Darshan of Swami Krishnananda in 1999

by Swami Krishnananda

13. Karma Yoga

(Darshan given in February 1999)

Swamiji [to a visitor]: You should consider the whole universe as one large human being. This is exactly what the Vedas have proclaimed. It is a huge Purusha, Mahapurusha. The Purusha Sukta of the Veda describes the whole universe as animated by a consciousness comparable to the consciousness of a human being, only in extended dimension. So we are living a universal life. There is no such thing as individual life. It doesn't exist. Even when we say I, you, he, she, it, and all that, it is only a general way of speaking in the light of that comprehensive wider dimension, which is to be kept in mind always. The moment you forget it, you slip into the pit.

For that you must know what are the realities of life. You should not live in a world of illusion. Everybody lives in a world of illusion only. Reality is not seen. If anything is considered as 'my property', that is an illusion. Nobody can own anything in this world. The body cannot own the hand or the legs or the eyes. It is itself. The body itself is the limbs, so there is no question of taking the limbs of the body as properties of the body. We are just giving an illustration. The universe is one human body, a large organism operating in the same way as the human body is operating, so there is no give-and-take policy in the universe. The universe does not give anything to itself, nor does it take away. It is complete in itself, like an ocean. The ocean does not give water nor take water. It is itself what it is.

The idea of 'mine' and 'yours' is contrary to the law of the universe. If anybody has the illusion of owning something, then the universe will teach a lesson to that person by depriving him of that object which he thought was his own. Everywhere there is bereavement, bereavement. Bereavement means losing something which one wrongly thought is 'mine'. The whole universe is one being, and nobody can possess anything nor lose anything. The idea of property is irrelevant in the system of things. You can participate in a thing, but not possess a thing.

For instance, you mentioned the family. You are not the owner of the family members. You are a participant. You participate in the work of the government, not own the government. Nobody can own the government. It is an organic system by itself, and no ownership is possible.

The very principle of karma yoga is participation in the work of the universe. It is not independently doing something according to our own whim and fancy. All work is participation in a larger whole. Every nut and bolt of a huge mechanism participates with the whole mechanism for an output which is beyond itself. We work for a principle which is beyond ourselves. Every official in the government has something beyond himself, which is called the government. The government is not a human being, it is a principle which integrates everything together. A Collector is not a man. He is an operative medium of what you call government. It is a force, a concept.

It is a logical principle. The universe is a logical principle. A large logic is working by putting everything in harmony with another. Everything should be in harmony with another. There should not be any disruption. When you say 'it is mine', you have caused a disruption. The object which you are calling as your property resents your calling it your property. Even a servant is not a property of a boss. He is an independent individual, but he participates in the work of the boss, and the boss looks after the welfare of the servant. He is not inferior to anybody, just as the leg is not inferior to the brain. Though the brain does all the work, the leg has its own voice to speak. The servant is as important as the boss because they work together in a collaboration and comprehensive spirit.

So is the case with the members of the family. Each one is independent basically. Every member of the family individually, from the human point of view, is independent, but they form a collective force by coordinating their interests for the interest of the survival of the whole family. The family is a higher concept than the individual. There are ten members in a family. The family is not any one of the members, just as the government is not any official. It is a concept which integrates the individuals which are the members of the family.

It is a very difficult thing to understand for the common man. The family is not a bundle of people. If ten people join together, they are not members of the family. They are co-related for a higher purpose. They develop a higher value in the coordination of their purpose. Even if ten members of the family have ten different desires, they should not conflict with each other. There should be coordination of the desire of one person with the other persons. Though they are independent desires – one wants this, one wants that – there should be a coordination in order that the family should survive. Like the wheels of a motorcar, they are coordinated; otherwise, if one wheel goes this side, another wheel goes that side, then the car will not move.

The whole point is, there is one reality. It is not made up of individuals. This is something which ordinary people cannot grasp. You belong not to any particular place. You belong to the universe. Your father is the universe itself. You are not born to a human being, though it looks like that. The universal force utilises the so-called parent of yours to produce you as a son. The whole universe acts when a child is born. You will be wondering what is the connection the universe has got. The child that is born is a pressure exerted by a point in space by the universal setup. Every child is a child of the universe. We belong to the whole universe. The parent of the universe is our real parent, and as family members are taken care of by the head of the family, the head of the universe will take care of every one of us.

