Transform all your Actions into Sacred Actions and be Free

As long as you act with body-consciousness, that is, as long as you identify yourself as the doer of an action, then that action cannot be karma yoga. Any action performed with the feeling of ego, the sense that I did it, or with the sense of attachment, that it is my act, can only bring sorrow to you in the end. Such actions will always result in further bondage. However, when you transform your actions into yoga, then you become free from bondage. How does action or karma become yoga? All actions performed as offerings to the divinity, without any sense of individual doership and without seeking any personal results, will be transformed into yoga.

Numerous troubles arise when one acts with a feeling of egoism. Inwardly, you might feel, 'This action was performed by me, so I should derive the benefits from this action. I worked, so I deserve to get paid. I am certainly entitled to the rewards accruing from these actions that I have performed.' Such feelings serve only to further strengthen the sense of ego, the sense of I and mine. As this sense of I and mine goes on increasing, the atma goes further and further into obscurity, and the joy emerging from the atma goes on decreasing. To destroy egoism completely, Krishna asked Arjuna to transform all his actions into yoga.

What is the method of transforming your action into yoga? You must become impersonal; you must not identify yourself with the actions or the results that accrue from them, but, instead, concentrate fully on the action itself, remaining indifferent to the results. In other words, you act because it is your nature to do so, offering all your efforts to the indwelling divinity, and remaining totally unconcerned and disinterested in the fruit. With such a feeling of detachment, whatever task you become engaged in will become sacred.

There is the example of King Janaka, who showed by his life that if you perform actions without any desire for the fruit and without any personal interest in the act, then your accomplishments can indeed become very great. While ruling a kingdom, and bearing all the responsibilities associated with it, King Janaka performed all his acts with the attitude that he was only the witness. Because he acted without any attachment to the results, Janaka became a sacred king, a monarch who was also a yogi.