HOW WORK IS PERFORMED

UPADESHA SARAM
SLOKA 4
HOW KARMA IS PERFORMED
Kaaya Vangmanaha Karyamuththamam
Poojanam Japaschinthanam Kramath
Kaaya – the body
Vak –speech, language, talk, words
Manaha ( manas) – mind
Karya – what ought to be done, performed
Uthamam – best, excellent, foremost, highest
Poojanam – worshipping, adoring
Japa – repeating or muttering prayers in an undertone, repeating passages of the Veda or names of deities
Chintanam – thinking
Kramath – gradually, in step by step, progressively
The best action (or work) is performed by the body, the power of speech and the mind (respectively) to carry out worship (of a deity) and( then) to repeat prayers ( or incantations) and (further) to meditate in a step by step ( and progressive) manner.

THE NATURE OF WORK OR KARMA
Indian philosophy considers work (karma) from several angles. It is interesting to look at these viewpoints so we develop deeper insights into the wealth of meaning enclosed in Bhagavan’s apparently simple statements.
• KARMA FROM THE VEDIC VIEWPOINT.

As we have discussed already, the Vedas comprise basically two sections, the Karma Kanda and the Jnana Kanda. The Karma Kanda looks at work or karma primarily from a duty viewpoint.
Action or Work in human life is considered to be of two types: loukika
and aloukika.
Loukika work is work performed in the temporal world for material benefits and survival.
Aloukika work is work performed for spiritual benefits. This type of work is itself classified into two types: nithya and naimithika.
Nithya karma is work performed as a routine everyday and mainly comprises sandhya vandanam, simple puja to one’s favorite deity, prayers during bath, prayers before meals and prayers before sleep. This is conditioned by one’s family traditions, the prevailing culture in society, the traditions of a country and the religion to which one belongs. The nithya karma is meant to help a person maintain contact with the Divine Principle.
Naimithika karma is the performance of rituals in accordance with one’s family tradition and one’s religion and generally covers three important components:
-Duty to one’s forefathers, the pitrus;
-Duty to Gods or the Divinity inherent in various aspects of life, the devas;
-Duty to all other living organisms in the environment, bhutas.
Loukika karma is the work that one performs in the course of one’s studies and as part of one’s career. This work is colored with the need for survival, for ensuring material benefits, and involves interacting with the world in many ways.
Every religion has its own interpretation of nithya and naimithika karmas. Many of these practices have fallen into disuse over the centuries because the teachers in the religion have not been able to explain the meaning and utility of these practices. India has been singularly fortunate in continuing the practice of Vedic practices in spite of foreign onslaughts and the infusion of foreign cultural practices. This is because of the existence of the system of Gurukula or the ‘tradition of the teacher’. The teachers are enjoined by the Vedas to preserve, practice, teach, interpret, and inculcate the Vedic practices. The teacher or the Guru is considered as equivalent to the Divine Principle and through such highly educated and accomplished teachers, the system of Vedic practices has remained intact through generations. People were chosen for this duty based on their knowledge, their aptitude, and their insight.
(From time to time through history these positions were taken by less accomplished men or ambitious men or politically inclined persons. During these times the system tended to be misused and misinterpreted. However every time such an eventuality occurred, there was a Divine intervention. Buddha was a rebel who refused to accept the Vedic teachers probably because the system had developed fissures. Sri Sankara was another rebel who questioned the Buddhists whose system had developed inconsistencies. The Purana describes the case of Prince Prahalada who questioned the obduracy and attitude of his own father, Hiranyakashipu. Another important case is of the King Bali who refused to accept the injunction of his Guru, the sage Shukracharya and submitted to the Divine Incarnation, Vamana. When the Vedic practices were on the brink of destruction by King Kamsa, the Divine Principle incarnated as Sri Krishna and re-established the supremacy of the Vedic way of life. Such instances are seen in the case of other religions as well, such as the intervention of Martin Luther when the Christian Catholic Church was beset with corrupt practices.)
• THE KARMA YOGA OF SRI KRISHNA
About 5000 years ago, a new interpretation of the Vedic Karma Kanda was promulgated by Sri Krishna. This is recorded by Sri Veda Vyasa in the famous Bhagavat Gita, the Song of the Lord, where Sri Krishna’s philosophy is set in 700 stanzas. In this treatise, Sri Krishna describes the concept of Karma Yoga. When Sri Krishna uses the term Karma, He covers both the aloukika (spiritual) and loukika (material) forms of work. He cannot be said to be talking only of the spiritual practices.
He essentially differentiates between kamya (desire-driven) and nishkama (desire-less) work.
Kamya karma seeks a result, a reward and a return. Kamya karma is
motivated and driven by desire for something.
Nishkama karma is totally desire-less and driven more by a sense of
duty than desire.

