If one should desire to live in this world a hundred years, one should live performing Karma (righteous deeds).

Thus thou mayest live; there is no other way.

By doing this, Karma (the fruits of thy actions) will not defile thee.

Isa-Upanishad, Verse 2
(Translated by Swami Paramananda)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hinduism is the world’s oldest religion--dating back to 5,000 BCE by some estimates--but the wisdom is as timeless now as it was back then. Today it’s the third most practiced religion worldwide. 95% of those practitioners reside in India, but there’s no doubt the rest of us have much to learn from their ancient texts.

In his commentary, Swami Paramananda says, “Karma here means actions performed without selfish motive, for the sake of the Lord alone. When a man performs actions clinging blindly to his lower desires, then his actions bind him to the plane of ignorance or the plane of birth and death; but when the same actions are performed with surrender to God, they purify and liberate him.”

This concept can be applied by anyone, as the place from which your actions come from mean everything. I recently came to realize that although I’ve been walking the path God intends for me, I’d been doing so with reluctance, not from a place of surrender. I’d been doing everything I’d been asked, but the manner in which I was doing it came from a place of wishing I wasn’t, instead of being happy to serve.

I felt a lot of resistance from what The Universe kept putting in front of me, to the point I felt forced into submission. But when I gave in and made this subtle shift in mindset, everything seemed to change with me. With submission came a release of emotion and what felt like a weight lifted off my shoulders. Now I try to walk the path with gratitude and trust in what God has in store for me.