How to Practice Karma Yoga
by Lauren Lalita
As we have been exploring in our Four Paths of Yoga series, the ancient yogis of the Indian subcontinent taught that there were four paths, or margas, of yoga towards union.
Learn more about yoga as a whole and all four paths of yoga.
One of these four paths has risen to the forefront of our collective consciousness - Karma Yoga, or the yoga of action and selfless service. We are bearing witness to another moment of rising activism for racial justice and lokasamgraha, the peace and harmony of the world.
What is the Yoga of Action?
The word karma comes from the Sanskrit root for the word action. In karma yoga, we act to serve our fellow humans and the planet. We treat all beings as not separate from ourselves. The more we work in service of union with all creation, the more in union with that creation we become. Our activism becomes a part of our spiritual practice.
Being spiritual does not mean only focusing on positive energy and the light. Being spiritual does not mean ignoring human struggle and suffering in order to avoid “negative energy.” Only when we acknowledge the dark can we work to become the light.
Saints and sages have walked a spiritual path of action, facing human suffering and working tirelessly to alleviate it. Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, the Mahatma Gandhi, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., and many of the holiest among us have been Karma Yogis. They illuminate the path of action in the world as a path of spiritual liberation.
A Path of Liberation
Karma yoga recognizes the oneness of humanity and the divinity inherent in creation. We don’t practice karma yoga because we feel sorry for people who are less fortunate. We also don’t practice karma yoga because of a promise of reward in the next life or praise in this one. Through repeated action in service, we embody the spiritual realization that no one can be truly free while another is bound.
Throughout the ages, yogis have taught us that yoga means to join together, or to unite. The process of Karma Yoga starts in separation and moves into union or Oneness.
1. We start with selfless service or seva. When we are performing selfless service, there are three separate parts: the actor, the action, the recipient. I, do this action, for you. Though I’m serving you, I am still separate from you.
2. When the fluctuations of the mind disappear, we completely de-center on ourselves and become absorbed into the action. That is when we have Karma Yoga, and there are just two parts: the action and the recipient. My mind is so serenely focused on acting in service of you, that there is no longer an I, there is only: action, for you.
3. Then, as we fully absorb our awareness into the service of others, we enter into union. The actor, the action, and the recipient, all merge into an experience of universal Oneness or samadhi.
Karma Yoga as a path to spiritual awakening moves from three, into two, then there is only one - the All. That’s the theory anyway. How on earth do we begin to put that into practice?
8 Ways to be a Karma Yogi
1. GO DEEP RATHER THAN WIDE
Choose the cause to which you will dedicate your actions. You can still vote for, speak out about, amplify, sign petitions for, and donate to many causes, but when it comes to action and organization, invest your time deeply rather than widely.
Pick one cause (perhaps two: one local and one international) where you will go deep and make an impact. Build connections in that community. Become a lifelong learner in your field of action. Build alliances and develop a nuanced and nimble understanding of how best to serve those impacted.
We know that choosing one meditation practice and sticking with it will yield more results than trying a new style of meditation every month. Choose one field of activism. Swami Satchidananda advises seekers to dig one deep well that will reach cool water rather than many shallow holes in the dirt.
2. ACT TOGETHER
Sit down with your friends or family and choose a locus of action that is meaningful to all of you. Or be deliberate about forging new relationships within your selected cause. In all spiritual pursuits, the community, or sangha helps a lot. We can support each other when things get hard, when our inspiration wanes, and when we become discouraged.
3. FOLLOW OTHERS’ LEAD
If you’re new to your cause, someone is most likely already doing that work, so throw your time, strength, and action behind them. Your impact will be greater if you put yourself in service to an existing organizational structure rather than starting from scratch. Listen, financially contribute to, and observe the experts in your field of action, without creating extra work for those people to teach you. Educate yourself and follow the guidance of reputable leaders. To avoid developing a savior complex that only serves to strengthen our ego, take your direction from those to whom you are in service.
As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The wide gulf between our good intentions and the actual impact of our actions is why it is vital to take direction from existing organizations run by the actual people you are trying to serve, rather than going it alone.
