A reader has asked if the path of Karma Yoga (selfless service, action) is as effective as the paths of Bhakti Yoga (love, devotion) and Jnana Yoga (wisdom, insight, awareness).
Sri Krishna is my touchstone on matters such as this. And he recommends the path of action prior to the aspirant settling in to the practice of meditation:
“It is hard to renounce action
Without following the yoga of action.
This yoga purifies
The man of meditation,
Bringing him soon to Brahman [God].” (1)
The path of action will promote detachment in the aspirant making meditation easier.
“Let him who would climb
In meditation
To heights of the highest
Union with Brahman
Take for his path
The yoga of action:
Then when he nears
That height of oneness
His acts will fall from him,
His path will be tranquil.” (2)
The path of action unto itself is an effective pathway to God, he says:
“If you can understand and follow [the method of karma yoga], you will be able to break the chains of desire which bind you to your actions.
“But when a man has found delight and satisfaction and peace in the Atman [Christ or soul], then he is no longer obliged to perform any kind of action. He has nothing to gain in this world by action, and nothing to lose by refraining from action. He is independent of everybody and everything.” (3)
Even actions that don’t prove as successful as we may wish are fruitful on this path, he says:
“In this yoga, even the abortive attempt is not wasted. Nor can it produce a contrary result. Even a little practice of this yoga will save you from the terrible wheel of rebirth and death.” (4)
All lightworkers are followers of the path of karma yoga; all of us serve the Divine Mother, whether we know it or not. Followers of the path of meditation or of devotion Archangel Michael usually calls lightholders and loveholders.
I once asked Archangel Michael if it was enough for me to do karma yoga. His answer is informative.
Steve: Is my karma yoga, my service, enough of a spiritual practice or should I be doing other things as well?
Archangel Michael: Do you remember, 2 minutes ago, I spoke to you of balance? I am teasing you, my brother. Karma yoga is a very good practice. It is absolutely perfect for you. And it is also the balance with work, with your sacred self, with your own meditations, and yes, we want to add that human factor of time out, either by yourself or with your loved ones. (5)
I’m by nature a follower of Jnana Yoga. But AAM said not this lifetime. This lifetime was for service.
Sri Krishna advises us to dedicate all our actions to the Highest.
“Work is holy
When the heart of the worker
Is fixed on the Highest.” (6)
In the world of form, the Highest is the Divine Mother. In the formless world, the Highest is the Father. But they are one, not different.
When God is still, the ancients called him the Father. When God moves upon the waters, creates, preserves and transforms as the universal creative vibration we know as Aum/Amen, then she is known as the Mother.
Only the Mother is knowable. All forms of God are forms of the Mother.
The Father cannot be known by any of our material senses or the mind. The Father has no form and cannot be described.
Footnotes
(1) Sri Krishna in Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, trans., Bhagavad-Gita. The Song of God. New York and Scarborough: New American Library, 1972; c1944, 57. [Hereafter BG.]
(2) Ibid., 63.
(3) Ibid., 46.
(4) Ibid., 39.
(5) Personal Reading with Archangel Michael through Linda Dillon, March 3, 2011.
(6) BG, 47.