Turn Actions into Yoga

Every action that is offered to the Lord and is performed without any personal interest becomes a holy sacrifice and can be considered as yoga. But when an action is performed with a personal interest in the action and its results, then it is nothing but roga, which in Sanskrit means disease. The root cause of all such disease is attachment. From attachment follows hatred and anger. These are the demons that will hide all your human qualities.

It is the same for everyone; once attachment and hatred begin to show themselves in you, they encourage all the demonic tendencies and you forget your true human nature. Therefore, Krishna commanded Arjuna, "Perform your actions free from all attachments. Be impersonal. When you perform actions without having any personal interest, the fruit of these actions will not touch you. That is how I rule over all the three worlds. Can you not rule over even one little body that way?

"Develop the firm faith that when you remain disinterested in the rewards you will be able to achieve many great tasks. But when you have attachment to the results of a task, you will be subject to disappointment. If you get the fruits you expected, you will be overjoyed. If you do not succeed, you will be worried. Try to control this sense of dejection and elation. Become truly wise. Do not allow yourself to be subjected to these wavering feelings of elation and dejection."

There is no human being who is not engaged in actions. Every person has a human body for the express purpose of performing actions. To sanctify the body, you have to perform only good actions. For every action there will be a fruit. You should realize that the joy which you get in performing an action is much greater than the joy you get from the fruit of the action.

For example, on an auspicious religious festival, a family may choose to be together throughout the night with other devotees, relatives and friends to sing devotional songs. As long as they are engaged in their practice and involved in their ceremonies they are unaware of any feeling of fatigue. Even if some of them were suffering from fever they would not mind; they would be completely absorbed in the function. During that period, when they are immersed in their practice, no one feels tired. But when you visit this family soon after the function is over, you find them all looking rather weary.