III: 27

[Krishna Jaya]

Chapter 3, Verse 27.

 

"Actions are universally performed

By the three modes of primordial nature;

But those deluded by ego-consciousness

Imagine, 'I am the doer.'"

 

Ram Dass:

 

“Krishna is saying, 'Look, you're not doing anything.  It's a delusion to imagine you are.  You're not the actor.  What's happening is just a sum total of millions of laws playing themselves out through you.'  Once you see that, really see it, you're home free, because your sense of 'I' acting in the world has been stripped away.” 

 

We discern the possibility that we can turn whatever it is we do every day into a path to God.  Krishna has given Arjuna and us two instructions so far for how to go about doing that.  First, we listen to hear what our Dharma is, and we try to become harmonious with that in our actions.  Next, we perform each act as purely as we can, without thinking of reward.  But there is one more key instruction in this practice of Karma Yoga, and it's the one that transforms everything to another level.  Not only do you do your Dharma and act without regard to its fruits; in addition to that, you act with the frame of mind that you yourself are not the actor.  The action is happening through you, but you aren't doing it.  You have stepped out of the way. 

 

So the Karma Yogi is the person who uses the situations of life to come to God by listening for the Dharmic act, acting without attachment to the outcome, all the while knowing that doership is an illusion.  This, in a nutshell, is the formula for turning our lives around and making them our practice."