Acccording to the Rg Veda, the cosmos is the maha-yajna (great sacrifice) in the sense that creation is taken to be an expression and manifestation of the very being of the supreme Lord. The sacrificial rituals of Vedic India, which were the earliest forms of spiritual discipline advocated by the Vedas, can be interpreted as both acknowledging and perpetuating the sacrificial creation of the Lord. In the Vedas the term karma seems to have meant something like ‘ritual act’ and was often used synonymously with yajna or sacrifice. Karma carried a similar meaning in the Mimamsa philosophy of Jaimini, and in the Puranas the term was associated with actions such as daily worship, religious observances and fasting. However with the early Upanisads there came already the ideal of a more inward and meditative recognition of the cosmic source, and Vedic sacrificial ritualism was internalised and transformed into a kind of inner renunciation or sacrifice.

Karma
It is from around this time that the term karma attracted the broader meanings that we associate with it today, though without losing its connection with its Vedic origins. Derived from the verb root kr ('to act', to do', 'to make'), karma has many meanings, including action, work, rite, deed, product, cause and effect, and accumulation of past actions. The last of these meanings is the one most familiar with those living outside of India, where karma has become synonymous with the moral force of one’s actions and the effects that flow from them.

The related doctrines of karma and transmigration are accepted in some form in all Indian spiritual traditions, and are important to an understanding of the principles of Karma-yoga which is the path of selfless action. The Hatha-yoga text, Siva-Samhita, states that,

Whatever is seen among men (whether pleasure or pain) is born of karma. All
creatures enjoy or suffer, according to the results of their actions. (II. 39)

Here karma means the actions performed by an individual: including intentions, thoughts and behaviours, as well as the mechanism by which the accumulated effects of these actions determine the shape of one’s future. The law of karma is entirely impersonal and irrevocably binding, and holds that even the moral dimension of human existence is causally determined. Every karma or action, whether considered to be good, bad or indifferent, carries with it some consequence that must be lived through. However the karmic consequences of an action are not confined to a single lifetime, and may remain latent and bear fruit in future lives. This means that karma not only determines the kind of life that will have to be lived in the future, but more significantly it binds the enduring Self to the cycle of birth and rebirth (samsara) as long as there are karmic debts to be paid. Liberation is considered to be the dissolution of this bondage, and is the goal of yogic practice.

Karma can be classified into three kinds: prarabdha-karma affects the conditions of one’s present life, agami-karma is the result of acts performed in this life that will be worked out in the future, and sancita-karma which is the residue of acts performed in lives past and present that remains latent in this one. The mechanism by which karma is believed to operate varies somewhat between different schools of thought, but can be explained in general terms with reference to the samskaras or impressions which are the sub-conscious traces of our experiences, and the vasanas or innate tendencies to which the samskaras contribute and that determine the instinctual patterns of a particular life.

In every life, no matter form it takes, the same citta or mind is present, and just as every action produces its effect in the world, it also leaves its impression in the citta. As mentioned above, these impressions are called samskaras, and citta not only stores all samskaras from all one’s lives, past and present, but is also shaped by them. Samskaras are therefore a memory of past experiences as well as being latent behavioural patterns that under appropriate conditions are subconsciously activated and relived. As such, they contribute to the store of agami-karma.

The accumulation of samskaras in the citta forms vasanas (from the verb root vas, ‘to remain’) which are instinctual tendencies laid down over many lifetimes. Given the range of vasanas that develop during the course of an indefinite number of previous lives, some of which relate to lives lived as various other species, many vasanas remain latent in a particular birth and comprise one’s sancita-karma. The vasanas that are able to be expressed in a particular birth are associated with the prarabdha-kama to be worked out in that life, and are held to be responsible for determining the patterns of thinking, dreaming, desire, attachment, aversion and behaviour that characterise a single lifetime.

Yajna
In order to overcome the binding nature of karma, the path of Karma-yoga aims to gain freedom from the consequences of our actions (naiskarmya) by performing them in a spirit of inner sacrifice (yajna). This ideal does not require the renunciation of worldly activity, as it is pointed out that as long as we live we cannot avoid activity, which as karma in the broadest sense of the term leads to the creation of new samskaras. The key is not the cessation of activity, then, but to transcend one’s identification with the actions our position in life requires us to perform.

