Karma Yoga and the sense of responsibility |
We have seen that, broadly speaking, the Karma yoga system can be resumed in four principles:
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. This is obvious in two ways:
As Sri Aurobindo was writing to his disciples: "Laziness must be eradicated, of course, but sometimes it is obvious for me that you went too far in the opposite direction. It is necessary to act completely detached, with all the energy then offered by the Divine, but it is equally necessary sometimes to not act at all" (Practical Integral Yoga). "Too much uninterrupted work is sometimes altering the quality of action, regardless of the experience and the enthusiasm of the one who does it".
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