Many Vedic practices can have a clear favorable result envisaged as the objective. Yagnas and Yagas are known to be related to the birth of progeny or the urgent need for rainfall. The Putrakameshti Yaga performed by King Dasharatha was for the clear purpose of progeny. Similarly the Rajasuya Yaga performed by Yudishtara was for the purpose of establishing his right over a territory and to elicit the acceptance of his peers to his supremacy. Another instance of the performance of a complex Vedic Yaga for the explicit purpose of establishing the supremacy of a King is the performance of the Ashwamedha Yaga by Sri Rama when He was challenged by His own sons, Lava and Kusha. There are countless Vedic practices listed and given in detail in the Karma Kanda of the Vedas for clearly result – oriented purposes.
Just as the Roman Catholic Church started focusing on the material aspect of its practices involving money, and the Jewish Temples started demanding the sacrifice of animals at a tremendous cost to the ordinary devotee (that resulted in the denunciation of the practice by Jesus), so can a powerful priestly class learned in the Vedas take advantage of the ordinary devotee.
There are two aspects to the performance of ritual practices, that is, the performer of the ritual (yajamana) and the counselor or adviser (purohita). They are both important for the successful implementation of the ritual. Normally, Vedic tradition advises the performance of a particular ritual in a specific manner for the fulfillment of the purpose of life for the yajamana and his family. Nearly 40 different practices are enjoined on a householder in the course of his life. This advice ensures the fulfillment of the householder’s duties to the three groups, the pitrus, the devas and the bhutas. This ensures the stability of the universe. The role of the purohita is to advise the yajamana on the correct practice in all its aspects. In this pristine form, the ritual is nishkama or desire-less as it only seeks the natural stability of the universe in all its aspects.
However, when the greed for power becomes the motivation as in the case of Kamsa who usurped the throne from his father and wanted to get his accession constitutionally ratified by a Vedic practice, or the case of Hiranyakashipu who wanted to perpetuate his own name as the preferred deity in place of Vishnu, or the case of Ravana who wanted to get Sita’s acceptance of his overlordship, then the same Vedic practice becomes malafide and kamya.
Similarly, if the adviser or counselor becomes greedy and wants to make money out of the performance of a ritual by an ignorant devotee who is fearful of the consequences of failure to do so, then the ritual becomes kamya.
In focusing on the question of kama (desire) and nishkama (desirelessness), Sri Krishna brings up the question of ‘motive’ in the Bhagavat Gita.
The performance of Vedic practices is important for the stability, the balance and the prosperity of the world and the universe. That is the raison d’être for the householder who earns and spends for the benefit of his family and the world at large. The grihastha (householder) is the bulwark for the maintenance of the purohita class and for their upkeep and their continued knowledge and performance of Vedic practices. Both have to work selflessly without a tinge of greed or personal aggrandizement. Such nishkama work is enjoined and upheld by Sri Krishna as the most important duty of both.
Both performers use their body, their speech and their mind to ensure that the Vedic practice is performed in the right manner.
Indeed the same conditions apply to aloukika or materialistic work too. Every action has to be considered as a duty to be performed selflessly. This is the message of Sri Krishna, Bhagavan Sri Ramana and indeed Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

