“What spiritual practice shall I do Mother?’ asks a devotee.
“Do what best you can think of, for, is it not He that initi ates all thought?” says Mother.
One would certainly wonder at the immensity of freedom She allows a saadhaka, but one cannot ignore the absence of any directive in it. What is more, She clearly implies that the saadhaka has no will of his own to do what anyone prescribes! What does She say about karmayoga?
We all know that the Gita extols karma throughout its great expanse and ends with the sloka saying that a yogeswara like Krishna, together with a powerful actor like Arjuna would ensure wealth, success and all (18. 78). We shall first try to recapitulate the main precept about karma in the Cita, and compare it with what is implied in Mother’s words:
No one would (be able to) sit quiet, doing nothing (3, 5). Life itself being impossible for one who is idle, everyone has to do some work. This would naturally entangle him with the results of his actions and he continues acting and reacting, drifting in the flood of tendencies, bouncing from pleasure to pain and pain to pleasure. Fleeing from responsibilities and putting on the saffron robe would not cut off attachment to the results of his actions (3, 4). One who takes to sanyasa to avoid work and worry, would never theless be thinking of the new gains and losses, and would at best be able to deceive only others by his robes, but not himself (3, 6).
So, the desirable attitude of not worrying about the results of one’s own actions, is not achieved by just sitting idle or taking to sanyaa Sa. One should achieve a state of not hankering after success, not being sensitive to gain or loss, not getting excited to initiative, nor discouraged to despondency (2, 45). Doing alone should be your concern, not the magnitude or the nature of the result (2, 47). Treat happiness or hardship, gain or loss, success or defeat alike and act (2. 38), and you will get rid of the bondage of karma (2, 51). That person is a pundit, whose work- commencements are free from personal reasons or gains (4, 19). He, in whom the consideration of the results is completely absent, does not get entangled. whatever he does (4, 20). One who does yajna (for obtaining bliss in after life) does not get entangled, as he is not worried for immediate (or later) results in this life (4. 23). A yajna could be donation of wealth, penance or yoga etc. (4, 28).
One can also foget all consideration of the results of his actions by dedicating them to God. He works with the strong faith that the results of all actions are modelled by God Almighty, and hence there is no use or need of worrying about them: they are just what they could be in the macrocosm worked by Him. This man’s actions do not get him entangled in the web of love and hatred. What is better, he is mindful every moment of the Presence divine, and leaves the results of his actions to God (3, 30). One step higher that this person is the one, whose work-commencements for themselves are free from personal considerations or wishes. He arts for no personal desires but only for setting an example to be followed (Lokasangraha) by others. He does not worry, whether others do it too or not.
Thus, the over-all implications of karmayoga appear to be that karma devoid of personal desires of the doer does not cause entaglement, Nishkaama karma is that which is not your kaama karma. Sacrifices for bliss in afterlife, and work for the good of the world are also nishkaama karma. King Janaka’s life was only full of that. In truth, the Lord of the universe does not vest the respon sibility for work or results thereof with the individual; it is srabhava that makes him assume both (5, 14)!”
That person, who realises this and does karma without any kind of attachment lives in this body-town with its nine gates, absolutely free from worry (5, 13). So, (by implication as well as by precept, Sree Krishna directs Arjuna to) do your duty without any worry about the results.
I am not sure that the Gita would have us stop at that. This stage of acting without interest in the result appears to be only avoiding the negative aspect of work. The yogi is free from the influence of his environment, though he stays within it. He attains the aaroodha sthithi (State) and thereafter he has to discipline his inner being (6, 2). He should drill himself by slow degrees to concentrate always on the Aatman. By this aatma-samyama, he will be able to see himself in all beings and all beings in himself. This is the denoument of karmayoga. Karmayoga thus appears to be made up of two parts: Doing karma without attachment takes one to the yoga-aaroodha sthithi; and thereafter, concentra tion leads him to the Aatman.
Mother stresses not on the gradual initial decoloration of the individual by his personal effort to ‘facilitate later complete dedi cation, but straightaway on the Mega-scheme of God, or Aatman, which leaves no initiative to the individual. The Gita says no doubt, the Lord does not leave kartrutram (doership) nor the results of actions to the individual (5, 14,) but leaving it at that, channe lises the apparent freewill of the individual to cleanse him first and then to direct him towards God. Mother denies any freewill, and would have the individual serve the all pervading, all-powerfull all-responsible Lord, whose will alone guides all. You cannot do anything unless He wills it. What you think you have done, happens only by his sufferance. It is svabhaava which makes you feel that you could do this or that. Yet, whose svabhaava is it? It is again His, not yours. The ramification of His initiative, His forms, His qualities His all, we see as the universe. So, feeling (as you must) that you are doing this or that, do the best you can for him and serve Him. When the moment arrives or what is the same, when He wills it, you are undeceived completely and taken into Him’, says Mother. She does not enjoin upon us to do the so called ‘dharma’ assigned to us by our birth or someone’s precept, but asks us to do as His work, or for His service. The apparent initiative of the individual is not directed, as by the Gita, to ab stract impersonal action, but to concrete dedication to the same goal to which the karmayoga of the Gita would have us turn ulti mately.
In Mother’s language, karma is the action which we see and the kurta or the doer (akarma’ says Mother), is the Lord, the inte gral initiative. There is, in actuality, nothing like the nishkaama karma of the individual (e f. 6, 3), as all doings are His. This pointer that all actions are His and all results are shaped by Him alone, eliminates or let us say, by passes the (bifurcation of the) journey of the karmayogi (into the two successive stages of reaching first the aaroodha sthithi, and then concentrating on the universal soul) and directs him straightaway to Him. The karmayogi has to start learning not to worry about the results of his actions, but yet keep on working with the belief that the kaarya aarambhas (the commencements) are his (karmani eva adhikarah the) the and there after sublimate his beginnings (or starts) into a yajna, lokasangraha, or impersonal action. ‘When the starts and the results cease to entangle him, he will have to retire to selitude and concentrate on God or the universal soul. Mother’s child, on the other hand, has to do all work as HERS or as for Her. Karmayogap oints at the wretc hedness of entanglement to draw the individual away from svabhaava (or Kapila’s ‘Prakriti’) and direct him towards ‘Purusha’. Mother does not point at this ‘Magdalene’ to be first blasted (or pelted with stones), but at the Father’, who is All-Powerful, All pervading, All-responsible, so that the individual may feel pigmied and submit quietly to His will. In Mother’s language, there is no preliminary exercise to attain chitta-suddhi; there is no later turning round the corner into solitude and thereafter towards Him. The great target for all (life’s) actions is the TRIVIKRAMA, the ALL. The way is to do everything as HE would have us do. While the karmayoga seeks first to purify and then direct, Mother sublimates the individual directly into ‘Vapour’, without prescribing the ‘Liquid’ state.
Just one example in conclusion, to show that this interpretation of what Mother says is not a magnification but only a dimie nution made to afford comparison with the Gita.
‘What shall I do to keep up this bhakti’ Mother? Asked yellamanda,
‘You don’t do anything child. That force will do everything’ said Mother.