As director of YogaActivist.org in Washington, D.C., Jasmine Chehrazi already has an impressive resume at the age of 29. She has opened studios in and taught in outreach programs in poor neighborhoods, created a database of hundreds of Yoga teachers working with alternative populations and devised a technique of teaching Yoga to those who suffer from PTSD so their emotional triggers are not set off. And yet, her Yoga activism presents tremendous challenges.
Next door to her studio is a refugee support program, the International Rescue Committee. But even with the proximity, it is challenging to coordinate a collaborative program. Chehrazi shares, “It’s an example of how hard it is to get people who all believe in the same thing to actually do something. We also want other studios to get involved in outreach Yoga. Just one program per studio. We feel like we have to provide incentives, but studio owners and managers are overwhelmed.”
While it is certainly true that our spiritual practice can help us become better activists, it is equally the case that our Karma Yoga can improve our spiritual practice. When American yogis became captivated by Karma Yoga in the past couple of years, we ran away with it full steam – creating organizations, networks, and fundraisers of all kinds. Now we have special workshops on how to cope with the stress of managing Karma Yoga, along with every other obligation in our lives.
Chris Courtney, currently running Grass Roots Yoga in Albuquerque, states, “All too often it takes the form of just buying another cloth bag for a good cause, rather than taking real action. I think we need to take a more honest look at our own intentions and actions in this regard.”
As I’ve researched the interplay between our spiritual insight and the practice of our political and social work, I have become convinced that Karma Yoga is not simply a strategy for activism, but rather an intrinsic part of our spiritual growth.
My interest in Karma Yoga as a spiritual method to empower my political concerns began when, as a regular follower of Yoga and meditation for fifteen years, I found myself teaching International Relations as an adjunct professor at Sacramento City College. My beliefs in the power of Karma Yoga for social change were tested when students would ask me painful questions that reflected a personal hopelessness about issues such as nuclear weapon disarmament or human trafficking.
Why is it so challenging to create lasting change in the world? How can we hope to make a difference? How do we reconcile the fact that we could spend our whole lives trying to serve justice, and have our gains obliterated by the vote of an international body overrun by corporate interests?
I was looking for answers, not policy solutions. So I gave up my teaching gig and moved to the Yoga Farm in Grass Valley for a month, dedicating myself to spiritual practice and studying Yoga full-time. For the next two years, I lived in the woods on the Cosumnes River, intensely practicing, teaching, and writing about Yoga. By adopting more of a yogic lifestyle, I felt more empowered on all levels, and more emotionally and mentally equipped to deal with serious political issues.
I knew I didn’t want to compromise, neither as an activist nor as a spiritual seeker, so I had to bring them together. This desire to bring my spiritual teachings full circle back to the world of politics brought me out of my yogic hiding to pursue a doctorate examining the world of Karma Yoga, and – more broadly – how ritual, folk arts and indigenous traditions invigorate political and feminist struggles globally. When I started, I had no idea how popular Karma Yoga was already becoming in the Yoga community.
Service for Spiritual Growth
The integration of spirituality and political action has a strong historical basis in the emergence of modern Hinduism in India. During the nationalist era, many Indian gurus who supported the revolution against British rule promoted Hindu spirituality as an ethical basis for becoming involved in national politics and cultural revitalization during and after colonialism. They struggled with some of the same questions we do, and it is worth taking a look at prominent teachers, including Sri Aurobindo and Swami Sivananda, to investigate how their own negotiation of these issues may assist us on our path of spiritual activists.
Sri Aurobindo is well known in the West as a guru with a large ashram in Pondicherry and for his relationship with the Western spiritual teacher Mirra Alfassa (who succeeded him and became “The Mother”). Early in his life as a teacher, he was very active on the political scene, and published political writings through his magazine Karmayogin.
He emphasized yogic ideals such as brahmateja, a kind of spiritual aura and lifestyle that comes from devotion. These traditional Hindu values were being repurposed, (unfortunately, sometimes in highly conservative ways), to educate people about alternatives to colonialism. Sri Aurobindo viewed political actions more as moral and spiritual tasks, which could be accomplished through the concepts of tapasya (strenuous commitments), jnanam (truth study), and shakti (personal spiritual power).