• THE ROLE OF THE BODY, SPEECH AND THE MIND


The ancient analysis of the human body is to define his body in terms of ORGANS OF PERCEPTION (Jnanendriyas) and ORGANS OF ACTION (Karmendriyas). Both are five in number, that is, there are five organs of perception and five organs of action.
PERCEPTION ACTION
1 Ears ( sound) Hands (to write, eat, hold,work)
2 Eyes (form, light) Legs ( to stand,walk, lift, push)
3 Mouth (taste) Mouth (to eat, drink, speak)
4 Nose (smell) Genitals (to urinate, reproduction)
5 Skin (touch) Anus ( to excrete)

Each of the organs of perception are designed to identify, be sensitive to and experience a specific aspect of the manifest universe.
These characteristics of the manifest universe are called TANMATRAS or VISHAYAS. Each specific characteristic is present in nature because of a specific component. The manifest universe is said to be a combination of five basic elements or building blocks called the PANCHA MAHABHUTAS. The material universe is a wonderful and multifaceted set of permutations and combinations in all sorts of myriad ways of the Pancha Mahabhutas.
Each Mahabhuta is distinctly characterised by a specific Tanmatra or Vishaya. Also the Pancha Mahabhutas are themselves evolved from each other in a specific way and are thus closely interrelated.
This declension and derivation is as follows:
Pancha Mahabhuta Derived as Tanmatra/Vishaya
1 Akasha (Basic Space) Akasha Sound
2 Vayu ( Basic Air-Gas-Vapour) 1/2 Akasha +1/2 Vayu Touch
3 Teja (Basic Energy,Heat,Light) 1/2 Vayu + 1/2 Teja Sight, Form , Light
4 Jala( Basic Liquid) 1/2 Teja +1/2 Jala Taste
5 Prithvi (Basic Solid ) 1/2 Jala + 1/2 Prithvi Smell
Thus solid manifestation incorporates all the Mahabhutas in differing degrees. All solids display smell, taste, form( or color), texture(or touch) and sound (or vibration).
The liquid manifestation incorporates all except the Prithvi or solid Tattva ( or Principle). Hence all liquids display taste, form (or color), touch ( or feel) and sound (or vibration).
The energy manifestation incorporates only three Mahabhutas, that is, light ( or color), touch( or feel) and sound( or vibration).
The air manifestation incorporates touch ( or feel) and sound ( or vibration).
The basic space manifestation is pure space and carries only vibrations of sound.
Most of the material world that we experience in our day to day life comprises the Prithvi Tattva and hence almost everything we experience gives us all sensory experiences like smell,taste, color, or light(form), touch and sound.
Pure distilled water may come closest to the Basic Jala Tattva and not have smell. Pure light or heat may come close to the Basic Teja Tattva and not have smell or taste. Pure air, as met with at very high altitudes will have only touch.
All aspects of the manifest world have the Akasha Tattva and hence conduct sound vibrations. Thus sound is considered a means of interpenetrating the whole of manifest creation. This gives a clue to the importance given to sound in the Vedas and the Mantras contained therein.
The human being, like many other forms of creation, is thus endowed with the inherent power to produce sound. The sound issues forth from the mouth and is conditioned by his vocal chords, the movement of his tongue, the movement and position of his lips and the volume of air he pushes out from his throat.
Man can perform a variety of actions with various parts of his body. In addition, he is capable of producing a variety of sounds from his mouth. The mouth is both an organ of perception (taste) and an organ of action (sound). The Sanskrit word for the voice of man is VAK.
The five organs of perception and the five organs of action work closely together to help man live his life. Thus with the organs of perception taking in stimuli and the organs of action giving out stimuli, man coordinates his life.
This coordination of perception and action, the eye and the hand, the ear and the voice, the taste and the hands, and so on takes place through the power of MIND.
The whole body, with its ten organs, acts through instantaneous messages through myriad nerves connected to the brain. The brain in turn is activated by the mind.

• THE MIND
MIND is a complex concept. There are many facets and generally, when one uses the word ‘Mind’ one means a composite of all these facets. What are these facets?
The first facet of Mind is THOUGHTS. Mind is described as continually thinking thoughts. Thoughts of one kind or another are continually streaming through the Mind. Ancient scriptures compare the stream of thoughts to an unending flow of oil.
Thoughts have ‘content’ and ‘feeling’. Content (or matter or facts or data) is like the texture of a material. Feeling (or emotions) is like the color. Every thought is inextricably associated with a feeling.

