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The Supreme Path of Selfless Service

A discourse on the supreme path of karma yoga, or selfless service.

"Through Karma Yoga, through work, your yoga life will be successful. It is the best way to get rid of ego, the best way to get rid of your pride."

"God gave you these hands to give something, donate something, help something."

A spiritual teacher expounds on the philosophy and practical benefits of karma yoga, citing the Bhagavad Gītā and teachings from saints like Kabīr. He explains how selfless service purifies the mind and is weighed as greater than liberation itself, inviting listeners to participate in ashram life where everyone is both a king and a servant. The talk details the privileges and inner rewards for karma yogīs and concludes by framing the work as a healthy selfishness that leads to the highest consciousness.

God Kṛṣṇa said in the Bhagavad Gītā, "Yoga-karma-su-kauśalam." Through Karma Yoga, through work, your yoga life will be successful. It is the best way to get rid of ego, the best way to get rid of your pride, and the best way to purify your antaḥkaraṇa. If you have anywhere a little negative karma, then you are the right person to do Karma Yoga. Our beloved Gurujī, His Holiness Śrī Swāmī Mādhavānandajī, used to say, "The highest principle, the greatest principle, is to serve." Service is the highest. It is said that once God in Veṅkuṇḍa was measuring on a scale what weighs more: mokṣa or selfless service. Surprisingly, on the scale, service weighed more than liberation. Then God Viṣṇu himself decided to incarnate 24 times to serve this planet, to protect righteousness—the dharma—and to destroy adharma. Those who do not go through the training of Karma Yoga will find it hard to be successful in their yoga practice. There should be no hesitation when you have an opportunity to do sevā. Honestly, do not just say, "Okay, I cleaned one window and that's enough." That is not it. If you clean one window or half a window or a quarter of the window, never say, "I cleaned it, I cleaned half a window." No, then you did not clean; that is it. We have a program for the Karma Yogīs. Karma Yogīs enjoy here more than others. First of all, they have the privilege to have first breakfast, first lunch, and also first dinner. Karma Yogīs have the privilege to have often a warm drink or cold drink—good water, good yogic chai, herbal chai, and Indian chai. Of course, there are many who drink coffee, and we do not prohibit them from having one coffee a day. So they are enjoying. Not only this, they are enjoying their practice of prāṇāyāma, breathing in such beautiful nature. You can buy everything in the cities, but you cannot buy this air which we have here. One month of pollution that you inhale in the city can be purified in your lungs within one day here in Strilky Āshram. You cannot buy this with anything; you cannot compare it with anything. Our Karma Yogīs have the priority to inhale and exhale and do prāṇāyāma in the beautiful organic garden, orchard, meadows, and so on. Not only this, but through doing their sevā, they have the time to think over their past life, future, present situation, and future life, and to get inner answers. The best answer you have is your inner answer. Our Karma Yogīs are guided nicely according to the yogic principle of how to do karma, what you have to do while making karma. Especially in the summer programs and now in this special retreat, I will have beautiful instructions only for the Karma Yogīs. Our Karma Yogīs enjoy the atmosphere of this āshram, the spirituality, as all others do, and they also have the opportunity to attend the satsaṅgs. Satsaṅg is a boat to cross the ocean of ignorance. Satsaṅg is the only path which can lead you to the highest. Satsaṅg can be with one person or with thousands. They also attend the prayers and early morning Brahma Muhūrta meditation. This means our Karma Yogīs have more qualities and more benefits. At the same time, our Karma Yogīs have their yoga programs and exercises. Dear listeners around the world and in this hall, I invite you: wherever you have the āshram of Yoga in Daily Life, come and do Karma Sevā. You will never forget in your life those golden minutes, hours, days, months, and years when you do the sevā. If you run away from doing Karma Yoga, it means you are running away from your inner problems which must be solved. But you cannot solve them if you are not surrendered, if you have not purified your antaḥkaraṇa—manas, buddhi, citta, and ahaṅkāra—and if you have not mastered your ego and pride of your age: that "I am very young, and I have such beautiful hands and my fingers, they are so nice, and when I work in the earth, my God, my fingers feel not so good." This is your ego. This is your ego. Fingers are for what? Not for showing like this, not only looking here and putting like this, and your beautiful nails are not only to polish and talk to your husband like this. Hence, Kabīr Dājī Mahārāj, a great saint, said that God gave you these hands to give something, donate something, help something. So you have ego of your young age. You have ego of your beauty and ego of your money: "I am from a rich family, how can I work at home? I have five people who are working for me in my garden. One who brings and serves me tea and says, 'Madam, Madam, Madam, Madam, please, Madam, your tea is ready, please.'" No, that is not [the way]. In the āshram, everyone is a king and everyone is a servant. Pride of nationality, money, positions—this is what makes humans crazy. Human became against human. Human begins to make the differences through such a modern education, making the differences of positions, money, countries, wealth, development, and no development. So this āshram is here to get repaired. Your vehicle needs repairing. Your vehicle needs service, karma. Therefore God Kṛṣṇa said, "Yoga-karma-su-kauśalam." O Arjuna, through selfless sevā, your yoga practices will be successful. Help the needy one and work for everyone. For one's own family and for one's own children, animals are also doing. But it does not mean that you should neglect your family. No, you should do for your family also; it is your dharma. Your dharma is that you look after your children, your dharma is to look after your parents, it is your dharma to look after your partner, and it is your dharma to look after your friends and colleagues. Human is completely bound with so many obligations, and you are capable of being successful and following every duty. Then your yoga agni will become strong. So it is said, "Yoga agniḥ karma dagdha." Through the fire of yoga, all your karmas will be roasted. All karmas will be burned, and it means you become pure. Off you go. Where? Brahmaloka. Others were meditating and meditating and didn't come even from Czech to Austria or from Europe to America. How to come to the Brahmaloka? That is a very secret and very beautiful thing. Therefore, that kind of sādhana you cannot do if you don't have love in your heart. In your hands you have the work, and in your mouth you have God's name, and in your hearts you have great peace. Therefore, God Viṣṇu tells to Nārada, "O Nārada, 'Nāhaṁ Vāsāmi Veṅkuṇḍe'—I am not living in Veṅkuṇḍe, 'Na Yogi Ke Hṛdaye'—nor in the heart of the yogīs who are meditating and so on, but I am living there where my bhakta remembers me and sings my name, my song. I am with them in their heart, I am." And so, that is the karma yogī who is working with love; he works for his Lord. You are not working for anybody, but you are working for that Almighty One, and you are working actually for you, because you know through such a sevā you will achieve the highest position, highest consciousness. So, in reality, you are a selfish person also, but this is a healthy selfishness. Therefore, many, many bhaktas who are sitting here have here a duty or privilege, an opportunity to make karma yoga or sevā.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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