But we have to extend our vision a little bit beyond our concept of our little human family and even government, nation, and all that. There are things which are more than nation, more than international setup also. Finally, we are controlled by the solar system much more than the human values. We cannot exist without the sun, and we are not paying any credit to the sun for that. He doesn't charge tax for making us enabled to live in the world. The air that we breathe is free. Suppose it is charged – so much air means so much you have to pay – you cannot exist. All the beneficial forces of nature are God-given, and they are free. Water is free, air is free, the heat of the sun is free. Even the heart is working freely. We don't pay tax for that. Nobody is asking you to give: “I am making your heart function properly; give.”

The cosmic law operates even in the tiniest of things. You cannot even breathe unless the world operates simultaneously. The air of the universe is pumped into our lungs by a mysterious operation which is beyond our concept. We are, in a way, God-men, if you can use that word – God-men because you are made by God, and therefore, there should be some kinship between you and God. If that kinship is broken, then one cannot survive. They will perish completely.

A visitor: But, Swamiji, how relation comes?

Swamiji: Because you have isolated yourself from the universe. You are thinking, “I am from Roorkee” or “I am from Bengal”, but you are not from anywhere. You belong to the whole universe.

Visitor: But why we consider: I belong to that?

Swamiji: That is ego, egoism. There is a thing called egoism, which asserts itself.

Visitor: But now it's difficult to eliminate that.

Swamiji: It cannot go on like that indefinitely.

Visitor: Now even in one family, the father, sons, daughter-in-laws, daughters, son-in-laws, they fight...

Swamiji: No. I am mentioning to you, you said 'peace of mind'. There is no way of having peace of mind by living contrary to the law of the world. You cannot possess peace of mind by purchasing it. It is just an adjustment of thought to the realities of life. You cannot live a cosmic life twenty-four hours of the day. We are living an empirical life, sensory life, life of bondage, obedience and disobedience. Okay, let it go on. You have to bear the brunt of it. But at least one hour in a day you forget these relationships with things and persons. Nobody belongs to anybody else. Nobody is an adjective of somebody. Everything is a nominative. Everything is an end in itself and not a means of somebody else. Nothing in the world is a means to something else. This is very important. Everything is an end in itself. Everything lives for itself only.

So there is the Atman, as they call it. The end in itself is the Atman, the soul. The soul that you think of is the end in itself. Everybody lives for the sake of the Self, not for anything else. Empirically it is called the individual self, but really it is the cosmic Self.

Every day sit and meditate: “I belong to no individual person or thing. No person or thing belongs to me, but the whole thing belongs to the one central system of the operation of the universe.” There is a point of administration of the universe. It is a point, not like a geometrical point, not a point that you draw on paper by a fountain pen. It is a mysterious, inclusive point. Any word to describe it is inadequate, which, as the scriptures and the scientists say, burst into two parts. They call it the Big Bang in scientific language. The world became subject and object, the seer and the seen.

Actually, there is no seer and no seen. There is only one seer. That is what we call God Almighty. He has no object outside Him. He does not manufacture the universe out of any material. He Himself appears as the universe, and when He appears as the universe, you are not outside it. You yourself are one of the parts of the appearance of God. That should make us happy.

You asked me how to have peace of mind. This is the way of having peace of mind. The attachment should be cut off. You should not have any attachment to anybody or anything. Disinterested action is the Bhagavadgita doctrine. Action is a must, but disinterested. A manager of a bank has crores of rupees in his chest. He is not attached to it, but he is very careful to hold it carefully. He doesn't say, “What is there? It is not my money. Let it go.” The manager cannot say that. The duty obliges him to see that it is perfectly kept, yet detach himself from that. This is the whole Bhagavadgita teaching: Duty must, attachment no.

Now we mix up two things. Why should I do anything when I don't get anything? This argument is very faulty. We don't do work because we want to get something. That is a tradesman's argument. It is a foolishness to think like that. It is your duty to act but not expect any fruits. This the Gita is telling. The 'fruit' means an exterior thing. You consider the fruit of the action as something exterior, as if it is unconnected with you, and you are pursuing it afterwards. The exterior thing cannot belong to you. The fruit of the action is not outside. It is inwardly involved in the cosmical set up, so asking for that which is everywhere is foolishness. Therefore, the Bhagavadgita says you don't ask for the fruit of the action. Your duty is to cooperate with the cosmical set up and not expect anything from that.

Maintaining health is a duty of everybody, but what do I get from maintaining health? Such questions have no meaning. “Why should I maintain health? What do I get?” This kind of argument is meaningless. So like that we are telling the universal: “We have to maintain the health of the universe? Why should I? What do I get?” It is like saying, “Why should I maintain health?” It is an objective by itself. The action is the same as the fruit. The action and the fruit are identical. So the fruit is not somewhere else, and we cannot go and ask for it as if it is hanging somewhere else.

