These days everyone is complaining of stress especially the stress experienced due to pressure at work place. The demanding nature of our work takes an excruciating toll on our health and mental well being. Often, seeking a remedy people attend stress management workshops and endeavor to manage stress and lead more peaceful lives.
One may scrape the surface of the problem and find some quick fix solutions but the purpose should be to understand the root cause of the problem and thereafter eliminate it forever.
Swami Mukundananda says we experience stress because we want certain outcomes, situations and results. However, the soul is not independent, and it is not within its ability to fulfill all of its desires. By nature, the soul is a servant of God. Now, what is the duty of the servant? It is to fulfill the wishes of his or her master.
If we surrender to God and think that whatever he does is for our welfare, this attitude of surrender will help us get rid of stress. A surrendered soul says: “I am happy in your happiness. Whatever situation you put me in, I will blissfully accept it.”
Thus, stress is a symptom of lack of our surrender to the will of God. When we experience stress, the best medicine to cure it is to increase our level of surrender. A spiritual doctor will prescribe you the medicine of submitting to God for getting rid of stress, whereas a material doctor will give you all kinds of medicinal drugs. However such drugs will not help eradicate the root cause of stress. By increasing the level of surrender, the source of stress will itself be eradicated. Shree Krishna states in the famous verse:
Karmanye vadhikaraste ma phaleshu (Bhagavad Geeta)
“Work with full dedication. Do not be careless while performing your tasks. But do not get attached to the fruits of those works.” Shree Krishna again says:
Yoginah karma kurvanti… (Bhagavad Geeta)
“A yogi is one who can work without any attachment to the results.” If we follow this formula, stress will be abolished from its roots.
Following is a set of questions most spiritual aspirants ask about performing their duties and spiritual practice in everyday life.
Question: How does one do sadhana amid a pressurizing work environment? Due to demands of competitive work environment one finds very little time for sadhana or cannot get work out of one’s mind, how can one still practice devotion?
Swami Mukundananda: There are two ways of remembering God and Guru. The first way is to sit down and meditate on them. The second way is to work in the consciousness “I am doing this work for their pleasure.” The second way may be more difficult, but it takes us to a higher level of divine love. This is because it develops the spirit of seva, or service.
Even though your present job may be burdensome, you can easily do the second kind of remembrance. Whatever you earn from your job, use a portion of it to serve the mission of your Spiritual Master. In this way, by offering the fruits of your work to God, you will develop the consciousness that you are working for his pleasure. You will then not look at your work as separate from your devotion, but as an integral part of it.
This is the karm yog of the Bhagavad Geeta:
yatkaroshi yadashnasi yajjuhoshi dadasi yat
“Arjun! Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever austerities you perform, and whatever you give away, do it as an offering to Me.”
Along with working in this spirit, whenever you find the time, you should also practice the first kind of remembrance. For some time in the day, do no other work; simply sit and think of God and Guru. This will help you eliminate worldly consciousness from your mind and strengthen your devotional sentiment. Also, whenever your yearly schedule permits, do go and spend some days with your Gurudev as well.
While doing karm yog, you can remember God and Guru in various ways. Practice to feel their presence with you. Think that they are watching you; make them your witness in every activity that you perform. This will help keep your mind in the divine realm, while you do your worldly duties with the body.
Is it necessary to perform Karm Yog to develop detachment from the world? Would simply abandoning all work and responsibilities and spending one’s time in devotion not lead to detachment more quickly?
SM: You may be thinking that if you did not have to work at all, then you could have spent all your time in devotion. However, there are two kinds of vairagya, or detachment. The first kind is when you find the world as painful and burdensome, and want to run away from it.
Shree Krishna calls this rajasic detachment (detachment in the mode of passion):
dukhmityeva yatkarma kayklesha (Bhagavad Geeta)
“Giving up one’s work, thinking it to be burdensome and painful, is to be considered rajasic detachment, and it does not lead to Divine fruits.”
