Karma Yoga Bhagavad Gita Modern life Rajasic Tamasic Sattvic Krishna

While Karma Yoga of Gita remains the basis of my discussions, this paper tries to understand answers to the questions: How do we convert our modern works and actions (Karma) into Gita works and actions? Can all the works and actions of the world be commutated with Gita works and actions for bringing about a better life? If yes, how, and what are the philosophical and practical differences between a Gita-worker/actor and a General one? 

Modernity, in its ordinary meaning, reinterprets the human condition – an external drive to progress – generally negating an essential inner life. We disagree in modern life that lives are interdependent, and our life is a projection of our inner realities: fears, anxieties, insecurities are projected into the real world. Our hopes, visions and dreams also get projected.

Therefore, modern life is far more complicated than life in the past, which took care of the inner nature and process of Work. Such complication is fundamentally a function of perplexed or baffled mental states in a created world of conflicts and competition. For a "Sattvic" person, these disharmonies do not exist, and they are Maya (Radhakrishnan, 1993). One has to soar above this Maya and take the battle for a life Arjun had to fight in the long run. He won and showed the highway to the Truth. The Lord changed Arjun's inner life through the advice in Gita. A modern person has not to transform the world but to transform his or her inner life by gradually abandoning Rajasic and Tamasic egos as advised by Lord Krishna. Karma then transcends from ordinary Work into Yajna. When karma is elevated at this alter of Yajna, a worker is transformed into a Yogi, owning the transcendental knowledge.

This paper tries to analyse the rays of hope traced in the recent modernity trend towards enhancing ethical, philosophical, and psychological domains of human resources far beyond the mundane capital, plant, and equipment; technology and know-how; materials and energy; product design; and people. This optimism is vital to our existence; otherwise, the application of Gita-Karma would remain far from reality!

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