Nishkama Karma

The literal meaning of nishkama karma is "desireless action," i.e., selfless action.

More generally, it means action performed without desiring or fearing the consequences;
action performed with indifference to the outcome.

It's used to describe the practice of doing actions without any expectation of the fruits
(results or reactions or effects).

Nishkama Karma Yoga is another name for Karma Yoga, which is one of the main themes
of the Bhagavad Gita.

The following passage records how Sri Ramana Maharshi once demonstrated nishkama
karma:

Mr. Rangachari, a Telugu pandit in Voorhees' College of Vellore, asked

about nishkama karma. There was no reply. After a time Sri Bhagavan
[Ramana] went up the hill and a few followed him, including the pandit.
There was a thorny stick lying on the way which Sri Bhagavan picked up;
he sat down and began leisurely to work at it [sic]. The thorns were cut
off, the knots were made smooth, the whole stick was polished with a
rough leaf. The whole operation took about six hours. Everyone was
wondering at the fine appearance of the stick made of a spiky material. A
shepherd boy put in his appearance on the way as the group moved off. He
had lost his stick and was at a loss. Sri Bhagavan immediately gave the
new one in his hand to the boy and passed on.

The pandit said that this was the matter-of-fact answer to his question.

From Talks With Sri Ramana Maharshi, page 109

FURTHER READING

Essence of Yoga
By Sri Swami Sivananda
Nishkama Karma Yoga is discussed in Chapter 2. This is on the web.
n the last column we talked about the bondage of karma and how nishkam karma can free
some one from this bondage. Krishna goes on to say few more advantages or say
attributes of nishkam karma:

1. No effort of nishkam karma is wasted

2. There are no obstacles (pratyavaya) in the path of nishkam karma and
3. Nishkama karma protects one from the greatest fear

Krishna is very categorical and confident in what he is saying. He is not using words like
‘maybe’ or ‘could be.’ There is no doubt in his mind. This is so. To understand the
attributes of nishkam karma we need to understand the opposite, the sakam karma,
because we are all familiar with this karma.

Every effort however much it is in the path of sakam karma is a wasted effort. And the
key word is expectation (kamana). The formula for sakam karma is:

Karma + kamana = sakam karma

And the kamana knows no ends. When I was in India and in medical school, my aim was
to make 100, 000 rupees. That was my goal. That was my dream. Now I have more than
100,000 dollars but do you think my kamana is gone. Is this the end of my expectations?
Kamana does not work that way. I have a friend who bought a gadget more than a month
ago. He did not like the gadget any more and wanted to return it. He was all worried
whether the store will return it or not. The store policy was to return merchandise within
two weeks of sale. After a lot of practice as to what he will say and what not, he went to
the store. He did not have the receipt either. The store did return the gadget, but gave him
a store credit. He should be happy. Shouldn’t he? But, he was not. He was complaining
and whining again. He is not alone. There is a lot of us like him. As long as we have
certain expectations, the efforts will be wasted. There will be results, but those results
will not satisfy us. The moment the expectation (kamana) appears to be fulfilled, the
kamana changes. The mind-vasana-indriya complex lives on this simple principle. Keep
desiring is its slogan and its reality. And, this phenomenon or attribute keeps us on the
periphery all the time.

And this attribute of mun-indriya-vasana is well known to the advertising companies.

They keep advertising on the television or the newspaper for us to be able to see what
new product is out there. A new computer or a new music mantra is always on sale. A
new Porsche convertible that can go from 0 – 60 miles per hour in no time is in the
showroom. All you have to do is to test drive it. They all are aiming at this never satiable
desire and kamana phenomenon. But, there is no fulfillment, there is no satisfaction, there
is no peace and there is no happiness. Frustration is always the outcome. We keep on
making efforts but we never get the expected outcome.