This is a new education itself. The adjustment of the thoughts of the mind is peace. The adjustment of the humours of the body is health. The adjustment of the requirements of humanity is government. Everything is a question of adjustment – harmony and adjustment with every part of the whole. And various kinds of wholes are there. The body is a whole, the mind is a whole, the reason is a whole, family is a whole, state government is a whole, central government is a whole, the universe also is a whole. Everything is a whole only. There are no fractions of things. There are no little, little parts of the universe. It is rising from a lower-level to a higher-level. The baby is a whole, the adolescent is a whole, the adult is a whole, the youth is a whole, even the old man is a whole person. When the plant grows, the seed is a whole, the tendril is a whole, the grown-up plant is a whole. When it becomes a tree, then also it is a whole. So every growth, everywhere in the field of life, is a growth from a lower level of wholeness to the higher levels of wholeness. The highest level of wholeness is God-realisation.

If this can be appreciated, there is no problem in having peace of mind. You must adjust yourself with anything and everything in the interest of the larger whole. Don't say 'my', 'my', and all that. You should not use the word 'my'. There is no my in this universe, no me, nor mine. It is just things as they are.

Very difficult concept, but it is necessary. It is a different kind of education than we get in the schools and colleges. For that I said meditation. Sit every day and pray like this to the higher reality. Take a deep breath. Chant Om mantra, and adjust your mind, your consciousness, everything that you are, with everything in the universe. Adjust your personality with everything in the universe so that you become a cosmic individual, a kind of superman.

This is yoga. This is also the art of the living of a perfect life. One can be a very good businessman even by meditating like this, a very good cyclist, a very good driver, a very good judge, a very good soldier. Everything will be the best in any field provided this adjustment is made possible. Any disruption of oneself with another atmospheric reality is the cause of trouble. We should not disrupt ourselves. We should cooperate. Whatever the general of the army says, it is good for the soldiers. The soldier should not say, “No, this is not all right. I will go this side.” You should not say like that. The Central order is the unifying order, and such an order for us also is this whole world built up.

If you want to be happy, you can be. If you don't want to be happy, that also is possible. Attachment to particulars, family relations, money, land, everything that is an object of attraction, that is the cause of the folly of people. You have got a duty to work unselfishly, without expecting anything, for the welfare of the whole manifestation of Truth in different levels of its experience, as I mentioned. At every level God is present, even in an atom, up to the solar system.

This is some kind of meditation. Minus this meditation, the mind will go helter-skelter, here and there, and like a whirlwind it will go anywhere, moving in any direction. That is called distraction of mind and dissipation, worry, and all that. We forget that we belong to the world. The whole point is that. We discard the world outside: “Let it be. What does it matter to me? I am here to take care of myself. I am going for a walk.” You cannot go for a walk. The whole world walks when you walk. You are inseparable from the forces of the universe.

What more can I tell you? I just mentioned you must sit for meditation, and pray, and don't have attachments. You have to do your duty diligently, effectively, with great passion for it, like a soldier in the army. Very powerfully he will work, but he has no attachment to anything. Work you must, but without attachment. You cannot say, “Why should I work? I don't want anything.” You cannot say like that. You must work, but without attachment. Work is an absolute necessity in the structure of things, but attachment is ruled out completely.

War is taking place. One part of the water dashes against another part. One is submerged, another is coming up, but within the bosom of the ocean. Great drama is taking place. One person is working there, that is the ocean, in multifarious ways, as if a battle is taking place. A huge wave rises and it crushes down the small wave. Now, it is doing an unethical action because the smaller one is hit by the higher one. Morally it is not correct, isn't it? But that is perfectly correct. If a cyclone blows and breaks the trees, you cannot say it has done a criminal action: “Why you destroyed all the trees? Why you blow so hard that the ocean rises up and water comes inside the land and kills people?”

Great tapasya is necessary – steadfastness of mind, total detachment, and to be ready to do service at any time. You must be ready to do service, but without attachment. You are connected to every situation, so you should not say, “This is not my business.” As far as possible, you must serve. If it is beyond your control, then leave it to God. He will take care of it. There is a limit for your capacity. Until the limit is reached, you must work. When it has gone beyond limit, then of course you pray to the Almighty. He will take care of it. Do the best and leave the rest to God. This is karma yoga.