Vashisht Vaid's blog at https://holysageagathiyar.com is a goldmine of information. Vashisht writes, "There are five types of main works, which should be dutifully performed upon daily basis, by the evolving humanity during the given term period of their incarnated lives," and goes on to list the work given as, "of which the number 1 work [prathma karma]", followed by number two work and the rests.
- prathma karma,
- dvitiya karma,
- tritiya karma,
- chatush karma, and
- pancha karma.
- The number 1 work [prathma karma] is to find out the very reason, for which they came over to exist in this human form life on planet earth.
- The number 2 work [dvitiya karma] for a human being, is to devoutly meditate upon the one and only unknowable universal father lord.
- The number 3 work [tritiya karma] for a human being is to dutifully pay respects and obedience to this physical world dutiful caretaker’s, which all caretakers especially include their physical world parents and grandparents [lokik pitris], and also to the lunar forefathers [soma pitris].
- The number 4 work [chatush karma] for a human being is to dutifully aid and help, the ongoing evolution of all co-existing human beings upon this planet earth.
- The number 5 work [pancha karma] for a human being is to dutifully aid and help, the ongoing evolution of all co-existing beings and entities, who all vitally exist upon the lower levels of the evolutionary ladder.
Upon close scrutiny of the above 5 tenets for humanity, Agathiyar in listing the 5 reasons and purposes of man in taking birth, brings us to realize that each of these 5 deals with a particular degree of karma or work listed from 1 to 5. Could these be Karma Yoga, the essential yoga that each human should carry out during his lifetime?
Karma Yoga is the Yoga of action says Swami Vivekananda. Karma in this instance is work. It is a means to do service to the world and reach enlightenment. Indeed Agathiyar has listed our duties clearly in his 5 tenets. Here man is directed to carry out actions that bring beneficial results to both the self and all of creation. If Agathiyar had decreed these 5 tenets to be followed by humans, at the assembly of sages and seers in the past, when he speaks one to one through his medium of communication the Nadi, on the onset our past karma is laid before us, and solutions are provided by the most compassionate Siddhas. I realize now that above and beyond these the Siddhas lay before each individual directives in Karma Yoga that he/she has to undertake during the rest of his or her lives. Though the past has determined the present, coming to the Siddhas they begin to show new ways to come out of the web we have spun for ourselves by bringing us to Karma Yoga. Karma Yoga then sets our course right henceforth.
Swami Vivekananda wrote in his book, "Karma Yoga", "You must remember that all work is simply to bring out the power of the mind which is already there, to wake up the soul." He shares the secret of work.
"The ideal man is he who, in the midst of the greatest silence and solitude, finds the intensest activity, and in the midst of the intensest activity finds the silence and solitude of the desert. He has learned the secret of restraint, he has controlled himself. He goes through the streets of a big city with all its traffic, and his mind is as calm as if he were in a cave, where not a sound could reach him; and he is intensely working all the time. That is the ideal of Karma Yoga, and if you have attained to that you have really learned the secret of work. But we have to begin from the beginning, to take up the works as they come to us and slowly make ourselves more unselfish every day."
Swami Vivekananda pacifies us, "There may be those exceptional persons about whom I just spoke, those who can stand aside and give up the world, as a snake casts off its skin and stands aside and looks at it. There are no doubt these exceptional beings, but the rest of mankind have to go slowly through the world of work. Karma-Yoga shows the process, the secret, and the method of doing it to the best advantage." So does Agathiyar's 5 tenets show us the way to reach the peak eventually. His message is for the commoner and layman bringing him to reach the peak too. The most compassionate did not rule anyone out. Even the one yearning to progress further spiritually and reach higher peaks has to start with these 5 tenets first.
It was an extremely hot day. The dogs began to bark, a sign that the garbage truck was making its way through the streets. I picked up my kitchen trash and laid it in the pile that the garbage collector had created for ease of collection. Just as I returned indoors I saw a worker look into my home. He called me and asked if I had some water to spare. My eyes welled in tears. I had engaged in aggressive feeding and charitable programs in the past with others at Amudha Surabhi and Pothihai Tharma Chakram. Though it made me sad to see the state of affairs of the homeless and those in orphaned homes, reaching out to them did not warrant the tears in my eyes as did seeing this worker stand at my gate and ask for some water to quench his thirst. I guess in all our rounds of feeding and helping others there was that minute element of ego in me that I was doing service. But when I saw the afternoon sun drain the worker of his last ounce of energy, I felt his thirst. I had to replenish it. When I narrated this happening to my granddaughter she surprised me by asking "Why did he choose your house, Grandpa?" I had no answer. But I felt the scorching sun burn my skin and my throat parch and dry too that moment. My "I" or identity did not exist then. I only saw myself in his shoes. Swami Vivekananda writes, "The highest ideal is eternal and entire self-abnegation, where there is no "I", but all is "Thou"; and whether he is conscious or unconscious of it, Karma-Yoga leads man to that end." I stood before Agathiyar in tears and speechless after passing the worker a bottle of water.
