Prayer Book: Karma-Yoga

Karmayoga is the attaining through unselfish work of that freedom which is the goal of all human nature. Every selfish action, therefore, retards our reaching the goal, and every unselfish action takes us towards the goal; that is why the only definition that can be given of morality is this: That which is selfish is immoral, and that which is unselfish is moral. I.110

All expansion is life, all contraction is death. All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore love for love's sake, because it is the only law of life, just as you breathe to live.

Unselfishness is more paying, only people have not the patience to practice it. It is more paying from the point of view of health also. Love, truth, and unselfishness are note merely moral figures of speech, but they form our highest ideal, because in them lies such a manifestation of power.

There is one thing which is the world and another which is God; and this distinction is very true. What they mean by world is selfishness. Unselfishness is God. One may live on a throne, in a golden palace, and be perfectly unselfish; and then he is God. Another may live in a hut and wear rags, and have nothing in the world; yet, if he is selfish, he is intensely merged in the world.

Everything that makes for unity is moral, everything that makes for diversity is immoral. Know the one without a second, that is perfection. The one who manifests in all is the basis of the universe; and all religion, all knowledge, must come to this point.

Fire, by itself, is neither good nor evil. When it keeps us warm we say, "How beautiful is fire!" When it burns our fingers, we blame it. Still, in itself it is neither good nor bad. According as we use it, it produces in us the feeling of good or bad; so also is this world. It is perfect. By perfection is meant that it is perfectly fitted to meet its ends.

Are you unselfish? That is the question. If you are, you will be perfect without reading a single religious book, without going into a single church or temple.

It is a privilege to help others. Do not stand on a high pedestal and take five cents in your hand and say, "Here, my poor man," but be grateful that the poor man is there, so that by making a gift to him you are able to help yourself. It is not the receiver that is blessed, but it is the giver.

You should work like a master and not as a slave; work incessantly, but not do slave's work. Pay as much attention to means as to the end.

First it is feeling, the it becomes willing, and out of that willing comes the tremendous force for work that will go through every vein and nerve and muscle, until the whole mass of your body is changed into an instrument of the unselfish Yoga of work, and the desired result of perfect self - abnegation and utter unselfishness is duly attained.

Be pure and help anyone who comes to you, as much as lies in your power. And this is good Karma. by the power of this, the heart becomes pure (Chitta-shudhi), and then Shiva who is residing in every one will become manifest.

All the great systems of ethics preach absolute unselfishness as the goal. Supposing this absolute unselfishness can be reached by a man, what becomes of him? He is no more the little Mr. So - and - so; he has acquired infinite expansion. The little personality which he had before is now lost to him for ever he has become infinite, and the attainment of this infinite expansion is indeed the goal of all religions and of all moral and philosophical teachings.

It is the level-headed man, the calm man, of good judgement and cool nerves, of great sympathy and love, who does good work and so does good to himself.

Each work has to pass through these stages -- ridicule, opposition, and then acceptance. Each man who thinks ahead of his time is sure to be misunderstood. So opposition and persecution are welcome, only I have to be steady and pure and must have immense faith in God, and all these will vanish.

The difference between God and the devil is in nothing except in unselfishness and selfishness. The devil knows as much as God, is as powerful as God; only he has no holiness -- that makes him a devil. Apply the same idea to the modern world: excess of knowledge and power without holiness, makes human beings devils.

Whatever you do, think well on it. All your actions will be magnified, transformed, deified, by the very power of the thought.

The more we grow in love and virtue and holiness, the more we see love and virtue and holiness outside. All condemnation of others really condemns ourselves. Adjust the microcosm and the macrocosm will adjust itself for you.

Competition rouses envy and it kill the kindliness of the heart. To the grumble all duties are distasteful; nothing will every satisfy him, and his whole life is doomed to prove a failure.

Misery comes through attachment, not through work. As soon as we identify ourselves with the work we do, we feel miserable; but if we do not identify ourselves with it, we do not feel that misery.

Reserve unto yourself the power of detaching yourself from everything, however beloved, however much the soul might yearn for it; however great the pangs of misery you feel if you were going to leave it; still, reserve the power of leaving it whenever you want.

As nothing; want nothing in return. Give what you have to give; it will come back to you, but do not think of that now, it will come back multiplied a thousand fold; but the attention must not be on that. Yet have the power to give: give, and there it ends. Ask, therefore, nothing in return; but the more you give, the more will come to you. The quicker you can empty the air out of this room, the quicker it will be filled by the external air.

Everybody can show what evil is, but he is the friend of mankind who finds a way out of the difficulty. Where is the man who will lend us a hand to drag us out? Where is the man who really loves us? Where is the man who has sympathy for us? That man is wanted.

If in this hell of a world, one can bring a little joy and peace even for a day into the heart of a single person, that much alone is true; this I have learnt after suffering all my life; all else is mere moonshine.

The majority of us cannot see beyond a few years, just as some animals cannot see beyond a few steps. Just a little narrow circle -- that is our world. We have not the patience to look beyond, and this become immoral and wicked. This is our weakness, our powerlessness.

First of all comes the gift of food; next is the gift of learning, and the highest of all is the gift of knowledge.