Key to Lasting Joy, Hidden in IIT's Motto

In this article, I try to interpret the Institute's motto based on my understanding of the source text. This is just an attempt to elaborate upon the meaning of the motto, which I feel, carries some strong positive values. Please do comment on the content and let me know if I could do a fair job at putting my point across!

The motto of IIT Kharagpur, "Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam" is part of a verse of the Bhagawad Gita, the most popular philosophical and spiritual treatise of India, also seen as a text with invaluable insights on self-management. It has three words, which mean: yoga, of action, is skill in order. The word 'kaushal' can be also interpreted as excellence, talent, perfection etc. Here, the term 'yoga' refers to the concept of balanced and perfected life, wherein, an individual's body, mind and spirit are in a state of equanimity, peace and joy. Owing to the poetic nature of the text, the motto can be translated in two different ways.

The first and perhaps more straight forward translation : "excellence in work is yoga", eulogizes the spirit of excellence in action. This interpretation means that we should just strive for perfection in our work or duty, for such perfection alone is real yoga. But it leaves us with the question, what really is excellence in action and how to strive for it? Does it entail passionate and wholehearted work with intense focus, minimum flaws and maximum positive outcomes? The text never elucidates upon any direct definition of such excellence anywhere.

A deeper look at the complete verse, reveals a very different, and arguably, much more intriguing and profound message, which is in sync with the central theme of the text. If we see the motto in context of the entire verse of the Gita, from which it has been borrowed, the actual message, emphasizing "action performed as Yoga" becomes more vivid and it leaves no unanswered questions. The verse goes as follows:

" By the process of applying mind and intelligence to yoga, one can attain equanimity in the wake of favorable and unfavorable outcomes of various actions, therefore strive for yoga, yoga is the perfection of work." (Gita 2.50)

So, the alternate translation can be stated as (which resonates better with the message of the parent text) : "yoga is perfection of work", which implies, work meets perfection only if performed in the state of yoga. Notably, Gita is referred as the Yoga-shastra or the book of yoga. Yoga literally means 'to link' or 'to connect', to connect our individual existence, work, efforts and in fact, our entire life process, with a higher purpose, for our own good and for the ultimate good of all. The physical and mental exercises that are generally practiced as Yoga throughout the world are but a part of the bigger definition of Yoga, which encompasses all aspects of our lives and actions. It targets a life of complete balance and joy. Breathing exercises and meditation processes also form a crucial part of the general Yoga practices, which eventually aim at better personal well-being. But the Gita and the other dedicated texts of Yoga, go much beyond this understanding of half an hour psycho-physiological exercises and recommend performing all our activities as Yoga, for our ultimate well-being. Let's see what does that mean.

First, what would real well being mean to us? Perhaps, good physical and mental health, good inter-personal relations filled with understanding, compassion and affection, finding joy and deeper purpose in our daily work, abundance of 'essential' resources, absence of negativity, anxieties, fear, depression, hatred, anger, jealousy and constant inner peace. Can Yoga help us achieve these? The commonly practiced psycho-physical exercises, which are but a part of Yoga, certainly help us in maintaining sound physical and mental health. But, what is meant by performing our regular activities and daily duties as Yoga and how does that help us in maintaining peace, equanimity and balance ( that would naturally resulting in best possible performance)?

If we observe carefully, often our day to day actions of body, mind and speech aim at some sort of short-term or long term gratifications or pleasures (real or assumed). This can be visualized if one sees himself/herself as aloof from the body and mind and just observe their activities. Just like a computer has a hardware and a software, we too have the body and the mind. For this, we need to assume the position of a careful observer, just witnessing the actions of the mind and the body, assuming the role of the operator who is in-charge of the software and the hardware of the human machinery. Observing activities of body is simpler. Observing mind's activity essentially boils down to watching our thoughts carefully.

For instance, if some tasty food is coming in our thoughts, we may give in and try to satiate our sense of taste and derive some pleasure out of it. This is an example where a physical sensory system along with mind is involved in the process of enjoyment. Hence, hardware as well as software are involved. For an example, where we try to derive pleasure directly from our subtle faculty, ie., mind (analogous to software), recall the sense of joy we feel when someone praises us! This is a very core tendency in all of us. We often fall for appreciation, affection and all the sweet emotions that we receive from others for whatever reasons. Many of us may be motivated to achieve such emotional or egoistical satiation from others and hence, may choose our target actions accordingly. We may be inclined to use our mind for deriving pleasure for a long time by reflecting on such incidences repeatedly. Eventually, the same core pleasure seeking tendency is at work. The source of pleasure in all these cases are factors external to us, on which we have little control and are bound to change.

