Karma and Desires || RE 291 || Dr. Alok Pandey

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]So if you mean to say that you should not have desires that doesn't mean that you should not take the actions but sometimes on the path of our normal life uh you will have desires you want and we know that some of the desires when you're trying to achieve there will be failures.

[00:00:20]>> So in this path we are always >> impelled by desire. Yes. So how to take these failures in the path of so that's where the practice of nisham karma comes let's say I want promotion or I want a pay rise therefore I'm working well I may equally do now this I want promotion therefore I am working well which implies if I'm under rajas I'll show that I am working well it's not enough that you work well you must present yourself you must wear a suit which impresses that is rajas or I may want the promotion but I may do it under tamas I'm doing but deep inside area when somebody else gets it I say what is this this shouldn't happen or I may do it in a satic impulse I want promotion I want recognition I must do my job really well all three different things now where does yoga come in I will do these things but it I may or may not get the promotion I will accept it whatever comes as the divine will Now that's where the little tweet tuning or tweaking begins that I have done. Now this is only possible when we do it with the offering to the divine meaning thereby [laughter] it's a I'm using a modern language that there is a backup plan.

[00:01:40]So I want promotion I have to you know whatever work I'm doing let's say medicine practice whatever I want money medicine let's say. So I'm doing my work well and there is another um let's say same profession same specialy who is also sitting let's say in a manipal hospital there are two doctors I have not worked there so nothing to so they are both working now there's a competition also so I'm doing my best I want to be my best which I'm doing now the tweaking that must be done is that I'm doing my best I want to get recognition and pay package raise and promotion But I will offer this action to God within me and then I will act.

[00:02:24]Still the desire is there but I have put a backup in progress. Okay. [laughter] So first thing is that I have given it to the divine then I'm acting and then when the result comes and I am not recognized then I have to once again remember that look I have to practice this. So if it comes pleasant painful I again offer it to the divine as is your will I am sad to be frankly but you take care of everything. So first what will happen it'll clear the mind of too much cloud.

[00:03:02]So we are acting under desire during the action but in the beginning and the end we are offering it to god that becomes our backup. So what is implied within it is yam bahamyam that what he need thinks that I need and knows what is best for me he'll do so surrender must come with it so that's how one should otherwise desire is very difficult even to recognize it is as I said even u yogis so-called yogis partial yoga people do and it's under the impulsion of desire so one has to be but with this practice just nishkam karma remember and offer offer and yet do your work very well. You want a pay raise, it's fine. So slowly slowly one will see that uh one begins to get more and more tuned to the lord automatically and he says he may even start granting after sometimes [laughter] you automatically the change will come. It's okay. What will you do?

[00:04:10]You know the mango is getting ripened from inside. You'll see that's why we had the concept of grahast ashram. So there's a phase of life when we act under desire but always dharma is behind. So they comes alive when you have played with it and you say it's okay and then automatically the change comes that I want to do something higher do sava that change will come from within but if one has not done that this practice and just blindly continued with desire I know I mean so many people one of u teachers means teacher not my teacher that way but during my ambious days teacher who became major general in the army and jumped from his house and committed suicide. Why? Because he was slated to become left tenant general which is the last post you can become.

[00:05:02]But he didn't make it and he committed suicide. Now that's uh sad because you're impelled by desire. You are never happy because always there is something else which is in front of you.

[00:05:16]That's the problem with living only blindly by desires. Uh there was a cardiologist sitting next to me in the chamber. He once told Aloh I want some solution. I said what is the solution?

[00:05:30]He said when I drive the car when I see a car in front of me I want to overtake it. I say okay overtake it. What is there to me to solve? He said no because then there is another car.

[00:05:43][laughter] >> No end.

[00:05:46]>> No end. Another very interesting story of a CEO of one of the pharma companies.

[00:05:51]He tried everywhere. He says I went to psychiatrist. He told me that you take leave, you know, chill, take a break. He said I became worse. So why? Because he took a break. There he went to play tennis. You know big fellows or all these big hotels. He says I played a game and I lost. Now [laughter] I couldn't sleep. I lost the game. So I wanted to play again and I lost again.

[00:06:18]So he says I have got very stressed out [laughter] now what do I do? Now this is an extreme but something like that keeps happening in everybody's life and one becomes more and more frustrated. That's why the problem of that kind of life is that it's very pleasant in the beginning but it become bitter towards the end.

[00:06:36]Whereas the life of yoga is difficult in the beginning but becomes sweet and sweet as we move across. So move let desire be there but [laughter] offer the desire in the beginning and at the end the karmafal to the divine. So that in a way becomes yagya also part of the yagya offering then divine gives us tasty fruits [laughter] but don't do it for fruit not even the fruit of personal muti because then it's like ultimately you are asking actually very frankly you know if you give to the divine it's such a joy just this idea imagine you know this consciousness that power which has gone on into creation. That knowledge, that love is with you. That ananda is with you.

[00:07:27]What will one ever want after that?

[00:07:30]Because anything else you may get in life can not even remotely compare. Not just quantitatively, even qualitatively.

[00:07:37]And once one begins to experience it, it becomes impossible to act under the impulsion of desire. It's like uh after having drunk the amrit you are getting gutka pani and saying okay let me drink it because you'll immediately know oh my god so that's the difference it's a delight actually the path is full of ananda it's not not a path which leads to some some kind of blankness and detached person's image very wooden face and doesn't smile that's not yoga that's a show of yoga.

[00:08:14]Okay.