Karma Yoga

This article was probably an outcome of the book I read on Karma Yoga and my past experiences. Read and enjoy. Please leave valuable comments too!

The concept of Karma Yoga has fascinated me from a long time. It is not something which is out of this world or something which only the saints and seers understand and practise. All of us as beings of this world do some Karma (work) and reap the benefits of the actions we have performed. There are plenty of examples in daily life in which we can see the effect of Karma Yoga instantly so to say. If one studies well for an exam, one will, in most cases, do well in that exam. There are several other examples in daily life that one can find.

There are other examples which have longer time spans over which the effect is observed. The most famous example is global warming. Of course, global warming is not entirely caused by the human race as is believed by most people or as it has been portrayed by some of the HARD core environmentalists. It does have shades of grey, but there is a significant contribution from the human kind. The effects of global warming are not felt instantly, but it is slow because of the sheer size and inertia of the earth. In the context of scientific intuition, we are somehow limited by the time span of a human life which is approximately 75 years. We cannot fathom a time span of millions of years. Prof J Srinivasan had stressed on this very perspective, but there is a catch! We all will agree that, what we cannot explain or fathom cannot be ruled out as non-existent, for it is one of the prime objectives of the research community in fact, to uncover the hidden truths of nature and explain what has not been understood. So, going with this idea, we can safely say that every action of ours will have some reciprocation or effect at some point of time in the timeline of this earth, whether it does matter is a different issue. In keeping with the same idea, all Karma Yoga suggests is that we become aware of every action of ours and do think of the implications of our actions. The question now arises whether then that we should become conscious of every move of ours and make it a thought out and well planned action, for that will not allow for spontaneity. But, the way we can tackle this problem is that we can make our basics strong. By basics I mean, the set of values and experiences on which we base our daily interactions and reactions to situations. When these values become really clear in our head, we can be sure that our actions will be in the right spirit of improvement. It is highly important that one is heavily logical and scientific in the way one questions and debates the doing of any action. The one golden rule which is generally followed or I presume is followed universally is that we all need to improve and become better from what we were and not take the path of degeneration, for degeneration or a backward step will only lead to ones downfall as has been seen in the past with many of the great dynasties. When the gladiator fights started in the Roman Empire no one had ever thought that all pervading Roman Empire would be extinct in a few hundred years. Now, however, it presents us the opportunity to learn and observe what went wrong.

Another really important point which Karma Yoga stresses on is that we must not be expectant of the results of our actions. At this point I would like to bring out one important process involved in the quality assurance of any product. There are two approaches to quality assurance; one is of trying to correct the mistakes after they are done, in the sense that we reject products after they are made since they don’t conform to the required standards. This definitely is important. However, there is a second approach to quality assurance and that is if we find a set method or process of producing the product, we can be assured that the product will have the quality and the product will also conform to the standards of production. In a very similar fashion, if we assure that our actions will make us proceed towards improvement, goodwill and joy, we can be rest assured that we will lead a better and improved life which is more fulfilling.

Prof J Srinivasan is a very dynamic and highly knowledgable teacher and person. He is the Chairman of the Mechanical Sciences Division at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He was also the lead author of the Physical Sciences section of the IPCC, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 along with Al Gore. Reference : http://caos.iisc.ernet.in/faculty/jayes.html

SPIC MACAY - The EYE

The logo of SPIC MACAY is the EYE. The logo is a eye not in the regular sense but an eye drawn vertical. It represents the third eye of Shiva, the Hindu God. It is said that Lord Shiva used his 3rd eye when he was disturbed while he was doing penance, and when he did open his 3rd eye it caused a great deal of destruction and had immense power. The 3rd eye of Lord Shiva is generally depicted as being closed. This again signifies that the inner eye has immense power and that one most utilise and harness the immense potential inside to seek the divine and a deep sense of satisfaction.
To me it personally means that the greatness of our musical heritage and culture, we can awaken this inner or 3rd eye of ours and thus release an infinite amount of potential within us and also sense a sensation like never before. Through the interaction with artists of great calibre and repute, it makes us humble human beings constantly reminding us that we are a small drop in such a huge ocean of natures creation. But then again we must not forget that

"Its only a congregation of small drops which makes up a huge ocean"

SPIC MACAY

SPIC MACAY, Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture Amongst Youth, is a youth organization started by the visionary Dr. Kiran Seth, professor at the mechanical engineering department at IIT Delhi. The organisation, since its inception in 1977, has been motivating and trying all it can to uphold and carry forward Indian classical music and art forms into the new century. Their activities mainly involve arranging of concerts, not of an ordinary kind, but rather the students and the youth of the country as their main target audiences. Its no wonder then that most of the concerts encourage interaction between the student audience and the artist to develop a taste and know more about Indian classical music and thus help in carrying forward the ancient torch of the great art forms.

The Title

My greetings to everyone reading, this has been a long time coming and now it is here! In this first post I'd like to mention a little about the title I have chosen for the blog. A lot of you may think this is too philosophical, religious or whatever may be the case but to me it holds a great place in my heart. During my recent visit to Nagaland as part of the national convention of SPIC MACAY, I was fortunate to be under the tutelage of the great Dhrupad maestro Us. Fahimuddin Dagar ji. He always used to tell us,

"ishwar nirakar hai, naad nirakar hai aur atma bhi nirakar hai. nirakar hi nirakar mey pravesh kar sakta hai".

meaning , the Almighty is formless, so is naad or music and so also is our soul. We can reach our inner-self or soul, wherein lies happiness with no bounds, only by means of a formless entity. Thus, the words Naad Bhrahm which translates to music being divine has a very deep meaning. These words when uttered in the right chord creates great calmness and also brings great satisfaction to ones mind, atleast mine.

This is just the beginning in series of writings I would like to post. I look forward to posting about my experiences with Dagar ji, the SPIC MACAY national convention at Kohima and so on and so forth about a few things I know in music that I want the world to know.