Two kinds of people do karma.
- Those that are bound by it – the karma baddhAs
- Those that are not bound by it – the karma yOgIs.
Two kinds of people do not work.
- Those that are lazy. Their work-avoidance is called akarma.
- Those that have renounced karma. Their work avoidance is called karma tyAga.
All that work are not karma yOgIs and all that avoid work are not karma tyAgIs.
karma yOgIs give up the fruit of the work – they are karma phala tyAgIs.
- This does not mean taking your salary and putting it in the charity box as some wise person once suggested.
- It means being detached from the results of your action, fighting without your eyes on victory/defeat, painting without your eyes on fame and appreciation, cooking without knowing who will eat that food, you family, the street dog or bacteria.
Most people I have met are karma baddhAs, they work from desire or kAma and they are bound by the shackles of their karma.
Some people I know have performed partial karma tyAga, this means they don’t do jobs-for-money any more.
I might have left off most karma and have very few duties left. So I might be a karma tyAgI.
But that does not make me a karma yOgI.
To be a karma yOgI or a sannyAsI, it is in my mind that I must leave everything.
If I am internally detached then I may be surrounded by samsAra and still be a sannyAsI or a karma yOgI.
satyA
