Ethical Principles
Many people define right action by what feels right in the moment or their inner urge to act. However, right action involves many things. First, in yogic practice there are tenets to help a sadhaka determine right action for themselves and perceive and act in accordance with dharma. What does this mean, to act in accordance with dharma? Dharma is the deepest natural tendency of mind. It is to abide in the law of this universe, the way, the Tao. This is dharma, the essential nature of a living being. In the essential nature of all is a fundamental movement towards the supreme entity. To act in accordance with dharma is to enhance the fundamental movement of living beings towards Parama Purusha because all are seeking reunion. All unit entities are seeking the eternal happiness that comes with the dissolution of the boundaries of self into one’s primal state of being. To act in such a way as to promote dharma is to take right action. To do this, certain tenets exist, yama and niyama, avoidances and non-avoidances, ethical principles. In addition, certain principles of karma yoga exist.
When one acts without attachment to the fruit of one’s action, then that action is a pure one. If acts realizing the divine Brahma is the real source of all and everything, that everything occurs within the body of Brahma, and one attributes all to him, surrenders all to him, and surrenders the results of actions unto Brahma, then what happens? The unit entity feels as if they are a vehicle for the divine Brahma and feels the service. They are in a humble service to the divine Brahma. Therefore, in this mental framework, no reaction to action comes. If the results are good or bad does not matter because the living being has put their all and everything with the best intention into the service. Rather than taking it as a personal achievement if it goes well or a personal failure if it does, the one who is practicing karma yoga realizes all is by Parama Purusha's strength alone and in service to him. Realizing this, one does not form attachment to the results of actions. Results become like water off the duck's back. They roll away. The results roll off of the sadhaka practicing right action because there is no grabbing hold of personal ego identity with the action.
There is a fine line between this and foregoing or negating responsibility. One may indeed act with the feeling of the presence of Brahma and in the service of Brahma without negating responsibility. There are certain principles of action. Whatever you do, do your very best. Whatever gifts you have, think, "I am serving the most supreme Lord in what I do. So to the best of the capacity of this vehicle that service will be given." Do your very best. There are so many factors in this universe. You may do a very nice deed but the person is annoyed and you don't know why. Perhaps it has absolutely nothing to do with you. Perhaps they just had a fight with someone or something bad happened in their life and their mood is highly distressed so that they do not have time to take care of your feelings. Then you take it personally and you feel, "Ah, I have been slighted" because you had attachment to the result of action. You wanted the person to respond to you in a certain way and you took offense when it did not happen. Furthermore, you took it personally. Do not do this. Do not take life personally. Do not take the responses to your actions personally. Indeed, the universe is vast and complex and the results of your actions are in this vast complexity in the mind of Brahma and may or may not be as you anticipate. Don’t take it personally.
In the principles of action, make your very best effort to serve the living Brahma in what you do. Then forgo grasping and attachment to results as the universe is very vast and has many variables that have nothing to do with you. Egos are very interesting. They tend to get very puffed up and to think like the small child whose parents are fighting and the child goes away with high distress in the mind thinking, "Oh, I have made my parents fight." Really speaking, the parents’ fight had nothing to do with the presence of the child but the child takes responsibility for that which has nothing to do with him. Likewise, as we grow to adulthood we go on taking responsibility for things that have nothing to do with us. Rather there is an appearance of causation between an action and the results. However, the appearance of causation is often deceptive. For the unit entity is involved in a vast tapestry of life and in that tapestry of life is a complex weaving.
Therefore, act with knowledge that all capacities belong to Brahma for you yourself are part of Brahma and in this vast complexity, this movement of Brahma is flowing. You are a created living being and the consciousness of Brahma is manifesting, experiencing, tasting in your form, learning to know itself. To taste with clarity is to taste without assumptions, beliefs and possessiveness of ego. Many times people are more possessive of negative thoughts, negative reactions and bad results than they are of good results. When all goes well, many people tend to ignore it, "Yes, I did all right." If it goes badly, they really notice. If someone was displeased with them, if they didn’t make a good score on a test, if something did not go well, then they notice, "I didn’t do well. I wasn’t good enough." This too is ego for it defines you. It assumes that you are the sole power and that it is all a result of you as an individual entity, which is, in most cases, highly unlikely.
Self-analysis ("I did not really try") is good so that you learn how to do your very best in every situation. Beyond that to claim personal association and responsibility for all results is simply aggrandizing the small sense of self and not accurate. It is self-aggrandizing, even if the results you claim are the failures you perceive. According to the opinions in the mind, you may perceive primarily failures or primarily successes. Either way is not to be present with the totality of what is. It is neither success nor failure but simply the ever-changing face of creation. It is neither good nor bad. It is simply changing. In this, one perceives suffering and the suffering one perceives is due to this engagement. Thus, one cannot help but feel compassion for all beings.
Assuming the qualities and characteristics of one’s sublime progenitor, one takes on his qualities of justice, compassion, and care. Then all actions become service at the feet of living beings. Right action does not depend on results but the internal process, the approach you take. Through right action one gains liberation from the bondage of results of actions. One walks in the world in greater and greater harmony, greater and greater peace of mind, greater and greater contentment. The qualities of niyama come to the surface when one follows the principles of right action. Rather than forming the sense of identity, the inherent reactions of mind results become simply waves that flow over and away. In this way, samskaras do not form. One begins to go deeper and deeper in one’s establishment in the inborn Self. The waves of experience flow like ebb tide and flood tide, but the inborn Self remains steady. The consciousness and identity that remain with the inborn Self do not grab for the high nor fear the low in the ups and downs of the created world. They flow like the water off the duck’s back, off the surface of the sadhaka. What begins to emerge is not simply reaction to past actions, but a fundamental sense of self, being, wholeness and the truth begins to emerge. Not only in one’s sadhana but in every moment of one’s life.
