and is our higher nature which we can take shelter temporarily. But we should realize if this is going to be a routine affair then we will have to make necessary arrangement. When I said it does not matter what activity we do I mean people have an impression that if they do a certain type of activity it is superior and other as inferior. Like in an institution one who gives intellectual talks he is superior and one who does the sweeping or laundry it is inferior work! According to karma yoga there is no difference. As much as the person giving talks can get peace of mind the sweeper can get equal or some times more peace of mind.

1 comment:

Samana said...

How do one know what his or her swadharma is?