Reinvent The Self!

Everyone strives for control, in some way or the other, over someone or something. The feeling of having control over something is really great or seemingly ultimate.

In Karma Yoga, one tries to control his deeds. He focuses on doing the things which are dutiful, morally correct. It means those are either compatible with scriptures or with his conscience at that time. However, fundamentally, he seeks to control his actions. There are a lot of sayings that go with Karma Yoga, like,

“what goes around comes around”,

“garbage in garbage out”, or

“So in everything, do unto others what you would have them do to you…”, or more robustly as Nassim Taleb says,

“Don’t treat others the way you wouldn’t like to be treated”,

And there are many….

All these sayings point to the input, karma or actions. If I am able to control the input, that is, my actions, I am bound to get good results. A yogi readily yet happily accepts and is indifferent to “Karma oriented outcomes”. Today we see people doing exactly opposite. They want to control the outcome. That’s why they are likely to be engaged in “Outcome oriented Karma”! Here the expectation of success for that particular trial is maximised. Hence it’s riskier. Books sermonising us on this, are abound with titles as “outcome oriented methods”, “OO thinking”, “OO investing”, and “OO cultures” and what have you! To me, these are not karma yogis but “optional yogis” for want of a better word. These books are sold because there are trivial few who happen to taste the success and approve of the theories mentioned in the book. We conveniently neglect the fact, thanks to survivorship bias, that there are vital many who failed miserably after following the same theory. This is one of the attributes of optionality and is explained in a great details in the book Antifragile by Nassim Taleb.

Along with outcome oriented karma, there’s a notion of process oriented karma as well. Here, the overall expectation of success across all the trials is maximised. Hence it’s less risky. I feel it’s necessary to clarify that Karma-oriented or karma yoga, however, does not mean process oriented. In fact, karma does not know the results. Processes are developed so as to guarantee a result, an outcome. There’s a very famous story about a monk and a scorpion that explains this better than anything else. The monk says to the boy, “As it’s water’s nature to make things wet, and scorpion’s nature to sting, so it’s my nature to save!”

A karma yogi is neither process oriented nor result oriented. In fact, he is nature oriented. He is true to his nature. He doesn’t desist from what he does or resist what he receives. He is honest while he chooses his act. These honest efforts in controlling his actions later get transformed into wisdom and love as he progresses on his path.

It’s precisely because of this that CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai, says, “Reward efforts and not Outcomes!” God doesn’t just say that but He actually does that. Simply because He truly knows who to, what to and how to reward!

A yogi, however, is least bothered about the rewards. The only reward he receives is the Joy of doing. And that reward is instantaneous.

Also he doesn’t care of accumulating optionality as he is totally free. At every moment. And freedom is the ultimate option!