You Are Overthinking Karma Yoga As Explained in Bhagavad Gita
(PS: please read only if you are aware of Bhagavad Gita , or want to read Bhagavad Gita to figure out what is Karma Yoga)
Dear Pragmatic Seeker,
The reason you are overthinking Karma Yoga when reading Bhagavad Gita is because you are not paying attention to the context. Let me explain.
For a long time I was doing the same. I would get confused when I read Chapters 3 and 4 of Bhagavad Gita. Same questions would pop up in my mind every time —
- Is a fully aware thief carrying out theft doing Karma Yoga?
- Is a terrorist dedicated to his vision of killing people a Karma Yogi?
- Is taking bath Karma Yoga?
- Suppose I am cooking food, shouldn’t I be concerned about results of my action?
Every time I read these chapters, same questions would pop. Clearly I was not making any progress.
I tried reading explanations from accomplished spiritual authors, still no progress. Maybe they were explaining correctly but I was not getting it.
I heard talks of great saints explaining Karma Yoga, still no progress. And I realized other seekers were asking similar questions again and again. I felt, like the whole humanity was stuck on these questions on Karma Yoga.
Just like any innocent seeker, I would also think why was Sri Krishna pushing Arjuna to fight a violent war?
And then this verse “A wise one sees action in inaction and inaction in action”, made my doubts worse.
I gave up. I hated Karma Yoga.
So I stopped reading Bhagavad Gita. It was a fruitless endeavor for me without any progress. Why bother with fruits of my actions? Right? You get the pun.
Then, one fine day, out of curiosity, I did something different. And, accidently I realized the mistake I was making.
I was reading Bhagavad Gita the wrong way. This is what I was doing. Every time I read Bhagavad Gita, I was trying to contemplate deeply about each and every verse without paying attention to the context of the verses.
This is what you are told to do, right? Read the book slowly; that it is a Holy Book or a book with very deep knowledge; and you wouldn’t get it unless you contemplate on each verse for ages.
That’s right, Bhagavad Gita is deep. But it is not complex. You should contemplate deeply only when you have grasped the big picture and the context.
I was making the same mistake that I everybody makes, I was skipping the context.
So what different did I do this time?
Instead of going slow and contemplating each and every verse, I read Bhagavad Gita fast, in a flow. I finished one or two chapters in a single sitting. I went with the simple meaning of the verses paying attention to how the question and answers were flowing. If I did not get the meaning of any verse, I did not bother much. I kept my focus on the overall story.
And because of this, in the end, I grasped the context.
999,999 out of a Million make this mistake all the time. You start contemplating on each verse too hard, without getting the overall context, the overall story, the overall flow.
Even after reading Bhagavad Gita 20 times if your questions are the same, then it is because you are reading it wrong. The book is not complex. You should have made progress in your thought process if you are reading it the 20th time.
The simple reason it is not happening is because you are overthinking. You are getting too contemplative too soon.
Another thing I was doing wrong is I was not pay much attention to Arjuna’s questions. And sometimes the other way round — if I was paying attention, I was overthinking. I was becoming too contemplative about questions too.
For Krishna’s sakes, Arjuna is just a normal guy asking very normal questions to his coach because he is emotionally confused. That’s it. And the answers are perfectly in line with his questions.
Once you get this context, you don’t need to philosophize and go into vague contemplative & imaginative trips.
Just see the answers from Arjuna’s point of view.
I am not saying don’t do deep contemplation on verses to get hang of deeper meanings. What I am saying is get the hang of emotions that Arjuna is going through. What is he trying to ask? Then you will get the context of Krishna’s answers.
If you don’t pay attention to the context, you are going to fantasize wrong ideas. Those wrong ideas will never lead you to right understanding.
So now when I got the context of Chapter 3 and Chapter 4, I was able to reason about Karma Yoga correctly.
I was amazed how simple it turned out to be. It was always there in front of me. I just did not pay enough attention. Or, I paid too much attention.
Almost every author who has given a commentary on Bhagavad Gita misses on the context. They cook up their own deeper context from their experience. Call it the “curse of knowledge”. From their space of knowledge they don’t get it that the poor reader is first looking for basic context to get hang of what is going on.
The other problem, is most of the readers pick up Bhagavad Gita when things go wrong in life and they want quick answers. Again you overthink. Or, the guy consoling you with teachings of Bhagavad Gita overthinks.
So what is the basic context of Chapter 3 & 4 that explains Karma Yoga?
(A quick note: strictly speaking people say Chapter 3 is on Karma Yoga and Chapter 4 is Gnana Yoga. But Chapter 4 does have explanations of Karma Yoga toward end. So I am taking both chapters into consideration. And because Chapter 4 comes in continuation to the explanations of Chapter 3, it is relevant to the discussion of Karma Yoga.)
Here it is,
Arjuna is asking Sri Krishna, “you as protector of knowledge like people who are engaged in knowledge driven endeavors. So why are you asking me to engage in a war? War is not a knowledge driven endeavor at all.”
The reason Arjuna is asking this question is because in the beginning of Bhagavad Gita he says he will incur sin by engaging in this war. So, then what is the use of the war? He is going to live a sinful life even if he wins the war. He will not be happy. He will regret killing is cousins, teachers and loved ones. Half of his friends will die. So, he is asking Krishna why is He dragging him into something which will eventually lead to unhappiness.
So, Karma Yoga has to be understood in this context. Do actions lead to unhappiness? Because it is common sense that if you do bad, bad follows. It leads to sorrowful experiences in life. So how does one avoid incurring bad results from ones actions?
And please throw out the living-happily-ever-after stories of Hollywood movies from your head. Your actions have consequences. So there is no happily living after happening in real life.
Though Arjuna is in a emotionally weak state, he really wants to know whether fighting a war is doing the right thing? Will it lead to any happiness?
He thinks it will not.
Big questions is — What actions lead to happiness?
This is relevant today. People in jobs, in business, in politics, in any field work, feel unhappy all the time with their endeavors. They feel like running away from what they started.
People are not happy at work. But they desperately want to do something that lead to happiness. Sound familiar in context of the great resignation.
Entrepreneurship is romantic and fashionable, but does it lead to happiness? Question mark.
A successful corporate life has its perks. Does it make you happy? Question mark.
Please understand, this is not a moralistic question? It is a question towards the very nature of work?
How can one generate happiness through work?
This is the context.
Now go ahead read Chapters 3 and 4 of Bhagavad Gita, you will start getting the answers.