The second kind of detachment is where you continue working, while giving up attachment to the results. In other words, you practice equanimity in pain and pleasure, success and failure, hardship and luxury, favorable and unfavorable situations. Shree Krishna calls this sattvic detachment (detachment in the mode of goodness):
karyamityeva yatkarma niyatam (Bhagavad Geeta)
“Performing one’s work, simply because it is to be performed, while giving up attachment to the fruits, is sattvic detachment.”
Hence, the proper path for spiritual progress is to practice devotion along with our prescribed work, even though it may be painful and burdensome. When our detachment develops to such an extent that we no longer find our work burdensome, no matter how difficult it may be, only then should we consider giving up work, and performing devotion full time. However, this step of karm sanyas is to be taken only under the guidance of the Guru, when we are qualified for it. For the vast majority of the people, karm yog is more suitable, where they continue doing their work, but make their consciousness Divine.
In karm yog it is said, “Do your karma, but do not desire”. But how is it possible to perform one’s actions without desire? For example: if any student desires to become a doctor, he can start focusing on medical studies. If he doesn’t desire, it will be difficult for him to achieve it. Then how can we work without desire?
SM: The answer to this question is that desire is very basic to the nature of the soul, just as heat and light are basic to the nature of fire. A state of desirelessness is as impossible for the soul, as is the state without heat and light for the fire. Now, karm yogis stop desiring for their own happiness, but that does not mean that they become desireless. They desire to love God, to please him, and to attain him. This spiritual desire to serve Him is the motivation behind all their works.
Since their work is for the pleasure of God, they are not attached to the fruit of their work. If after putting in their best efforts, they do not get their endeavored fruit, they remain undisturbed, for they accept it as the will of God. On the other hand, if their work was motivated by personal interests, if they did not get the desired result, they will get disturbed. So the acid test whether our desire is for the service of God or for self-gratification is our response to lack of success. If we are disturbed, it will mean that there was self-seeking in it; if we calmly accept it and continue working with enthusiasm, it is an indication that we wanted the fruits for the pleasure of God.
To dedicate one’s life in the service of God and Guru should we simply renounce profession and family? Or can we perform service even in our family life?
SM: Renouncing your profession and family to do sadhana is the path of Karm Sanyas. Now, the life of a renunciate is not a cakewalk as it may seem from far. Many difficulties, obstacles and issues need to be resolved there, just as in any worldly vocation. The Guru will, depending upon our sanskars, first advise you to do devotion without changing your station in life. Practice living in the world without letting the world live in you. When you have reached the point where you are doing the maximum devotion and seva possible, but you yearn to do even more, then the Guru may instruct you to leave the world.
Many karma yogis in ancient history were great kings, such as, Ambarish, Dhruv, Prahalad, Prithu, Yudhishthir, etc. They were great kings, discharging their required duties and yet maintaining remembrance of God. The Bhagavad Geeta too is all about karm yog. Arjun wanted to leave his duties, thinking them to be burdensome, but Shree Krishna repeatedly instructed him:
sarveshu kaleshu mamanusmara (Bhagavad Geeta)
“Always think of me, and also do your duty.” Swami Vivekananda very aptly summarized this as follows: “Devotion can be practiced even in the battlefield; the Bhagavad Geeta was preached there.”
It is only at the end that Shree Krishna said:
sarva dharman parityajya (Bhagavad Geeta)
“Give up all duties, and surrender to me alone.” This instruction of karm sanyas has been given at the end. Thus, karm sanyas is also a bonafide path, but only for those rare few souls who have acquired the eligibility for it.
Swami Mukundananda is a world renowned spiritual teacher from India, and is the senior disciple of Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj and founder of JK Yog. He has received his degrees in engineering from world renowned institutes in India, IIT and IIM. He has inspired people all over the world on the path of spirituality, holistic health, yoga, meditation, service to society and God realization. This year, Swamiji will be conducting weeklong programs in 30+ cities of USA from April onwards. For more information, please visit: http://www.jkyog.org/
Swami Mukundananda
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