Karma yoga is defined as “the path of selfless, God-dedicated action” (45) in the Bhagavad Gita. — gnat
- Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3; 4-5.Man does not attain liberation from the chains of destiny by refusing action. By renunciation alone, one does not ascend to Perfection.
No one can stay truly action-less even for a moment, for the properties of prakriti (matter) compel all to act!
- Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3; 8-9.Therefore, perform righteous actions, for action is better than inaction. Being idle, one cannot support even one’s own body!
Secular people are enslaved by action if it is not performed as sacrifice. Perform your action as offering to God, staying free from the attachment to the earthly, O Kaunteya! (I.e., deeds have to be performed not for the sake of oneself but for the sake of God (absolute unity and harmony of everything) — as acts of participation in His Evolution.)
- Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3; 11-14.Satisfy the Divine with your sacrificial deeds — and It will satisfy you! By acting for Its sake, you will achieve the highest good.
For the Divine satisfied with your sacrificial deeds will grant you whatever you need in life. The one who receives gifts and gives no gifts in return, is verily a thief!
The righteous who live on the remains of their sacrificial gifts to God are liberated from sins. But those who are anxious only about their own food — they feed on sin!
Thanks to the food, the bodies of creatures grow. The food arises from rain. The rain arises from Sacrifice. (I.e., as a result of right behavior of people.) Sacrifice is performance of right action.
As you can see God-dedicated action means acting for the sake of the collective whole. — BrianW
When religion is discussed on the forum, it’s generally in reference to Christianity — gnat
...1. If selfishness exists, a person cannot reach enlightenment. — gnat
This seems problematic to me. For a start, are "selflessness" and "selfishness" synonymous here, for youto reach enlightenment, a soul must act selflessly — gnat
When I read "enlightenment" - I didn't think yoga. I thought political system based on science and rationality. — karl stone
enlightenment would be to accept that science describes reality — karl stone
Really? Then you are not using the term "enlightenment" as it is commonly (exclusively?) used to describe this Eastern religio-philosophical concept, are you? Enlightenment has little or nothing to do with politics, science, rationality, or even reality (in the scientific sense), as I understand it — Pattern-chaser
2. Selfishness is inescapable. — gnat
Aren't you familiar with https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment? — Terrapin Station
Really? Then you are not using the term "enlightenment" as it is commonly (exclusively?) used to describe this Eastern religio-philosophical concept, are you? Enlightenment has little or nothing to do with politics, science, rationality, or even reality (in the scientific sense), as I understand it. — Pattern-chaser
In terms of the kind of Bhagavid Gita sort of enlightenment... — Dan84
When I read "enlightenment" - I didn't think yoga. I thought political system based on science and rationality. — karl stone
When Krishna expounds on yoga in the Bhagavad Gita, the teachings are based on the principles of absolute unity. Yoga means absolute unity in spiritual teachings. Absolute unity means unity with everything or with the whole of reality. The different types of yoga are different paths to attaining such unity. Karma Yoga are teachings on how to attain unity through appropriate activity whether political, scientific, rational, social, etc, etc. Because those teachings are based on principles, they apply to all the various channels of our life-interactions.
The enlightenment taught in the Bhagavad Gita is a comprehensive enlightenment, the only problem for most people is the spiritual language used. However, I think it is possible to translate it into political, scientific, rational, social, etc, fields of association. — BrianW
Selfless action is required to be released from the karma cycle, but the action will never be entirely sacrificial because the motivation behind altruistic action is personal gain. — gnat
A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe", a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish the delusion but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind. 1 — Albert Einstein
What enlightenment did you have in mind? — BrianW
Clearly, you use the term enlightenment to refer to something else entirely, something inconsistent with a scientific rationale that demands empirical proof of reliably reproducible phenomena. — karl stone
Wouldn’t philosophy be dull if it was just science. — Dan84
Not quite so.
Enlightenment, from the Bhagavad Gita, refers to a state of unity, harmony and freedom as a conscious being within an absolute reality. I have utmost confidence that every part of its teachings are consistent with rationale, scientific or otherwise. Also, every principle or law stated in the teachings are observable in their action through phenomena thus making empiricism evident. — BrianW
This is beyond cultural appropriation - it's cultural vandalism to claim Enlightenment can be achieved by sitting cross legged in one's pajamas, eyes closed and believing really, really hard! The Enlightenment is the very antithesis of that kind of nonsense. — karl stone
(Sannyasi refers to the way of life which implies renouncing the earthly and living solely meditatively.)Both sannyasa and Karma Yoga will bring you to the highest good. But, verily, Karma Yoga
is preferable!
(Krishna teaches that we have duties to ourselves and the communities of our fellow men and, therefore, it is against true yoga teachings to abandon such.)The one who actively performs one’s own duty without desiring a profit is a true sannyasi.
Such one is a Yogi, rather than those living without a fire and duties.
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