How to Practice the Karma Path to Inner Peace

Karma means action. Karma Yoga is the path of selfless service, actions offered to God. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna teaches the warrior, Arjuna, that one must perform one's duties without attachment to results. The idea is to lay the fruits of your service at the Lotus Feet of the Lord and trust that God is in control. This way, the devotee becomes liberated from the consequences of karma that bind him to repeated births.

Things You'll Need

• Selfless Intention
• Bhagavad Gita
• Karma Yoga Guru

Instructions

The Karma Path to Inner Peace

1. 

   Perform a job as a form of worship and as a liberating duty. It is always your choice to have an attitude of worship or one that binds you to the results of your actions.

2. 

   Carry pure motives in your heart. Motives affect the outcome of a duty. If you have a mentality that expects no reward for service, you are free. With expectation comes attachment along with the possibility of disappointment and anger.

3. 

   Offer your best effort. Be courageous and thorough. Do not worry about the opinions of others. When you offer your service to God, it is God who will follow through with results and judgment.

4. 

   Surrender the results of all actions. It is God who has made it possible to act. God will tend to the results. Service freely offered to the Lord, will always render good fruits and value to others.

5. 

   Act with humility and receive knowledge of the Self (Atman). In the knowledge that the Self is divine, is freedom and love for others.

6. 

   Offer help when you see the need for it. Serve others and serve God with selfless devotion (Bhakti).

Tips & Warnings

• Read the exchange in the Bhagavad Gita between Krishna (disguised as a charioteer) and Arjuna about Arjuna's duty to fight regardless of the outcome

Resources

• Karma Yoga Sri Swami Sivananda
• Principles of Karma Yoga
• Karma Yoga Meditation
• Karma Yoga Sanatana Society