Krishna says that on the contrary to sakam karma, no effort is wasted in the path of
nishkam karma. This is interesting. Even a small effort is satisfying. There is always
fulfillment. Frustration never happens. The formula for nishkam karma is:
Karma – kamana = nishkam karma

Krishna is saying us to take out the kamana factor. Simply eliminate the expectation part.
And then there is no wasted effort. Any effort you make will bring some result. And you
are thankful for that result. There is no preconceived expectation of how a result should
turn out to be. It does not mean that such a person will not drive a porshe convertible, but
then he will be happy with it and without it too.

The second point is really interesting. We find obstacles in every walk of our life and
Krishna says that there are no obstacles in the path of nishkam karma. Krishna will
put a lot of astrologers and Swamis out of business. They live on eliminating obstacles
from our life. A ruby will eliminate any problems from the bad aspects of planet Sun or a
sapphire will work against Shani. There is a whole science of mantras and japas based on
this principle. And here comes Krishna who says all you need to do is to follow the path
of nishkam karma, and there will be no obstacles at all.

And this statement has two angles we can look from. First of all if you do not have any
preconceived expectation, whatever comes is o.k. A man going on the path of nishkam
karma does not see obstacles as obstacles. It is like the flow of any river or a brook. The
water starts. It has no map. A rock comes in front. It takes a side trip and keeps going. It
accepts the presence of stone and finds a solution and moves on. A man on the path of
nishkam karma has a friendly relationship with the obstacles while a man on sakam
karma has a “why this?” relatinship with the obstacle.

And the second angle is a little difficult to understand. But it does happen to someone on
this path. A man on the path of nishkam karma does have fewer obstacles. It seems that
the energy of the universe flows along with such a person. It is more readily available to
him when compared to a man on the path of sakam karma. Whether this happens because
of this person being more cool and collected or whether this happens because such a
person is in more harmony with the powers of nature, is difficult to say. But the divine
does seem to help such a person.

And let us now address the last point. How does nishkam karma yoga protect some one
from the greatest fears? What fear is Krishna talking about? One of our greatest fears is
about our performance and success. Every one has heard of mid life crisis. Krishna is
talking about this kind of fear. Again it is easier to work with sakam karma. We are
expected to be somewhere by our age of 40+ years. We evaluate our performance so far
and judge whether we have been successful or not. I had a patient who is 50+ years old
and has been happy or not so happy like many of us. One day he looked quite sad. His
wife had left him. She was seeking a divorce. That did not bother him so much. What
bothered him more was the fact that she was leaving him for another women. This
shattered him completely. It took a lot of time for him to recover from this episode. This
is the kind of fear Krishna is talking about. We have preconceived ideas about our
successes and our failures. And we are always afraid of not meeting up to our
expectations. Will my son respect me? Will my daughter listen to me? Will she marry the
guy I choose for her or will she defy my stand? All these are our day-to-day concerns. If
you take out these expectations, there is no fear. If you accept life as it presents itself, you
will never have any fear. But, we do not want to be happy. If the wife leaves me and I am
not sad, I will be branded abnormal. I must look sad if that happens to me. And we keep
this going on and on. But Krishna wants us to break that routine. Drop the kamana and
you will have no fear.

Sakam karma has been translated in English (by some) as selfish action. And, nishkam
karma has been termed ‘selfless action.’ It is important to understand that these
translations are not accurate. If I do a yagya for the benefit of whole mankind it is not a
selfish act but it is still sakam karma. Whenever there is kamana (expectation) the action
is sakam karma. So, Krishna is not talking about good karma and bad karma. He is not
talking about right and wrong. He is talking about whether you have any desire or
expectation of a result or not. If you are thinking of doing service to poor and down
trodden in Africa and want heaven in return, it is sakam karma. And when you just go for
a walk without any expectations, there is nishkam karma. Actually, it should just be
called karma yoga. And by default a person on the path of karma yoga (nishkam
karma) will be peaceful, happy and fearless. This person is bound to be effective,
more productive and highly successful.