Before we get into the subject matter, it is necessary to understand and summarize how people have been viewing Karma Yoga traditionally. Karma Yoga traditionally means Yoga through doing Karma. Yoga means connecting with the ultimate and Karma means the deed that binds one. So Karma Yoga actually means Yoga through doing Karma in such a way that it unbinds and ultimately frees one from the cycle of rebirth and leads to Moksha (Nirvana) - the goal of every Hindu irrespective of whether he believes in God or not. So Karma Yoga is science of doing work in such manner that one does not become entangled with it. Question comes to mind - What is Karma? Is all work that one does a Karma? Answer to that question is that only the deed that binds us is Karma. So the deeds such as grocery shopping or lawn mowing are not Karma in Karmic sense because they do not bind us (although I have heard some people even do grocery shopping in their dreams, in which case it may become Karma). Then which deeds are Karma and how do they bind us? The deeds that produce some kind of emotional or psychological response within us, which makes one want (Sukha) or doesn't want (Dukha) that experience to happen again is Karma and this wanting or not wanting of the experience is the binding it creates. Why does it create binding? Because man wants pleasant experiences (Sukha) to repeat and unpleasant experiences (Dukha) to never repeat. The experiences that create psychological response of one type or other create the binding. This cycle of deeds and experiences goes on creating more binding and sets the law of Karma in motion. Events in physical world become psychological experiences, which secrete certain chemicals in brain creating dependence on those chemicals like drugs and want of those psychological experiences and in turn the events in physical world as the binding of Karma tightens. Live through many births like this and one can understand the mighty binding Karma can produce. This binding of Karma can produce chronic as well as acute effects and they show up at the most vulnerable moment of man's life. For Arjun the bindings of Karma showed up on the battle field when he asked Krishna to bring his chariot in between two armies to see who all had gathered to fight. And so the stage was set for the great discourse of Bhagvad Geeta in which Krishna explained Arjun how to act out of the freedom from dilemma caused by the bindings of Karma.
Traditionally Krishna is seen as the incarnation of Lord Vishnu and Arjun as the disciple and Krishna's advice to Arjun as spiritual which will free one from bindings of Karma and hence rebirth. But look at the situation from different perspective. Here is the man Arjun, who is the top archer who has fought many wars, won many contests and unbeatable for his times. But upon facing the onslaught of various emotions simultaneously, forget about shooting arrows accurately, he is not even able to hold his bow steady. Now those who know anything about archery know that one has to have extremely steady hand to shoot the arrows with accuracy. Arjun needed to be made stable physically and mentally if he was to shoot arrows with any accuracy. This was the need of the moment. Krishna like a Zen master realized that and told Arjun exactly what was needed to make him stable enough to fight the war. Unfortunately the advice that should have been taken in the stride of the moment has been hijacked by so called spiritual scholars who had never faced such a potent moment (as standing there in the midst of armies at the brink of war from which one may not come out alive) in their lives and wrote their interpretations and made it all about spirituality which was different from material existence.
Of all the sports and martial arts, archery is a very interesting sport from mental disposition perspective. One has to be absolutely still at the moment of loosing the arrow. Even if the heart beats at that moment, one may miss the shot. Whatever that makes one shaky and unsteady is not good for archer. Too much flow of adrenaline is particularly bad. Anything that stimulates adrenal glands is bad for an archer - emotions, caffeine ... An archer with adrenal activity going on in body cannot make a great shot because his mind and body both lose steadiness.
Lanny Bassham - Olympic and World Champion in rifle shooting in his book "With Winning In Mind" tells about what mental pressure can do to an expert shooter as his experience in 1972 Olympics when he won silver medal while he was hoping to win the gold. Later he won the gold medal in 1976 Olympics for Three-Position Smallbore rifle shooting. All the experience that Lanny Bassham gathered culminated in him formulating a system of mental control he called "Mental Management".
Thomas Cleary, one of the most accomplished translators of the wisdom of Asia, in his book "Soul of the Samurai" which is a translation of Three Classic Works of Zen and Bushido, writes in the introduction of the book, "The inner traditions of Taoism and Zen imbued the martial arts with ethical outlooks on conflict. Their meditative techniques also trained warriors to be at peace in the midst of battle, fully in command of their faculties, with presence and clarity of mind". Doesn't this sound like the exact purpose of Krishna's advise to Arjun in the form of the Geeta?
To be continued ...
Traditionally Krishna is seen as the incarnation of Lord Vishnu and Arjun as the disciple and Krishna's advice to Arjun as spiritual which will free one from bindings of Karma and hence rebirth. But look at the situation from different perspective. Here is the man Arjun, who is the top archer who has fought many wars, won many contests and unbeatable for his times. But upon facing the onslaught of various emotions simultaneously, forget about shooting arrows accurately, he is not even able to hold his bow steady. Now those who know anything about archery know that one has to have extremely steady hand to shoot the arrows with accuracy. Arjun needed to be made stable physically and mentally if he was to shoot arrows with any accuracy. This was the need of the moment. Krishna like a Zen master realized that and told Arjun exactly what was needed to make him stable enough to fight the war. Unfortunately the advice that should have been taken in the stride of the moment has been hijacked by so called spiritual scholars who had never faced such a potent moment (as standing there in the midst of armies at the brink of war from which one may not come out alive) in their lives and wrote their interpretations and made it all about spirituality which was different from material existence.
Of all the sports and martial arts, archery is a very interesting sport from mental disposition perspective. One has to be absolutely still at the moment of loosing the arrow. Even if the heart beats at that moment, one may miss the shot. Whatever that makes one shaky and unsteady is not good for archer. Too much flow of adrenaline is particularly bad. Anything that stimulates adrenal glands is bad for an archer - emotions, caffeine ... An archer with adrenal activity going on in body cannot make a great shot because his mind and body both lose steadiness.
Lanny Bassham - Olympic and World Champion in rifle shooting in his book "With Winning In Mind" tells about what mental pressure can do to an expert shooter as his experience in 1972 Olympics when he won silver medal while he was hoping to win the gold. Later he won the gold medal in 1976 Olympics for Three-Position Smallbore rifle shooting. All the experience that Lanny Bassham gathered culminated in him formulating a system of mental control he called "Mental Management".
Thomas Cleary, one of the most accomplished translators of the wisdom of Asia, in his book "Soul of the Samurai" which is a translation of Three Classic Works of Zen and Bushido, writes in the introduction of the book, "The inner traditions of Taoism and Zen imbued the martial arts with ethical outlooks on conflict. Their meditative techniques also trained warriors to be at peace in the midst of battle, fully in command of their faculties, with presence and clarity of mind". Doesn't this sound like the exact purpose of Krishna's advise to Arjun in the form of the Geeta?
To be continued ...
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