Sri Aurobindo emphasized that Karma Yoga should be viewed as an intrinsic part of the wheel of karma as well as a spiritual vehicle. Many passages in Karmayogin speak to the spiritual side of “works,” and that it is not for the action alone in and of itself that the classical yogi engages in the practice. Karma Yoga, with his emphasis, is not just about humanitarianism or activism.
Karma sadhana in this context is a powerful spiritual practice to develop balance, integrity and a good work ethic. As I began internalizing Yoga Karma teachings, I grappled intensely with the futility of political outcomes. When teaching college students the hard-hitting facts related to big-picture international issues like living on a planet that just keeps getting hotter, there is so often an intense amount of emotional and psychological despair that comes with understanding how these issues work in reality.
According to Sri Aurobindo, outward works (as compared to the more inward practices of Yoga and meditation) are not promoted as the sole or primary means to achieve enlightenment; however, Karma Yoga is given its proper place as a highly useful approach. This practice helps burn the ego in order to practice devotion and commitment, and brings a clarity and freedom that harmonizes with what activists are seeking politically in an external sense.
After four years of committed political work and writing, Sri Aurobindo was arrested (along with 33 others) in association with two members of a group who intended to bomb the carriage of a British official, but ending up killing the wife and daughter of a barrister. He was acquitted, but after a yearlong stay in a colonial prison, Sri Aurobindo decided to go back into seclusion and focus on being a spiritual teacher.
Karma Yoga and Spiritual Endeavor
Most yogic traditions or lineages teach us that we are here to work out our karma, discover the purpose of our life and get down to business so we can release as soon as possible into the moksha of enlightenment, right? If enlightenment is our ultimate purpose, then why bother with all of these karmic actions, which very often end up creating more karma for ourselves? Wouldn’t it be better to focus on our spiritual path?
The Bhagavad Gita reveals the solution as a balance between your karma and your dharma. Arjuna definitely does not want to fight the war depicted in this epic, in which his cousins and other family members are pitted against him as enemies, but Lord Krishna tells him to stand up and fight. Krishna’s admonition to him points us to the reality that it is through the world, our presence here, and our struggles, that we have the chance to understand the truth of our spiritual strengths and ultimately realize our inner nature.
A basic approach to Karma Yoga appreciates that, for the majority of us, a full realization of our oneness with the Divine does not come easily. In The Practice of Karma Yoga, Swami Sivananda cautions, “Only that advanced Yogi who can meditate for hours together can stop work. If ordinary students give up work they will become tamasic and lazy…The full-blown Yogi or Jnani or Bhakta should again come back to the world to elevate other people, for the purpose of Lokasangraha (world-solidarity).”
At a certain point in one’s spiritual path, whether or not to “do” Karma Yoga, or skilled action, becomes a question of spiritual technique. In 1948, Christopher Isherwood compiled Vedanta for the Western World, in which the Orientalist Aldous Huxley compares the “life of action” as a phrase that is commonly used in contrast to a “life of contemplation.” Huxley echoes the very spiritual version of action found in the Gita, “It is to this kind of action without attachment of involvement that the mystic should aspire.”
The idea of renunciation can be difficult to understand, because we tend to associate it with the renunciate traditions of ascetics and strict forms of meditation. We tend to think in black and white. We either have to be living in the ashram, or throwing ourselves
into an extremely rajasic mode of spiritual activism.
In both Eastern and Western meditation traditions, it is understood that there are different approaches to gaining spiritual insight.
Consider, for example, the four paths of Yoga – devotion, wisdom, service and a more traditional asana/meditation practice – as espoused in the Gita itself. Based on Krishna’s responses, it is apparent that it was already a matter of debate at this time which path was more or less efficacious for spiritual attainment.
