Swami Vivekananda describes the ideal of Karma yoga as follows: "The ideal human being is the one who amidst the deepest silence and the biggest solitude finds the most intense activity, and the one who amidst the most intense activity finds the silence and solitude of the desert." "The Karma yogi doesn’t need to believe in any doctrine. He may not even believe in God, he may not ask himself what is the soul and he may not be attracted by any metaphysical speculation at all" (Practical Yoga).

However, because the spiritual masters from the Orient whose teachings we have inherited are all profoundly religious, it is not surprising that they interpret Karma Yoga from this perspective. Sri Ramakrishna says: "Karma Yoga is the spontaneous communion with God through action". From the perspective of Bhakti Yoga system, this interpretation can be seen as the revelation of the Divine through love and from the perspective of the Jïana Yoga system as the pursuit of the awareness of the Absolute Divine. Ramakrishna said als "The supreme goal in Karma Yoga is the same as in all forms of Yoga: the realisation of the Supreme Eternal or the Impersonal Divine."

Sri Aurobindo: "The detached activity is very often the only necessary instrument for the ineffable union with the Master of Creation." "To perform all activities in an intimate fusion and in deep communion with the Divine which is in us, in profound harmony with the universal around us and with the transcendental beyond us, not to let us be limited by our often separating and rigid human mind, not to be the slave of its ignorant or aberrant imperatives and of its narrow suggestions, this is Karma Yoga." (Integral Practical Yoga).