Effortless Performance – Nishkaam Karm

The term is Nishkam Karma or निष्काम कर्म*.

Nishkam/निष्- ाम is a sandhi of nih+kam or निः+काम. Here "nih" or "निः" means "without" and "kam/काम" means "kamna"/"कामना", i.e. any kind of desire.

Karma/कर्म means "work"/"action", "kri/कृ " dhatu. (*Reference from https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/nishkam-karma-of-bhagavad-gita)

So, the term "Nishkam Karma" means "action or without desire" or "work without motive".  With desire comes effort to fulfil the desire, if work is dissociated with desire, the effort (stressful effort) is dissociated from the work. The work becomes effortless.

Nature’s intelligence functions with effortless ease, with carefreeness, harmony, and love. If we observe nature at work, we see that the least effort is expended. Grass doesn’t try to grow, it just grows. Fish don’t try to swim, they just swim. This is their intrinsic nature. It is the nature of the sun to shine. Ant it is human nature to make our dreams manifest into physical form – easily and effortlessly.

Least effort is expended when our actions are motivated by love, because nature is held together by energy of love. When we seek power and control over other people, we spend energy in a wasteful way. When we seek money for personal gain only, we cut off the flow of energy to ourselves, and interfere with the expression of nature’s intelligence. We waste our energy chasing the illusion of happiness, instead of enjoying happiness in the moment. Attention to the whims of the ego consumes the greatest amount of energy. But when our internal reference point is our spirit, our actions are motivated by love, and there is no waste of energy. Our energy multiplies, and the surplus energy we gather can be channelled to create anything we want, including unlimited wealth. When we harness the power of harmony and love, we use our energy creatively for the experience of affluence and evolution.

The least effort is applied when you don’t feel like making any effort in doing your work, like a writer writes, a painter paints. Writing and painting may be their profession and source of their earning, but when they create even as part of their work, they don’t feel the stress or pressure, because they don’t feel like applying any effort to it, because they feel the joy of creation, and consider the rewards as by-product of that exercise. The same attitude can be had in doing any work assigned to us. Some people might say, it’s not possible, how can something be accomplished effortlessly, when we are actually putting time and effort in accomplishing it? The artist and the painter, they are also investing their time and effort in making their creation, but when you love your job and get engrossed while accomplishing it, you are in a state of flow, which is a state of mind of total involvement in your job, and to the extent that one is unaware of his or her surroundings. Even the hardships or problems become just another component of the task, and one sails through it towards accomplishing the objective.

This involvement makes one the owner of the task and everything that comes with it, as his responsibility. Therefore, take responsibility for your situation and for all the events you see as problems. This means not blaming anyone or anything for your situation, including yourself. Responsibility means the ability to have a creative response to the situation as it is now. All problems contain the seeds of opportunity, and this awareness allows you to take the moment and transform it into a better situation.

If you do this, every upsetting situation becomes an opportunity for the creation of something new and beautiful, every tormentor or tyrant becomes your teacher.

Practice defencelessness or being non-defensive, which is actually relinquishing the need to convince others of your point of view. By doing this you gain access to enormous amounts of energy that have previously been wasted. Self-motivation is another manifestation of practicing defencelessness. Once you are motivated and convinced about your work and assignment, have owned it, you will never bother what others are thinking about it. The time, energy, emotion which is otherwise squandered in thinking what others are thinking about your work and convincing them, that you are actually doing the right thing, is saved. So you gain access to enormous amounts of energy that have previously been wasted.

When you have no point to defend, you stop fighting and resisting and you can fully experience the present, which is a gift. When you embrace the present, you begin to experience the spirit within everything that is alive, and joy is born within you. As you drop the burden of defensiveness and resentment, you become light-hearted, joyous, and free. In this joyful simple freedom, you will know that what you want is available to you whenever you want it, because your want is coming from state of happiness, not from the state of anxiety or fear.

The effortless blooming of flower, the effortless chirping of birds, the effortless flowing of river, the effortless rising and setting of the sun and the moon, nature’s intelligence unfolds spontaneously though the path of no resistance. You can also lead a life similar to it, both personal and professional, when you combine acceptance, responsibility and defencelessness.  Your life flows with effortless ease. Your dreams and desires flow with nature’s desires. Then you can release your intentions without attachment, and when the season is right, your desires will blossom into reality.

Accept people, circumstances, and events as they are in this moment. When confronted with any challenge remind yourself. “This moment is as it should be,” because the entire universe is as it should be.

Take responsibility for your situation without blaming anything or anyone, including yourself. Every problem is an opportunity to take this moment and transform it into a greater benefit.

Relinquish the need to defend your point of view, remain open to all points of view, not rigidly attached to one of them.

kayen manasa buddhya kevalairindriyairapi .

yogin: karm kurvanti sang tyaktvatmashuddhaye |5.11| ShriMadBhagwatGita.

"With the body, with the mind, with the intellect, even merely with the senses, the Yogis perform action toward self-purification, having abandoned attachment. He who is disciplined in Yoga, having abandoned the fruit of action, attains steady peace..."