Over time, modern spiritual masters began to impart deeper teachings related to the importance of channeling concentration and compassionate intention into our everyday actions. Sivananda’s students traveled around the world spreading his message of service and peacemaking, training tens of thousands of Yoga teachers in the West. The idea was that the shanti and dharana (peace and concentration) found in personal sadhana (practice) would provide a good basis for a cadre of future leaders. It was a radical premise in the 1970s: for gurus like Swami Vishnudevananda (himself a devotee of Swami Sivananda) selfless service was intertwined with the idea that Karma Yoga would also purify the mind and heart of its practitioners.
Renunciation and Detachment
What does this version of Karma Yoga philosophy mean for those of us who have already staked a claim to spiritual activism? Contemplating the more internal aspects of our outward works can help us to understand the ramifications and limitations of our external political work.
It is only natural and human to desire a specific outcome and to be filled with expectations about our labors. Yet we also have to cultivate the wisdom of accepting the long fight of some political struggles and defeats, viewing our victories with a grain of salt. The kind of renunciation that Sivananda and Huxley refer to is a renunciation of the rewards and outcomes of our actions, not simply the renunciation of specific behaviors (like giving up smoking, alcohol, or sex).
In the Gita, Krishna calls this “renouncing the fruits of our labor,” but what does this actually mean? As Yoga teacher and NOLS instructor Clayton Montgomery wants to know, “Why can’t I have the fruits of my labor?” After all, we worked hard for the movement, knocking on doors for the campaign or staying up late working on the nonprofit website.
Activists tend to desire a particular outcome that acknowledges our own worth, or that proves the correctness of our social justice position, when ultimately we are caught in the Catch-22’s of many potential outcomes and solutions. I want to ask: How often do we find ourselves just doing the work, or doing the right thing, simply for the service of the divine? Do we realize the power of this approach?
Renunciation goes hand in hand with egoless action, and the overarching idea of seva, or selfless service. You will often hear activists in the trenches say things like, “I got more out of the experience than I felt I gave.” This became a refrain at the Self-Care Retreat for Haiti First Responders in September at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. The event was organized by yoga teachers Sue Jones, founder of YogaHope in Boston and David Emerson, director of yoga programs for The Trauma Center at Justice Resource Institute.
Participants included aid workers, nurses, surgeons, and a few “karma yogis” from the Siddha Yoga community who served in Haiti during the earthquake aftermath. Many attendees expressed a sense of helplessness in the face of such unimaginable devastation. At the same time, each of them repeatedly mentioned the Haitian people as pillars of strength; it was through their service that these workers became heartened. Thus, it is by renouncing the fruits that we are blessed by the process of the experience.
People skeptical about Karma Yoga may note a sense of self-satisfaction in the spiritual activist. Or they may have experienced it themselves, and felt a little bit guilty. There is a certain amount of clinging to one’s own blessedness that is counterproductive to the spiritual goal of eradicating dualism – eliminating separation between oneself and the Other, or oneself and God.
In the case of a purified seva practice, we are talking about actions that are carried out in worship of the higher divine reality. Sri Aurobindo spoke about this: “I never thought that politics or feeding the poor or writing beautiful poems would lead straight to Vaikuntha or the Absolute. It is not the form of the work itself or mere activity but the consciousness and Godward will behind it that are the essence of Karma Yoga; the work is only the necessary instrumentation for the union with the Master of works.”
Selfish thoughts are encountered frequently along this path and should be dealt with swiftly. The practice of service is itself an offering like any spiritual gift. When you put something on an altar in the temple, do you expect a specific result? What do you do when it doesn’t happen? Nonattachment is part and parcel of a spiritual life that prizes equanimity, the ability to observe and be with “what is,” rather than constantly manipulating and grasping, especially to our own goodness.
In the Sivananda Yoga lineage, we are taught to think the phrase, “I am not the doer.” A related aphorism that gets kicked around a lot in the larger spiritual community is, “I am not this body. I am not this mind.” Swami Sivananda coaches that we are to think of ourselves as instruments in the hands of God.
In the yogic cosmic worldview, our lives are a play, or lila, sometimes of the gods or a product of our own past lives. This lila is but the playful pastime of an absolute divine consciousness, and we all have our part to play—with both successes and defeats. Even a minimal acknowledgement of this maya, or illusion, helps it to become easier to let things go.