The next facet of the Mind is MEMORY. Memory is stored thoughts, and like all thoughts, it has content and feeling. This stored memory could be from experiences of this lifetime or it could also include experiences of previous lives. Memory can enter the thought stream in the waking condition. One can recall memories consciously when awake. Memory can enter the thought stream in sleep. The stream of thoughts, including content and feelings, experienced in sleep is called DREAM.
The next facet of the Mind is INTELLECT. Intellect is an inherent capacity to organize, categorize, analyze, correlate, infer (or draw conclusions), and sort out. The intellect watches the thought stream and examines the content and is continually analyzing.
The intellect is like a tape-recorder. It can move back and forth, and examine even the stored memories, to the extent they are accessible, and analyze them.
The next facet of the Mind is WILL or CONSCIOUSNESS or AWARENESS. This is an awesome all-encompassing power which makes a person aware of his thoughts, his feelings, triggers off the intellect to analyze, understand, categorize, compare, etc. And it has the power to induce a decisive ability to decide, to weigh and take a decision. Consciousness is aware of wakefulness and dreams. A person will wake up from sleep and will be ‘aware’ that he was dreaming. This awareness is consciousness.
As a person lives his life, watching the world, reading, learning and so on, he accumulates ‘knowledge’ which is thoughts and their associated feelings and intellectual categorization, analysis and cataloguing of the thoughts and a total awareness of this process. With passage of time and through the process of living, he ‘gains’ in knowledge, he becomes more and more aware. All this awareness is truly the development of his mind. The world remains the same. His mind develops.
Ancient scriptures, for convenience of understanding, use discrete terminology for these different aspects of the mind:
MANAS being thoughts and feelings;
CHITTHA being stored memories of thoughts and feelings;
BUDDHI being intellect; and
PRAGNYA being awareness.
It is found that the human being tends over his lifetime to develop a concept of ‘SELF – AWARENESS’. He develops a feeling of separate individuality. He thinks of himself as a separate entity, with a name and form, as a man or woman, as a student, as a son, a husband, a father, a professional, and so on. Many many facets of his individuality, his body, his color, his thoughts, his feelings, his stored knowledge, his ability to analyze and so on form a multi-faceted person. This is called ‘PERSONALITY’. Each individual thinks of himself as a unique separate person. He is able to differentiate himself from all other persons, and he is able to identify himself uniquely in the world. This is called ‘INDIVIDUATION’. It creates a perception of separateness, a special identity, and this is another aspect of the mind and is called EGO or EGO CONSCIOUSNESS or AHAMKARA.

Ahamkara may be said to stem from the two roots, Aham (self) and kaara (making, doing, performing, working, maker, doer, author). It is described as the ‘sense of individuality’ or ‘I-am-the-doer’-ship. As a compound word, it is also defined as ‘egotism, sense of self, self-love’ and is considered as avidya or spiritual ignorance in Vedanta. It is described in SAnkhyA philosophy as the third of the eight producers or elements of creation, that is, the conceit or conception of individuality.
This sense of individuality is impressed on the human being practically from the instant of birth. Apart from this, the new born carries within itself the collection of impressions of past lives. It is possible that the child derives a sense of individuality by virtue of genetic inheritance from the parents. Ahamkara is a kind of self-consciousness which arises from three causes, viz, impressions of past births, inheritance from parents ( and their own past impressions) and the external environment where it lives and grows. This feeling of ‘separateness’ throws up the positive emotions of desire, attachment, and pride and the negative feelings of anger, jealousy and hatred. In a way, these six feelings are internally complementary, that is, desire (and its non-fulfillment causing anger), attachment (and its non-reciprocation causing hatred) and pride (and its non-recognition causing jealousy). These six elements of Ahamkara are many times called the ‘six enemies (kama, krodha, moha, lobha, mada, and matsarya).
Ahamkara is an integral and finely interwoven aspect of the mind and is closely interrelated and intermingled with intellect, thoughts and memories. It propels the mind and is in turn energized by external experiences gathered through the organs of perception.

