Karma Yoga

I often wondered what am I working for? What is anything I do helping me achieve? Most of the times I answered myself that I am always working for some short term goals which would be of no or little relevance in the long run.
Lastweek, as my family was under a trauma, we had a session of BhagavadGita by an eminent speaker or should I say Gita expert. Though initially I felt making a ceremony out of everything is bad, I realised that when you learn to relate it to life, it is n't that bad even. From the recital of Gita, I learnt Karma Yoga is something which every one should try to adopt. Probably I would have forgotten that due to the workload in the campus once I was back here, but thanks to a column in the newspaper today, I recalled the recital and decided to strike the iron while its hot!
Note down my thoughts for all to read before they evaporate or the conviction is lost.
Its an age old preaching that we have been listening to, the simple adage Work, the results will follow. But we fail to do it that way. Before even we start working, we start to analyse the results we could be getting through it. Ofcourse, even I do it, I am not a Karma Yogi and I bet I can't be one too. I just wanted people to know what Karma Yoga is and who knows, probably they ponder upon this and a Karma Yogi is made out of my own friends.
Karma Yoga, as recited to me from Gita, says to work without thinking in mind of the results it could bring you. Channelise your efforts with full hard work, single minded determination and soul-felt dedication on to your work and don't pay a heed to teh results. In a long run, they cannot help but follow. Karma Yoga is about the feeling of devotion to work and dedication towards completing your work. It is in complete coherence in Einstein's adage that," Genius is 1% talent and 99% hardwork." Karma Yoga tells you not to think of the goal when you are working, it does not say not to think of the goal at all. For this a classic analogy thats perhaps always drawn from the pages of Mythology is Thulabharam. This analogy I have come across both in the recital and the column today. Rukmini's devotion help her win over Satyabhama's pride. There, she had full knowledge of her prize, she just did not think of it when trying for it. She only had devotion towards her feelings, all her own, her convictions.
And ofcourse, Karma Yoga does not compel you to lose your goal. As Acharya Vinoba Bhave puts it, " The karma yogi by giving up the fruit of his action does not lose it but paradoxically gets it." Work without motive not only brings you the desire results, but also maturity in you and happiness and satisfaction to your innerself.
Karma Yoga gives you an alternate way to achoeve what you want. Sort of an ad hoc mechanism. When you are at work, give it your undivided attention and thought. It states the principle of Karmasu Koushalam - Work done to perfection with channelised efforts, hard work and determination with no reference to fruits. One who realises Svadhara, his work upon earth, is the supreme. Karma Yoga, on the whole, states that if you enjoy ur work and be sincere to it, you will succeed though it may be streesful and taxing. Do what you do, well... This is Karma Yoga for you.
Drawing a parallel from it to our lives, I realise it is too huge a paradigm to fit into the life of a miniscule moron like me, but I feel the simple concept of enjoying work can be adhered to in any walk of life and that would help one start his journey towards Karma Yoga. Moreover, it isn't like a subject that I lease for a couple of months or twice that time. It is something that I, or for that matter anybody, would want to adopt in life.