The moment our efforts of deriving pleasures through our hardware and software of body and mind are thwarted, we start experiencing all the negatives. Given the constancy of change in all aspects of our lives, the external circumstances are bound to fluctuate. If we are accustomed to deriving pleasure, gratification and satiation from external factors in the form of objects, people, incidents, places, interactions of various forms and degrees of intimacy, we are bound to get agitated and disturbed when any of these factors are lost, change, reverse or fade out.

Moreover, when our efforts aimed at such pleasures of body and mind come into conflict with that of others, our inter-personal relations are embittered. Conflict does not only imply hurting others' interest intentionally or unintentionally. The mere absence of similar degrees of pleasure in our peers' reach may invoke strife at the mental level, resulting in negative thoughts and feelings in them. The individual, self-centered circles of bodily and mental pleasures of people are bound to cross and cut into each other, leading to a constant state of strife and struggle. The Gita states that as long as the doer performs actions with the intention of gratifying his/her body and mind, he/she will be in a constant state of strife and unrest. Moreover, these fleeting pleasures derived from body and mind are transitory in nature, and do not give us lasting satisfaction and happiness. They keep the individual trapped in the limited and self-centered play of action-reaction pairs and stunts progress towards higher, more compassionate and fulfilling goals.

What's the alternative? The principles of Yoga attack the root cause of all anxieties, worries and distress. They recommend that we abstain from performing actions for the pleasure of our subtle (mind, ego, emotion and intelligence) and gross (physical senses) bodies, but dedicate them to a bigger cause, which originates from the core of our being and one which can be shared by all alike. Here, the objective shifts from self-gratification to 'sacrifice', another central theme in the Gita. The exact term used is 'Yagya'. Sanskrit scholars claim that there is no match for this term in English. The term 'sacrifice' comes closest. Performing action as Sacrifice or Yagya does not imply self denial and self abnegation. It simply means shifting the goal post from something transitory and agitating to something more profound, stable and fulfilling.

Rather than seeking gratification of our body and mind through various actions and their results, one is encouraged to perform all actions of body, mind and speech for fulfilling one's duties in the best possible way for betterment of oneself and others. Those duties may be our contribution to a bigger objective, affecting many lives in a positive way. In return, we may or may not receive instant gratification and satiation of various kinds. But one should refrain from craving for such mental and bodily gratification and should derive satisfaction from fulfilling his/her duties in the best possible way. An individual should assume the position of a witness to all his mental and physical actions and should strive for positive efforts performed with full devotion and dedication. This self-less cause, can be referred as service to a community, organization, society, nation, world or the maker of the world at the highest level, as long as the final targets and objectives are benevolent for the world at large! The goal now shifts to 'how best one can serve', how to be an effective contributor, how to progress and create value for the people, organization or community for which we work.

Consider the simple but the most fundamental and life-sustaining act of eating : While eating, our prime objective often shifts to gratifying the faculty of taste, rather than being careful about nutrition and health. Rather than being driven by taste, if we remain conscious of the actual objective of nurturing the body, we would certainly make better and healthier choices. We just need to remember that the sense of pleasure coming from the fleeting sensations on the tongue are nothing but a play of sensory mechanisms of our body. We certainly would like to have relishable food and not something tasteless. But this practice of detaching ourselves from innate bio-physiological and psychological phenomena of our body and mind, empowers us to take decisions and perform actions which are not just driven by these tendencies, but are in line with a higher purpose. Then, we would be eating for a higher purpose, i.e., maintaining sound physical and mental health through nutritious food, so that we can perform our tasks better and be a better contributor.

The same process of 'conscious action', applies to all walks of life: from our daily routine, professional work and interpersonal relations, all the way to the vital components of our personal life. Such conscious action of body, mind and speech is to be performed with the core intention of personal and universal well being, from a sense of service to the bigger whole, of which we are part. Then we say that the action is being performed in 'yoga' and that's deemed as the perfect way all throughout the Gita. It's a matter of mental disposition, through which we abstain from falling prey to pleasure seeking tendencies of the mind and uplift our focus onto dutiful, devoted, benevolent actions.

The first translation discussed in the article, stands contradicted by Gita itself, which denies the possibility of any human endeavor achieving perfection in strict physical sense. Look at the following verse for instance:

No action is perfect, just like fire is always covered with some amount of smoke, all actions have their flaws. One should therefore perform his duty which is aligned with his own nature and should not shun it because of its inherent flaws. (Gita 18.48)

If the performer, however faulty and under-skilled, performs his duty in the state of yoga, he can achieve a state free from anxieties, fear, jealousy, stress and full of lasting peace, bliss and joyfulness. The text does not refer to the perfection of the action, but the gradual elevation of the performer himself to a higher understanding, involving an attitude of service to the bigger whole, gratitude and duty.

This is also clear from one of the key verses which goes as follows:

Man attains the highest perfection by worshiping, Him -- through his own natural duties, from whom the tide of creation has been streamed forth and by whom all this universe is pervaded. (Gita 18.46)