How To Be a Yogi in the World — Defining Karma Yoga: Angelika
‘How To Be a Yogi in the World’ is a series of interviews with Karma Yogis, practitioners of the path of selfless service. The objective? To shed light on Karma Yoga, the spiritual path of action, for interested readers as well as new and seasoned yogis alike. As the path prescribed for those living in the world (read: all of us) by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita—an ancient Yogic and Hindu Scripture—Karma Yoga is a complete spiritual path in its own right. The practice and contemplation of Karma Yoga deserves our time and attention.
Everyone can and should be a Karma Yogi.
This series is without beginning or end; if you would like to contribute, please email your answers to the questions below to angelika@7ygh.com
Pictured: Angelika serving in the kitchen at the Sivananda ashram in the Bahamas, 2023.
What is your definition of Karma Yoga and its benefits?
Karma Yoga is an attitude of selfless action in the world. (The word selfless is misleading; here, it means egoless. The ego self is not the real Self.) It’s a set of values whereby you consistently put the needs of others before your own. It is dedication to the discipline of performing actions that support the incremental whittling away of the ego. Sometimes Karma Yoga feels like a gentle kiss on the forehead; other times it feels like putting your soul against sandpaper. There’s a fine balance between sustaining yourself (through Sadhana or Personal Spiritual Practice) to sustain others (through Seva or Service); Karma Yoga helps you discover that balance. Karma Yoga repairs your relationships with yourself, with others, and with the world at large. Its greatest benefit is the opening up of the heart to feel, receive, and give unconditional love.
How often do you engage in Karma Yoga?
Daily. Whenever my ego comes up in an interaction with others or myself, I try my best to apply the principles of Karma Yoga to it. On a full-time basis, I served at the Sivananda ashram in Bahamas for 5 months in 2022 and for 4 months in 2023.
What is a memorable Karma Yoga experience and what did you learn from it?
Recently, I was asked to clean out the closet on Vishnu Platform at the Sivananda ashram. The platforms are all outside and are used for yoga classes, ashram programs, and for personal use by the guests. The closet on Vishnu platform hadn’t been cleaned out in a long time; with less hands on deck, some things fell into disrepair over the Pandemic and immediately afterwards. I wore gloves to remove rat-eaten cushions. I got on my knees, bending myself into crevices to sweep out large amounts of rat droppings. I bleached the area, washed the cushions, put everything back in a more organized manner, neatly tucked away. It was a deeply satisfying task, one that I was (as with almost all of my Karma Yoga duties) extremely resistant to at first. Midway through the task, I remember feeling exasperated and thinking: “Why am -I- always the one made to do these menial, disgusting tasks?!” And then it struck me—of course -I- was always the one made to do such tasks. There was only 1 I, and regardless of what body that I inhabited, it would always be an I that was made to do such tasks. The recognition of the unity of consciousness pervading all bodies was profound. My heart opened up immensely, full of gratitude.
What were your biggest misconceptions about Karma Yoga?
That selfless service requires completely overlooking your own physical, emotional, and mental needs/disregarding the holistic maintenance of one’s wellbeing. In today’s world, many of us carry around the burden of a guilt complex. This can manifest as us overextending ourselves for others at the detriment to our health. When this happens, resentment clouds our hearts—achieving the exact opposite of what we’re intending. Karma Yoga is intended for purification of the heart; when we act from a place without ego, our love for others grows. Sometimes ego looks like not taking care of ourselves because of that aforementioned guilt complex (or a host of other reasons). In which case, the selfless action of service to the world would be to take care of our needs. We can’t serve from a place of empty. (And nor should we want to. The idea isn’t to expire ourselves in one big gust of service. Rather it is our duty to take care of ourselves—as much as it is our duty to serve others, to help others—so that we can serve for as long as our lifespans allow us to.)
However, there is a fine line between maintenance and indulgence. As yogis it is our responsibility to be constantly aware of that line. We are bound to cross it; it’s inevitable. Life isn’t about halting the swing of the pendulum, it’s about learning how to get back to balance. When we cross the line into the territory of ego, that’s when we apply the principles of Karma Yoga. That’s when we ask ourselves—are we acting from a place of ego? Are we choosing to overlook our need for sleep, self-care rituals, socialization, etc. because we think we’re not good enough? If so, regardless of the external service we’re doing to the world, we’re no longer performing Karma Yoga.
