The efficiency of the Karma Yoga system
Irrespective of the way we represent our spiritual goal, this can be attained through one of the forms of Yoga. Enlightenment (mokña), is defined in Hinduism as the communion with the Divine in all forms, the attainment of the divine plane of consciousness, the anchoring of consciousness in the Ultimate Truth, the attainment of a bigger freedom in life. Mokña can be obtained through all forms of Yoga, but it is more easily and readily reached through Karma Yoga. Regarding this here follows quotes from well-known sages. Swami Sivananda: “Many people believe that Karma Yoga is an inferior type of Yoga, but this is a great error.”
Rabindranath Tagore: “Many of us wrongly think that action is opposing freedom.” “We will never obtain a significant result by trying to reach the Infinite outside of the domain of action.” “If we declare that we would like to realise Brahman (The Supreme Divine) during introspection only and that we leave Him out during our exterior actions, considering that we want to benefit from his presence only through the love that we feel in our hearts during prayer, without any other adoration for Him through other exterior modalities, or if we consider that only the contrary is true, then we are obstructing our work on the long way towards the Truth and we set ourselves for a pitiful failure” (Sadhana).
Sri Ramakrishna: “When performed without attachment the action becomes an easy way to obtain the real goal in life, which is communion with God.”
Swami Vivekananda: “Through detached activity the human being can easily get where Buddha got only through meditation and Jesus through love and prayers” (Practical Yoga). Even if this formulation may be shocking for some fundamentalist Christians, it shows clearly that for Swami Vivekananda, Karma Yoga is as efficient as Raja Yoga or Bhakti Yoga practised at their highest level.
Ma Ananda Moyi: “He who practices Karma Yoga will quickly realise Brahman (The Supreme) as Absolute Consciousness and will receive the grace of the Divine Mother” (Teachings of Ma Ananda Moyi).
For the careful student of the Hindu spirituality it is obvious that these are objective goals to be reached both in Jïana and Bhakti Yoga.
Swami Ramadas, who reached enlightenment through Bhakti Yoga, says: “Not by ceasing to act, but by acting completely detached can we effortlessly obtain the supreme state of beatitude and enlightenment” (Letters).
Swami Brahmananda, the spiritual son of Sri Ramakrishna: “We can obtain the Supreme Knowledge even if we only persistently partake in various activities consecrated to the Divine” (Monastic disciplines).
Ramana Maharishi, the intransigent Jïanayogi: “Action free of desire, with a total detachment from its fruits, is superior to the knowledge combined with practice” “The state in which the performance of the action is free of desire is the way which easily leads towards enlightenment.” (Teachings of Ramana Maharishi).
As a conclusion here we can say that: if performed in the spirit of Karma Yoga any action, no matter how unimportant, can help us to advance towards Enlightenment.
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