• WORSHIP AS WORK



Man’s actions can be said to be of two types, AUTOMATIC (or programmed or instinctive) and CONSCIOUS (or deliberate and thought out). All actions which emanate from the body, speech and thinking based on Karma or impressions can be said to be of the automatic type. Bhagavan has already indicated in the first two slokas that such automatic or instinctive actions result in further addition to the bundle of Karmas or Impressions, described by Him as an ocean and result in more and more unpredictability in life, and the possibility of disappointments and misery. These disappointments cause the six emotions of Ahamkara to be further fuelled and this only results in an endless series of births.
However, all actions that emanate from an Awareness of the Omnipotence of the Divine Principle to guide the universe tend to cleanse the entire human system. Actions based on Awareness of the Divine Principle necessarily have to be dedicated to the Divine Principle. Such actions dedicated to the ‘ALL-MIGHTY’ or God, is known as WORSHIP, whether by the body, speech or mind.
The worship by the body is called PUJA;
The worship by the speech is called JAPA;
The worship by the mind is called DHYANA.
Such God-conscious performance of work is possible only by consciously turning the awareness away from the external world, from the perceptions of the organs of perception, from the thoughts that derive from such perceptions, the intellectual tendency to analyze everything and the perception of individuality and separateness.
Action that takes place with one’s awareness centered on God within is termed ‘DESIRELESS ACTION’ or ‘AHMAKARA-LESS ACTION’. This applies to the actions of body, speech and mind. Mind, in fact, energizes speech and the body and propels their performance. Thus directing the Mind to God will automatically re-orient the speech and body. Thus, starting with making the body worship God, one progresses to making the speech worship God and finally progresses to directing the mind towards God.
Mental worship is by far the most potent action. Mental worship is called ‘INCESSANT CONTEMPLATION OF GOD’ or ‘MEDITATION’. Bhagavan categorically indicates that of all three types of action, Meditation on God is most preferable and is most helpful to the human being in achieving the key objective of human life which is ‘REALIZATION OF’ or ‘MERGING WITH’ or ‘ABIDING IN’ the God Principle.
Bhagavan thus describes the concept of ‘EXCELLENCE IN WORK’ and smoothly progresses to the concept of ‘EXCELLENCE IN THOUGHT’.
The same idea is repeatedly mentioned by Sri Krishna in the Bhagavat Gita.
“Ananyas Chintayanto Mam ....” - continually thinking of Me
“Mayi Sarvani Karmani ....” sacrificing all your actions to Me
So one can say, THOUGHTFUL ACTION is better than THOUGHTLESS ACTION. The thought we are referring to is ‘The thought of God’.
This instruction thus clarifies that both the aloukika and loukika types of action need to be centered on God. When all action is centered on God, then automatically it becomes nishkama in nature and will not generate any karmas or vAsanAs.
One can thus say with conviction that there is only one type of work and that can be called ‘dharmya karma’. Dharma is the definition of God in day to day life. Follow your Dharma and do your work. You will surely succeed in the one and only objective of this human life, Moksha. We will have to wait for a future opportunity to examine what is Dharma in life.



On the first day of September, as this edition of our blog gets hopefully uploaded, we will celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi, the festival of the Son of Shiva (or Brahman) and Parvathi (or Nature). Who is this Son? None other than you yourself, the resplendent Human Being!!! Think over the symbolism of Ganesha the elephant-headed God. Did you realize that the Human Being with his great Intellect is Ganesha? Let the great head which symbolizes your intellect be conscious of your father, Brahman-Shiva and your mother, Prakriti-Parvathi always and you will be surprised how you succeed in your pursuits in the world as well as in your spiritual pursuits. No obstacle will ever deter you. No attachment will ever deflect you. You will always be self controlled and righteous. You will find solutions for all the world’s problems. And you will be an example, a model for everyone for all time!

All my Love, God Bless and Sairam