The enclosed inspiring incident captures how Sri Ramana Maharshi practically demonstrated the teaching of Nishkama Karma to his devotee. It has been told by Prof. K. Swaminathan in the book Face to Face With Sri Ramana Maharshi (pg 119).
Once Rangachari, a Telugu teacher in a Vellore college, asked the Maharshi to explain Nishkama Karma (desireless action). There was no reply. After a time, the Maharshi went up the hill followed by a few devotees and Rangachari. There was a thick, strong, thorny branch lying on the way which the Maharshi picked up and began working on. The spikes were cut off, the knots made smooth and the surface polished with a rough leaf.
Hours of hard and careful work resulted in a nice stick that Maharshi presented to a passing shepherd boy who appeared dejected because he had lost his stick. Rangachari confessed that he had learnt a new lesson in the art of teaching, for this silent practical demonstration was the Sage’s perfect answer to his earnest question.
Summary
As Maharshi Ramana demonstrated, Nishkama Karma means doing good to others, without any expectation of receiving so much as a thank you in return. Helping others by offering our selfless service (seva) is the best way to reduce our ego and ascend towards the goal of Self Realization (also known as God Realization).
The Self is beyond the ego and is realized after the ego is eliminated.
– Sri Ramana Maharshi
Performing regular Nishkama Karma helps us overcome the ego-driven feeling of separateness and realize our Oneness with the whole Creation. Through selfless service of others, we prepare ourselves to experience the spiritual truth of Atmavat Sarvabhuteshu – There is only One Soul and it is present everywhere and in all beings. The same soul that is in me, is also present in the one that I am helping. Therefore if I see someone suffering, I must try to feel their pain and misery as my own and try to alleviate it.
Gandhiji (who was not a perfected or God-realized soul like Maharshi Ramana), used to practice this Nishkama Karma teaching of the Gita. At his Ashram in Sabarmati, he used to regularly clean the ashram toilets himself. This in a time when the practice of untouchability was widespread in India and it was considered the job of the lower castes (dalits / shudras) to clean the toilets and drains of the upper castes.
Since there were hardly any flushable toilets or proper drainage systems in those pre-independence days, the dalits often had to scoop up and carry the human waste in baskets on their head. So by cleaning Ashram toilets himself Gandhiji, not only performed Nishkama Karma (selfless seva) of other Ashram inmates, but at the same time he set a tremendous example before Indians, to end the terrible practice of untouchability.
Atmavat Sarvabhuteshu! That is, we must entertain the same regard for others as we have for ourselves. And if we did, we would be ashamed to find other people’s children dirty, as we would be if they were our own. So also if we found others in distress, we would make that distress our own and try to relieve it.
– Mahatma Gandhi, in Selected Letters
