yama

O Arjuna! As the ignorant men work with attachment to action, so should the wise act without attachment, for the welfare of the world. -Bhagavad Gita 3:25

Please do the most unpleasant tasks first unless there is some pleasant thing, which also has to be done that day. In time, you will find that you have peace of mind. You have more leisure, inner leisure. Procrastination is the villain of the piece in taking away that inner leisure. Inner leisure gives you the space to pay attention to those whom you love, and for whom you work so hard. You want to give them a good, comfortable life. Inner leisure gives you the space to spend quality time with your spouse, with your children, your parents, and your siblings. When you are with your spouse, you are with the person totally, absolutely totally. With the pending problems and files inside the heart, you cannot do that because you are not total.

-Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Need for Personal Reorganisation

Plunge into the world, and then, after a time, when you have suffered and enjoyed all that is in it, will renunciation come; then will calmness come. So fulfil your desire for power and everything else, and after you have fulfilled the desire, will come the time when you will know that they are all very little things; but until you have fulfilled this desire, until you have passed through that activity, it is impossible for you to come to the state of calmness, serenity, and self-surrender.

-Vivekananda, Swami; Time, Reading. Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (p. 83). (Function). Kindle Edition.

It is useless to say that the man who lives out of the world is a greater man than he who lives in the world; it is much more difficult to live in the world and worship God than to give it up and live a free and easy life.

-Vivekananda, Swami; Time, Reading. Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (p. 85). (Function). Kindle Edition.

yama coincides with the practice of Karma Yoga where selfless service is performed without going after the fruits of the action. In Karma Yoga, God is the beneficiary of the action, the fruits of the action are surrendered as an offering. It is a form of meditation continuously bring the mind back to the task at hand sans the ego.

The question to always ask is: Am I being selfish?

This question is significant as most every action we do is selfish in some way. Patanjali's solution is the five yamas. If we look at the yamas through the lens of the question "Am I being selfish?" we can see how they are designed to help us cultivate a mindset of selflessness.:

ahimsa (Non-violence). If we are violent we are being selfish as we are putting our desires above the well-being of others. Any form of violence whether it is physical, verbal, or mental is a form of selfishness. Violence is a way of putting our desired outcome whatever the well-being of others. It is better to get things done in a non-violent way than a violent way.
- Did I do or think anything violent, raise my voice, said something hurtful?
satya (Truthfulness). Always speak the truth. If we do something wrong we should admit it, if we are confused we should be honest, if we don't know something we should say we don't know.
- Did I lie?
asteya (Non-stealing). Stealing is a form of selfishness as it is taking something that belongs to someone else for your own benefit. It can be physical stealing or it can be stealing time. Procrastination is a form of stealing most pertinent to the topic of Karma Yoga as it is stealing time from others.
- Did I steal something physical?
- Did I steal time from someone else by procrastinating?
brahmacharya (Self-control). The traditional interpretation of brahmacharya is celibacy. But it is more generally self-control. If we are not in self-control we are lead by our ego for the tasks that need to be done. Lust and desires are usually a form of procrastination as they are usually more fun to think about than the task at hand. These include things like: I want to do the fun tasks and avoid the boring tasks, I need to do the easy tasks before the hard tasks. The pure brahmacharya is to do the hard tasks first and not be lead by the ego of doing the fun tasks first. Lastly, loss of control also arises because of fear. Fear is a condition of the ego which is why we need to make friends with fear.
- Did I do the hard task first?
- Am I afraid of the fear of failure?
aparigraha (Non-covetousness). Covetousness is a form of selfishness as it is desiring something that belongs to someone else. It is a form of greed. It is I want to do the task that someone else is doing because it is easier. I don't want to do the hard task.
- Did I do my own task?

The goal of the yama is to cultivate good, moral character and to have a clear mind. To accomplish the yama ideal we need the following:

Aspire for a Sattvic ideal.
Live simply and give as much as possible.
Name and fame are poison do not aspire for those!
Thoughts are actions. An impure thought is an impure action.
No half assing. Put your entire energy into the task at hand.

Study

Studying the yamas is the study of Karma Yoga and the development of good character. As such the study of Karma Yoga is the study of people who have lead a life of selfless service. I have grouped the study into four categories: Hanuman Chalisa, Biographies, Classics, and Itihasa.

Hanuman Chalisa. The Chalisa is a category unto itself because the 40 couplets describe the ideals of Karma and Bhakti Yoga as performed by Hanuman. Each couplet is a lesson in how to cultivate the qualities of strength, courage, devotion and service. The goal is to understand how deepen these qualities within ourselves.
Itihasa & Puranas. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are the two great epics of India. They are primed with stories of selfless service and devotion. Further, the Puranas also have many stories of the saints and sages who have lead a life of selfless service.
Biographies. Studying the sages and saints especially the contemporary ones who were dealing with the problems of the modern world is important. How to live a life of selfless service while experiencing racism and oppression is a important to understand how to cultivate Karma Yoga in the modern world.
Classics. There are many great works of literature, philosophy, history, and statecraft that have shaped human civilization over the millennia. These are both the texts of the East as well as the West. The works of Aristotle, Plato, Epictetus, Cicero, Marcus Aurelius, St. Augustine, Dante, Plutarch, all have much to teach us about how to cultivate good character and a clear mind as Yoga and Vedanta.
Sadhana. The actual nitty gritty details of how to cultivate Karma Yoga and the practical ways of removing the obstacles.

Hanuman Chalisa

Understanding the Hanuman Chalisa is to understand Karma and Bhakti Yoga. This is developed by studying the works and lives of Saints and the study of devotional knowledge such as the Purana. This also includes commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita that are non-advaitic and devotional in nature. The Hanuman Chalisa is a synthesis of strength, courage, devotion and service. The goal is to understand how deepen these qualities within oneself.

Itihasa & Puranas

Biographies

Classics

While I think the three primary texts are sufficient for a lifetime of study limiting oneself to just three texts we miss out on a lot of the great works of literature, philosophy, history, and statecraft that have shaped human civilization over the millennia. There are great texts from the West as well as the East that can help us build a more complete moral compass.

Study​

Hanuman Chalisa​

Itihasa & Puranas​

Biographies​

Classics​

Sadhana​

Study

Hanuman Chalisa

Itihasa & Puranas

Biographies

Classics

Sadhana