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WORK IS WORSHIP: TAD KURUSWA MADARPANAM
(— Sri Sri Gita 27/9)
EXCERPTS FROM ‘BE TENSION FREE’

By Kinkar Vitthal Ramanuja

Here we have the essence of Applied Karma Yoga so to say, in the following profound advice of Sri Bhagwan Krishna to Arjun in the Ninth Chapter of the Gita:
O Arjun (the worthy son of Kunti) do please offer to me (surrender to me) everything whatever you do, whatever you partake, whatever you sacrifice, whatever you contribute or whatever austerity you perform! By surrendering everything to me this way all your deeds good or bad, you shall be free from all the bondage or cycle of Karma (work) in this very life and attain to God-Hood after death.
(Sri Sri Gita 27, 28/9)

If we go to classify our variety of different activities or duties there may be five distinct categories overall:
i) Duties to our physical body – exercises, Yoga exercises, intakes out-lets, rest or sleep etc.
ii) Duties to our intellectual plane: studies, writing, listening, lecturing etc.
ii) Duties to our personal families or institutions.
iii) Duties to our spiritual plane: Japam, Worship, Prayer, Meditation, etc
v) Duties to the outside world at large—neighbors, society country, etc.

Let us sum up the above five duties under five clear cut heads: Duties - Physical, Intellectual, Spiritual, Familial, or Institutional and Universal.

And now just imagine – how very rejoicing, rejuvenating and divine it will be if only we can turn the nature of our attitude from the finite to the infinite, from the particular to the general, from the personal to the impersonal. In that case we have to practice to perform all our variety of duties, not with divided feelings but uniformly mainly with the single divine attitude as our loving services to or our sublime worship of the Supreme in so many ways and in so many forms. ‘Not mine but thine’, ‘Not for my pleasure but thy worship’ this is the secret mantra of this Karma Yoga philosophy as propounded in the Gita and practiced by the great saints as well as social workers.
The foundation stone of this Karma Yoga is our devotional services to the Supreme. Any service to God, Guru, family or society is but a service to the supreme God Head. Any type of services to our sweet home, whatever that may be from the caretaking of the children to the daily shopping, cooking or office going is but a loving service or devotional worship to Him. This is simply because He is the Lord of the entire creation including our sweet little home. This sense of servitude purifies our hearts, lessens our ego or undesirable attachments, controls our sinful conduct, drives away regular tension and grants us material pleasure as well as divine experiences.

To develop this attitude of high altitude is not but an easy job, in fact this sort of out-look is the result of the perfection reached through a lifelong regular and studious practice. But the outcome of all these practices is similarly a unique experience: A fearless tension free life full of inner peace and celestial bliss, undaunted or unstained by any ups and downs, success or failure, honor or dishonor, good health or ill health, even flourishing life or engulfing death.