The Bhagavad-Gita was the first text to teach Karma-yoga, and in historical terms has often been regarded as a conservative response to the social movement towards worldly renunciation that accompanied the spread of Upanisadic thought and Buddhism. The response of the Bhagavad-Gita to this situation was conservative insofar as it argued that we should devote ourselves to the duties and obligations that come with our social position (varna dharmas). However the principle that underwrote this response was not. In his dialogue with Arjuna, Lord Krsna argues that life inevitably involves some kind of action, even in cases of apparent inaction. This means that renunciates who abstain from worldly activity are bound to and by their actions just as householders are. What is crucial is not the kind of activity but the spirit in which it is undertaken. As long as we identify with our actions and believe that we are the agent or the doer (karta) of them, we are bound to their karmic consequences. As the following verses from the Bhagavad-Gita illustrate, if we remain unattached to the fruit of our actions we are not bound by them. In Karma-yoga all activity is undertaken in a spirit of inner renunciation, and what is ultimately sacrificed is the ego-self (ahamkara). Only acts performed without a sense of agency are nonbinding.

The distinction referred to in the last verse is that between the ever-existing conscious Self and prakrti (from the verb root kr, ‘to make, to do’ and pra which means ‘forth’), which is the unconscious creative principle of all phenomena. All activity and experience belongs to prakrti, and it is the false identification of the Self with this activity that is binding. By remaining unattached to the results of one’s actions, the karma-yogin aims to realise that the Self is not the agent but the conscious substratum upon which the spectacle of prakrti is reflected. In this way, karma ceases to bind as it is understood that it is prakrti and not the Self that acts.

As long as the karma-yogin is yet to realise the ideal of naiskarmya, which is freedom from the karmic consequences of one’s actions, there remains the need for a motive for activity. And given that this ideal is to be realised by sacrificing all sense of agency, the Bhagavad-Gita recommends that the motive for all action should be self-purification, and this is best achieved by submitting to the will of the Lord.

Loka-Samgraha
In seeking self-purification, karma-yogins aim to replace all selfish motives with the desire for liberation while continuing to fulfil their social duties and obligations. However with liberation comes not only the concrete realisation that one is not the agent responsible for individual actions, but also a release from the need to act in any particular way at all: indeed nothing remains to be done. This need not lead to a withdrawal from the world, though, as the Bhagavad-Gita promotes the ideal of the liberated continuing to work for its benefit (loka-samgraha). Having surrendered any sense of personal agency, the liberated act with perfect freedom and spontaneity as instruments of the Lord.

The path of Karma-yoga as taught by the Bhagavad-Gita can therefore be interpreted as being continuous with the intention of the sacrificial rituals of Vedic India. Recall that in the Rg Veda karma, in the sense of ritual act, opened an avenue for the spiritual aspirant to acknowledge and contribute to the continuing manifestation of the world which is described as the maha-yajna or great sacrifice of the supreme Lord. Similarly in the Bhagavad-Gita the karma-yogin sacrifices all sense of personal agency in order to become an instrument of the Lord in the work of maintaining the world-order (loka-samgraha). In both cases karma is a means be self-purification, and this is realised not by avoiding duties and obligations but by entering into the world-process in complete surrender to the will of the Lord.

Even though the Bhagavad-Gita treats karma-yoga as an independent spiritual discipline, there is much dispute in other paths of yoga as to whether liberation can be gained from karma alone. Most agree that the purification that comes with selfless action is essential for liberation, and so regardless of what the utility of karma is believed to be in the later stages of a spiritual discipline, realising the ideal of nairkarmya is considered to be indispensable.

Mahatma Gandhi as a Karma-Yogin
The most well known exemplification of the principles of Karma-yoga in modern times can be found in the life of the revered lawyer, politician and activist for Indian independence, Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948). Gandhi is probably better known around the world for his championing of the principle of non-violence ('ahimsa'), and his life and work has been taken up by peace activists and scholars world-wide. However as the following quotes illustrate, Gandhi described his service to the community as a spiritual practice.

‘The reason why I let myself be totally absorbed in serving the community, was my wish for self realisation. … I felt God could only be reached through service. And service was for me to serve India, because I had the talent for it, and it came to me without me taking the initiative.’

‘What I wanted to achieve, what I have striven for and sought after these thirty years, is self realisation, to see God face to face, to achieve moksha (liberation). I live and act for this goal. Everything I do, through what I say and write, and my efforts in politics, is aimed at the same goal.’

‘People say I am a saint who has lost himself in politics. But in reality I am a politician who does my utmost to be a saint.’

Gandhi was significantly influenced by his reading of the Bhagavad-Gita, and interpreted his work for the welfare of others as a form of yajna or sacrifice in the sense of acting without the desire for receiving anything in return, whether temporal or spiritual. He held that this spirit of renunciation should accompany all the activities of life, and that any action performed without it resulted in bondage. For Gandhi, then, the Karma-yoga path of service required the renunciation of self-interest and an acceptance of what life brings without resentment and complaint: ‘yajna is not yajna if one feels is to be burdensome or annoying.’ And this was to be best accomplished by completely surrendering to the will of God: ‘Do not worry in the least about yourself, leave all worry to God.’

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