More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
maya,
nishkama karma,
Action without selfish motive purifies the mind:
“You have the right to action, but not to the fruits of action”:
“Renounce and enjoy.”
The whole point of the path of love is to transform motivation from “I, I, I” to “thou, thou, thou” – that is, to surrender selfish attachments by dissolving them in the desire to give.
Our lives are an eloquent expression of our belief: what we deem worth having, doing, attaining, being. What we strive for shows what we value; we back our shraddha with our time, our energy, our very lives.
The whole purpose of every experience, every activity, every faculty, is to turn the human being inward and lead each of us back to our divine source.
“Yoga is evenness of mind”: detachment from the dualities of pain and pleasure, success and failure. Therefore “yoga is skill in action,” because this kind of detachment is required if one is to act in freedom, rather than merely react to events compelled by conditioning.
unshakable equanimity, profound peace of mind – he will be more effective in the realm of action.
Even a little effort toward spiritual awareness will protect you from the greatest fear.
Those who follow this path, resolving deep within themselves to seek me alone, attain singleness of purpose.
You have the right to work, but never to the fruit of work. You should never engage in action for the sake of reward, nor should you long for inaction. 48 Perform work in this world, Arjuna, as a man established within himself – without selfish attachments, and alike in success and defeat. For yoga is perfect evenness of mind.
Seek refuge in the attitude of detachment
you will amass the wealth of spiritual awareness.
When consciousness is unified,
all vain anxiety is left behind.
yoga is skill in action.
overcome the confusion of duality, you will attain the state of holy indifference to things you hear and things you have heard.
They live in wisdom who see themselves in all and all in them, who have renounced every selfish desire and sense craving tormenting the heart.
Neither agitated by grief nor hankering after pleasure, they live free from lust and fear and anger. Established in meditation, they are truly wise. 57 Fettered no more by selfish attachments, they are neither elated by good fortune nor depressed by bad.
Use all your power to free the senses from attachment and aversion alike, and live in the full wisdom of the Self.
They are forever free who renounce all selfish desires and break away from the ego-cage of “I,” “me,” and “mine” to be united with the Lord.
Karma Yoga,
Way of Action,”
selfless action, or karma yoga.
Karma literally means deed or action;
Actions determine destiny:
perform those duties without selfish attachment to their “fruit,” or outcome.
selfless spirit,
without ego-involvement and without getting entangled in whether things work out the way we want;
jnana yoga, the path of wisdom
three
basic qualities or gunas: sattva– goodness, light, purity; rajas– passion, activity, energy; and tamas– darkness, ignorance, inertia.
pure heart: jnana yoga, the contemplative path of spiritual wisdom, and karma yoga, the active path of selfless service.
Perform all work carefully, guided by compassion.
selfish desire and anger, arising from the guna of rajas;
wisdom is the goal of selfless action: knowing is the fruit of doing.
true knowledge is the greatest purifier of the soul.
They live in freedom who have gone beyond the dualities of life. Competing with no one, they are alike in success and failure and content with whatever comes to them. 23 They are free, without selfish attachments; their minds are fixed in knowledge. They perform all work in the spirit of service, and their karma is dissolved.
goal of all work is spiritual wisdom.
Those who take wisdom as their highest goal, whose faith is deep and whose senses are trained, attain wisdom quickly and enter into perfect peace.
Closing their eyes, steadying their breathing, and focusing their attention on the center of spiritual consciousness, 28 the wise master their senses, mind, and intellect through meditation. Self-realization is their only goal. Freed from selfish desire, fear, and anger, they live in freedom always. 29 Knowing me as the friend of all creatures, the Lord of the universe, the end of all offerings and all spiritual disciplines, they attain eternal peace.
“integration of the spirit.”
wholeness or the process of becoming whole at the deepest spiritual level.
