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Every authentic Spiritual path, every religion, every important philosophical system are all expressing in specific forms the fundamental effort of the human being towards Liberation. Consciously or unconsciously, everything in this Universe evolves faster or slower towards the same essential goal.

This Universe, even though it is gigantic, is just a part of an infinite existence. Restrained to a certain form which is subjected to space, time and determination (causality) we are perceiving parts of this Universe with our mind and senses (we can see it, feel it, touch it, hear it), we can draw it from our imagination, we can perceive its subtle force of influence and we can describe its specific principles and laws of manifestation.

The practice of the Karma yoga system can be combined with the practice of other forms of yoga, especially Bhakti Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Raja yoga, Laya Yoga. This is one of the main themes of Kåñna‘s teachings exposed in Bhagavad Gita. On this subject I will give several quotes:

"Abandon and offer all your works to the Divine." "No matter what you do, do it detachedly as an offering to me. This way you will be free of the good or bad results which are making chains of the selfish action." "Do all your actions detached, driven only by your love for me." "The one who is at the root of all beings and who permeates the entire Universe - only by adoring Him through activity done with detachment, can a person easily obtain perfection".

For Sri Aurobindo, Karma Yoga is most efficient when "we abandon our own will and our selfish desires to the Divine will". (Practical Integral Yoga)

We have seen that, broadly speaking, the Karma yoga system can be resumed in four principles:

1. Do not consider any detached action as being without importance, negligible and incompatible with the role we may think we have to play in life as Karma yogi-s.
2. Do not egotistically desire or fear the results of your completely detached actions, which you accomplish as divine instrument.
3. Do not egotistically attach yourself to the action while you detachedly perform it.
4. Neither during an action nor afterwards should you consider yourself the author of that action, but the instrument through which God manifests.

The last three points, if misunderstood, can easily lead to a state of total lack of interest (which is a manifestation of selfishness!) towards the action that has to be done. In this case we will perform that action superficially, hastily, "it doesn’t matter how", because now we don’t feel responsible anymore. This is exactly the opposite of what Karma Yoga is in reality. In fact Karma Yoga puts a bigger responsibility on its practitioner.

The theoretical grounds and techniques of action in Karma yoga are clearly stated by Kåñna in the Bhagavad Gita, with the only observation that the order in which these ideas are presented is not the most convenient for Western people. Briefly, the wise teachings of Kåñna are:

The first statement: "The human being cannot be without action" has an exclusively theoretical character, serving as preparation for the second statement: "inactivity shouldn’t be the goal", which is of a practical nature and, as we will see further, it is addressed more to Easterners than Westerners.

We will proceed now to examine these aspects closely: In the Bhagavad Gita, Kåñna returns to them three times: - "not even for a moment can one be without action. Everything inevitably goes towards action". "Even your physical life", says Kåñna to Arjuna, "cannot be maintained without a continuous action".