A lot of us think of ego as an inflated sense of superiority. And it is that and it can be that, but it’s not only that. When we’re functioning from a place of thinking ourselves worthless, that’s also our ego talking. It took me a long time to realize that! Ultimately, we have to take it back to the act of observation. That’s one of the greatest lessons Karma Yoga can teach us: how to observe ourselves without judgment. We all have egos; that’s a fact. The practice of whittling away the ego through Karma Yoga is just like every other spiritual practice—that is, it’s a practice. Some days we get it really right, and other days we don’t. And that’s okay. That’s life. The important thing is to remain aware and to course-correct when we find ourselves acting in the interest of selfish ego-interest—whether that looks like undervaluing our own needs because of an inferiority complex or refusing to do a menial task to serve others because of a superiority complex.
And that’s the other thing that Karma Yoga really teaches us—how to listen to our intuition about when we are and aren’t acting from a place of ego. The world outside of us will always have a thing to say about what we are (or aren’t) doing; we can get caught in the ego-web of social hierarchy, length of experience, that is, we can equate those we deem as more learned or spiritually above us as beyond reproach. When we do so we forget that those around us are human, too. Everyone being human means that everyone is prone to acting from a place of ego—some of us are just more skilled at recognizing when we’re doing so and choosing to behave selflessly instead. That is a huge misconception that I’m constantly revisiting—that someone external to me has all the answers. For too long I equated my ego with my intuition. Learning to distinguish between ego, mind, and intuition is part and parcel of the Karma Yogi journey. I’m still learning!
That’s why in this entire process, reflection is a must. And as we grow more skilled at this yoga of action, this yoga that is so very vital in teaching us how to act in a good and just way not only towards others but towards ourselves, that reflection becomes quicker. We fine-tune our ability to find and follow the direction of true north on our inner compass—that inner compass that is free from the judgment of our ego, the mental constructs of our mind, the rationalization of our intellect, and the judgment and opinions of the external world and the people in it. And isn’t that a most glorious thing—to have such a path of spiritual practice available to us, a path such as Karma Yoga, a path which teaches us to look inwards, to make rich and water the garden of our internal world while still fully functioning outwards, without ever disregarding the beauty and necessity of the external world?
The last misconception that harangued me—which I’ve touched upon a lot above but want to talk about more directly—is that Karma Yoga is wholly external, that it’s wholly physical, that it’s related to volunteering or performing action without receiving anything in return. I’ve come to understand that so long as we are in these bodies, we are performing action and that for every action, there will be a reaction. Even when Karma Yoga is “done right”, it gives us something in return—purification of the heart, a deeper sense of clarity, of unconditional love. The nature of being in relationship with anything is exchange. And we’re constantly in relationship. By merely existing on this plane of reality we are in relationship—with our bodies, our minds, the people around us, the objects in our lives, our surroundings, the world at large, the list goes on.
It’s tempting to think that if, let’s say, we’re not getting paid and we’re spending our time on a task for others (volunteering), then we’re practicing Karma Yoga. But the practice of Karma Yoga, at its most subtle levels, has nothing to do with what you’re doing and everything to do with how you’re doing it. It’s a mindset. That’s why everyone can and should practice Karma Yoga daily. You don’t have to go to an ashram for a karma yoga program, you don’t have to volunteer at a soup kitchen. That was a huge misconception I had to get rid of—that I had to be in a spiritual place or in a place of service to practice Karma Yoga.
We have to look at our daily tasks, interactions and observe our ego in the great amphitheater of life—and find the sweet spots where we can behave like Karma Yogis. For example: you really don’t want to do this task that your boss assigned. You’ll do it anyway, but you’ll do it grudgingly or because you “have to”. Don’t do that. Practice Karma Yoga. Open up your heart. Serve your boss. Try your hardest to do the task with effort, attention, love, care. Even if that task is putting numbers into spreadsheets or folding napkins into perfect triangles, even if you think it lacking value as an action; especially if you think this way. Every action, no matter how small, ripples out into the cosmos for infinite effects that lead to infinite effects. Don’t underestimate the grandness inherent in the movement of a single finger.
You can apply this to anything. You don’t want to take the trash out. Or wash the dishes. Or wipe down the counters. But you’ll do it anyway, because you “have to”. Stop that! Everything is sacred. Even your countertop. Even your plate. Even your trash bin. Everything has this same pervading existence underneath it. When you wash your dishes, act like you’re washing the back of your beloved. Treat everything with reverence. That’s the essence of Karma Yoga. And the opposite holds true here too—we have to remember to watch out for inferiority as much as superiority. For me, a good rule of thumb is—if I feel resistance towards doing something simultaneously to this tingly little feeling that I should do it anyway, I know that I have been presented with an excellent opportunity to wrestle with my ego and practice Karma Yoga.
If you could give yourself one piece of advice regarding Karma Yoga, what would it be?
Be vigilant and always on your toes, learn to recognize the many masks of ego. Be a spiritual warrior, effort is the whole battle and the path forward is to do all action with love.