Karma yoga

Karma yoga is the yoga of action. It's the dedication of all work as an offering to God, with no thought of personal reward and it was an integral part of the course; not just for those of us on the teacher training course but also for the 'yoga vacationers' who were on 'holiday' at the ashram too. The 'job' assigned could range from anything from sweeping the path, serving food, working in the boutique to emptying the rubbish bins. An hour each day was dedicated to this selfless service and it was mandatory.

Now I had a sneaky feeling before I arrived at the ashram that I would be given a job I wasn't going to particularly enjoy. Call it a premonition, a hunch or just the fact I knew my behaviour and actions hadn't been exactly a shining example to humanity. Nothing too hideous. I mean I haven't murdered anyone or anything like that but let's just say I have fractured a few karma 'laws' over the years. So I knew it was only a matter of time before the law of compensation caught up with me. The ashram seemed to be the most likely place it would - I figured I'd have to pay in one big go - and pay I did....scrubbing loo's.

It seemed rather apt - I'd even go so far as to say it was poetic justice (if it had been someone else)...so remembering that you suffer on account of your own actions, I decided to take it on the chin and look for the positives. I rationalised that at least I was cleaning the loo's in my own dorm so at least I knew they were clean, it wouldn't take longer than 30mins so I had an extra half an hour to 'play' with each morning and...well, I could only think of two positives...

Naturally I decided to do my karma yoga with good grace. I figured it would help me in the future. I decided to take the spiritual approach; be graceful, be happy, be dutiful...that was until I realised someone else was shirking their responsibilities on 'loo' duty. I was part of  team - there were supposed to be four of us and we split the areas which needed cleaning.  So one person would do the bogs, someone else the mop/sweep the floors, empty the bins and clean the sinks (cue hair balls - gross). I hadn't seen one woman since we'd been shown around the bogs and told what we had to do so assumed she'd been reassigned to something else.

The shirker was uncovered when I was asking Laura (in charge of assigning karma yoga jobs) for more bleach - the most reassuring smell in India - when she mentioned there were four of us scrubbers. Not so I told her - she asked me who been scrubbing with me so I went through the names and the shirker was identified. The cheek. I mean if I'm honest I was more irked with the fact I was too worried of the karmic outcome to put a middle finger up to the whole thing. What goes around comes around and all that. I also figured the law of retribution would catch up with me eventually and I didn't really relish being 'on the run' on the spiritual plane - I'd have to pay at some stage. Might as well be scrubbing loo's in an ashram after all, it could be worse...it can ALWAYS be worse.

But that didn't stop be being slightly aghast at the fact someone had the balls to not bother turning up. Didn't they have a karma conscience? Anyway, not my problem and all that - until the bog shirker cornered me asking why I said she wasn't cleaning the loo's. Eeek. confrontation over toilet duty - definitely uncharted territory, I mean I don't think I've argued over who's cleaning the loo since I was at uni and then we just decided not to bother cleaning them at all (leading to a rather unattractive skin complaint for some of us as a consequence). Apparently the lady in question had been scrubbing but at a different time to the rest of us only none of us had seen her so...whatever, I wasn't about to fall out over scrubbing a loo and as it turned out it worked in my favour - we decided to change who was cleaning which area so she got the loo's and I go the floors. Reeesult.  Divine intervention working at it's very best. But unbeknown to me the best was yet to come...

Two weeks later everyone changed jobs completely and I was to be working in the popular 'boutique'. To be fair the term 'boutique' in this context was used very loosely - my point of reference of a boutique is a shop which sells designer get up. However this one was slightly different - I was to be surrounded by books, clothes, cashew nuts, dates (luxury items in the ashram). But there's more, I got to use a calculator and fill out cards (boutique doesn't handle cash) while listening to chanting and chatting to customers.

I saw this as a sign - I was in credit with the universal laws. A first if ever there was one cause I'm rarely in credit on the physical plane let alone the astral plane. It felt good - a karmic promotion if ever there was one!