Practice of Karma Yoga

by Sivananda Saraswati

This volume is, as the title will show, a book that has been carefully prepared for the benefit of those who are intricately placed in life that they cannot tread the path of renunciation or Sannyasa. Certainly, unless one cleanses the augean stables of his mind and expurgates all impurities through selfless and disinterested service while living amid the toil and moil of the world, he will find himself in a fool’s paradise, when he puts on the second orange-coloured garb to follow the path of renunciation. So one has to do Karma Yoga first ceaselessly and untiringly, and develop all noble qualities such as cosmic love, endurance, nobility and Brahmacharya, and thus equip himself for the great ensuing battle royal, and finally come out the victor.

The present work, Practice of Karma Yoga, coming as it does, from the inspired and enlightened pen of Swami Sivanandaji, is, as usual, a safe and sound guide to reach the goal in view of the aspirant. Those who have had the good fortune to know of Sri Swami Sivanandaji and his writings—from the biggest volume to the sixteen-page pamphlet distributed free to those who ask and those who do not ask—will agree with us how infallible his writings are, how simple and lucid is the language he employs in order that what he writes may be accessible not only to the university graduate, but also to him or her who has a working knowledge of English, and how sincere and earnest the author is in his unquenchable thirst to be even a ‘particle’ of service to his brethren. Pregnant with the magnetism of a Jivanmukta or liberated sage, they cannot but uplift the seeker after Truth to ineffable heights of spiritual glory, bliss and peace.

204 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Swami Sivananda Saraswati (September 8, 1887—July 14, 1963) was a Hindu spiritual teacher and a well known proponent of Sivananda Yoga and Vedanta. Sivananda was born Kuppuswami in Pattamadai, in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. He studied medicine and served in Malaya as a physician for several years before taking up monasticism. He lived most of the later part of his life near Muni Ki Reti, Rishikesh.

He is the founder of The Divine Life Society (1936), Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy (1948) and author of over 200 books on yoga, vedanta and a variety of other subjects. He established Sivananda Ashram, the location of the headquarters of The Divine Life Society (DLS), on the bank of the Ganges at Shivanandanagar, at a distance of 3 kilometres from Rishikesh.

Sivananda Yoga, the yoga form propagated by him, are now spread in many parts of the world through Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres, but these centres are not affiliated with Swami Sivananda's original ashrams which are run by the Divine Life Society.

Reviews

[mahesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Must read for those in the Karma yoga path. It was an interesting read

[Sasha Wolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Karma Yoga literally means "the yoga of action", but is usually used primarily to refer to "selfless service" or voluntary work, although this text also includes some general ethical guidelines. I found it useful in thinking through a couple of issues I'd been pondering, but I don't think I'd recommend it to people outside the tradition; as with most of Sivananda's writings, the style is dated and a lot more prescriptive than the more recent publications of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres. He also wrote very much as he spoke, from what I can tell, meaning that the text can come across as rather fragmented and repetitive. You need a certain affection for the tradition to get past that, I suspect.

[Abhi Yerra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books I wish I read a long time ago. In a way it complements Vivekananda’s Karma Yoga by being the exceedingly practical guide of putting Karma Yoga into action. Karma Yoga is selfless work. It is pretty difficult to put into practice because of how ego centered our lives are. But this book shows all the places the ego is hiding in the things we do and how to overcome them.

[Santaraksita · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lot of the writing is repetitive and poorly written. It reads as if the author is just speaking randomly and has made no effort to present his views in a systematically arranged manner.