It is a trick of the mind to practice detachment. You start to apply yourself, working and serving with the fire of concentration you have built up during your dedicated asana and meditation practice, eventually finding yourself burning up your karma, but then you let go of it, so you can be free of worrying about the outcome.
Detaching also helps create a state of mind that takes a balanced approach to social and political work. Sri Aurobindo comments, “There can be no Karma Yoga without the will to get rid of ego, rajas and desire, which are the seals of ignorance.”
Developing a level of dispassionate interest in worldly things doesn’t necessarily mean giving up on the illusion of life altogether, but it does present an alternate way of being in the world. This is a way of being that approaches the political from a philosophical viewpoint founded on self-reflection, awareness and insight. We can be fierce warriors like Arjuna, and also go home and enjoy sitting next to the fire after the day’s battles are done.
A Demanding World
This all sounds good in theory, but what about in practice? In fact, detachment must work in harmony with the yogic ideal of aparigraha, or abstention from greed. It isn’t easy, by any means, to balance the competing demands of a needy world with the necessity of supporting ourselves and our families.
This is compounded by the fact that in our largely industrial and post-industrial world, what it now means to “support a family” can actually impact the environment in horrible ways, and place an unfair burden on people, farmers and producers in other countries where we obtain our resources. And yet, every one of us has bills to pay, and we often find ourselves in economic positions that complicate our beliefs. When we take an honest look at what it takes to live an ethical, pure life of service, many of us may wonder: Is there such a thing as healthy or mature selfishness? How can we support ourselves in the modern world without some selfishness?
Sivananda Yoga teacher Michael Texeira (Hanuman) lived at an ashram off and on for a couple of years before he met his British yogini partner, Devika. They were married at the ashram by a Sufi priest and have moved to rural England. They found themselves struggling with balancing their deeply held spiritual ethics of simplicity and service (a full-time lifestyle at the ashram), alongside dealing with basic survival issues as a nuclear family in modern society.
Rather than compromise their commitment to living communally and maintaining their spiritual lifestyle, by landing jobs in offices or otherwise, they decided to take their show on the road, traveling around England, volunteering in places where similar ethics are strong while looking for a more permanent community.
Their recent stops have included: living with the Common Loaf Bakers (a messianic group in Devon) and the Monkton Wyld community, picking apples and blackberries, often serving what the duo call ashram-style food to the groups that host them. Devika comments, “Living by (mostly) faith alone is exhilarating and terrifying, depending on where my mind is at. But what an experiment!”
Selfless service provides a critical foundation for their chosen lifestyle. In a Web-circulated statement called “Our Vision of Community,” the couple explains how this works for them: “This society has needs beyond those of its individual members, and it is here that we are given the opportunity to learn to serve each other as ourselves. In this spirit of service, we see that each action we perform towards the benefit of the whole is sacred, and that we sustain ourselves, and each other, through an attitude of gladly given service.”
After soul-searching, they decided to continue on one type of a Karma Yoga path. Regardless of the instability, they are open to making an effort, experimenting with their lives, but staying true to their ideals and relying on their yogic teachings for strength. The Texeiras are on an experimental journey for the moment, but then again, aren’t we all? Hanuman states, “Karma Yoga practice eliminates, over time, envy, laziness, and miserliness. As those qualities fade, we become free to see what gifts have been given to us freely so that we may give them freely to others.”
Perhaps that is our greatest lesson from Karma Yoga – that we have nothing to lose from it, and that it can be helpful for social and political work. Rather than subtracting time and resources away from our modern lifestyle, a consistent practice of Karma Yoga in daily life coupled with a simple lifestyle and volunteer work with those in need, in fact, energizes us and invigorates the meaning we are able to appreciate within those actions.
It is essential for our times to renew the dialogue about the personal and ethical issues at stake. In the end, Karma Yoga makes it possible to view our Yoga practice as one that is intrinsically based on ethics that incorporate our own personal responsibility, along with the good of the whole.
Thank you to the Indian Institute Reading Room at University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library for access to Aurobindo’s historical writings.
Amy Champ is a Sivananda Yoga and meditation teacher, currently finishing her PhD in Performance Studies and Feminism at the University of California.