4. LEAN INTO YOUR STRENGTHS
Everyone has a different self-nature, or sva-bhava. Some karma yogis have been out on the street protesting since the sixties. Some people are excellent at organizing letter-writing campaigns or anti-racist book clubs. Some are taking deep dives into local politics. Some karma yogis are working quietly in food banks. If you are good at sales, consider becoming a fundraiser. Creators are knitting protest hats, painting protest art, or singing activist anthems.
Find a path of action that aligns with your own self-nature. Do what you do best, just do it for others in service of their own goals.
5. FOCUS ON OTHERS, AGAIN, AGAIN, AND AGAIN
For activism to work as a spiritual practice, we must be mindful of the tricks of the ego. The natural human ego tries to make our own experience the center of the universe. On this path, the ego and the distractions of the mind will say:
“Hey! I did a good thing, I want to tell the world!”
“Well, I meant it well, but they took it the wrong way.”
Step back and recognize that these very human responses are all about you. Refocus your actions in the service of others’ goals. De-center yourself. Rinse and repeat. This is not about you.
It is not selfless service if you require praise or recognition. It is not selfless service if you get defensive about the results. If your activism is about looking woke on social media or assuaging your guilt of privilege, it is not a spiritual practice. Just as in meditation, we must relentlessly refocus our minds past every tantalizing ego-driven thought. The yoga of action requires us to continually train our minds on the service of others.
Adopt a single-pointed focus on acting for another’s benefit, according to their own goals. It’s the nature of the mind to have I-thoughts, yet we cannot reach union with all creation until we transcend the illusion of the I-ness.
6. BE MINDFUL OF YOUR FEELINGS
The work of the Karma Yogi necessitates coming face to face with injustice and suffering. It is natural to have deep and profound feelings when bearing witness to this: despair, rage, shock, guilt, grief. Do not look away. Experiencing this is a healthy part of being human. Do not ignore, suppress, feel guilty for, or bypass those feelings. Sit with them, experience them, dig deeply into the fertile ground of human experience.
However, when you need to vent, cry, or process your healthy emotions with others, do so with people who are more removed from the crisis or injustice you are working to repair.
No one expects you to be unaffected while looking suffering in the face. Just process your emotions away from the center of the crisis circle, so as not to further burden those already suffering more than you with the emotional labor of caring for you. Then refocus on the work for others, again, and again, and again.
7. STAY THE COURSE
Things are often easy at the beginning when we don’t know how hard it will get deeper in. When things get uncomfortable is exactly when real progress is made. When we fail or get called out, we must keep going. Do not give up digging your deep well because you have encountered rocks.
We do not expect to reach enlightenment after a couple of months of meditation. So too, the work of the spiritual activist is the hard, uncomfortable work of lifetimes. Settle in for the long-haul.
8. FINALLY, LET GO
The karma yogi must relinquish any attachment to the results of her labor. The ego loves success, whereas the yogi acts for action’s own sake.
We must offer our actions in the service of others’s goals freely without being attached to any specific results or outcomes. The karma yogi acts for the good of all without becoming discouraged if she does not achieve success. It is the action that makes it yoga, not the result of the action. Yes, we work towards alleviating a pocket of suffering, but the work continues, whether we reach that goal or not. Paradoxically, only by relinquishing our need to reach any goal can we ever get there.
Detaching from the results allows us to keep acting for others no matter what, ever onward, ever deeper, in service of the All.
We are all Karma Yogis
We are all Karma Yogis. Every choice we make is an action. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells us that action is inevitable. Even choosing inaction is an action. Choosing to do nothing or stay silent is still an action. How can we unite in oneness with all creation if we are silently permitting that creation to suffer? When we selflessly act for others as ourselves, we wear away the illusion that we are separate from anyone else.
Whether our actions are in service of the Earth, animals, or humans, we offer the sweat of our brow to serve the well-being of creation. We experience the divine as manifest in each other, in those who are suffering, in all life. Karma yogis work for the good of the world while relentlessly focusing beyond the borders of the ego-bounded self. Karma yogis serve the divinity of all creation, and in so doing, enter into union with all that is.
Like you, I am simply a seeker on the path, passing along the teachings that I am working to implement in my own life. My deepest bow to the teachers and yogis throughout the ages who have passed on their knowledge for the benefit of us all, in service of the All.
