Acceptance, Active Engagement, and the Bhagavad Gita (Rerun)

by Nina

Paris in Motion by Brad Gibson

Since Brad started off by mentioning the combination of acceptance and active engagement as the best approach to healthy aging (see Full Disclosure), and Baxter followed with his take on the subject (see What We Need to Practice), I thought I’d tell those of you who don’t already know a little something about the yoga philosophy to which they were both referring.

When I teach beginning yoga philosophy I often like to start by mentioning that most people don’t realize that the most famous yogi of the 20^th century was Mohandas K. Gandhi. And what made him a great yogi wasn’t the number of sun salutations he did (not very many, if any at all), but his practice of yoga in action, as inspired by the seminal yoga scripture the Bhagavad Gita, which he referred to as his “mother.”

The Bhagavad Gita is one section of a much longer work, the Mahabharata, written in approximately 500 to 400 BCE. It tells the story of Arjuna, the most distinguished warrior in the Pandava army, as he stops and surveys his adversaries in the Kavara army. The Kavaras are power-hungry corrupt rulers, who had usurped the throne. The peace-loving Pandavas, on the other hand, have the welfare of the people at heart. So this is considered a moral war.

But Arjuna sees among the opposing forces many with whom the Pandavas have no quarrel, including highly esteemed teachers and elders. He tells Krishna, his charioteer and great friend, he is determined not to fight. His scruples center on the imagined personal consequences of his fighting: his guilt for the decimation of his people. Krishna speaks with him about yoga—the Gita is their dialogue—until he is once more resolved to fight.

The main message of the Gita, which is repeated throughout the text, concerns the benefits of acceptance along with the need for action. Here is how Krishna puts it:

Set thy heart upon thy work, but never on its reward.
Work not for a reward; but never cease to do thy work.
Do thy work in the peace of Yoga and, free from selfish desires, be not moved in success or failure.
Yoga is evenness of mind—a peace that is ever the same. 
(translation by Juan Mascaro)

Krishna tells Arjuna that work is a necessary part of human existence, so the only way to attain equanimity is to do your work without any thoughts of results, remaining open to success or failure. And that this approach—this letting go of all results, whether good or bad, and focusing on the action alone—is the essence of yoga. For Gandhi work meant fighting for the independence of India and the rights of the oppressed through non-violent action. And he describes the importance of doing work without focusing on the results this way:

“He who is always brooding over results often loses nerve in the performance of his duty. He becomes impatient and then gives vent to anger and begins to do unworthy thing; he jumps from action to action, never remaining faithful to any. He who broods over results is like a man given to objects of the senses: he is always distracted, he says good-bye to all scruples, everything is right in his estimation, and therefore he resorts to means fair and foul to attain his end."—M.K. Gandhi

But how does this yogic attitude help us ordinary mortals? This week both Baxter and Richard Rosen recommended regular, steady practice as the best approach for both osteoporosis and Parkinson’s disease. But daily yoga practice is no quick fix, and results are never guaranteed, because this is real life, people. So for your peace of mind, at the same time that you work toward staying healthy you can let go of all thoughts of success or failure and simply focus on your practice. Then no matter what happens, you’ll be prepared to handle it. And outside the yoga room, this yogic approach allows you to cultivate equanimity in your daily lives. For no matter what work we have to do, whether it is raising children, going to a 9 to 5 job, being politically active, or helping a dying family member, practicing acceptance along with active engagement allows us to do what we need to do and be at peace with the results:

In this wisdom, a man goes beyond what is well done and what is not well done.
Go thou therefore to wisdom:
Yoga is wisdom in work. —trans. by Juan Mascaro

(It took me a long time to learn this particular lesson, and a lot of practice to learn not to fall back into my old patterns of stressing out about the future, but personally I’ve found this yogic attitude to be as helpful as any of the other anti-stress yoga practices - such as inverted poses and yogic breathing - that I practice on a regular basis. Maybe even more so.)