Book Review of KARMA by Sadhguru

We’ve all heard the word “karma” and have probably used it to mean “they got what was coming to them,” whether they were deserving of good or bad consequences. In his new book, Sadhguru busts this limited view of karma as simply “the law of cause and effect” by showing us a more robust meaning of the term and giving us specific practices that will make us embrace our karma fully. After all, the subtitle to his book is “a yogi’s guide to crafting your destiny.” I’m all in; how about you?

The word karma is a Sanskrit term that simply means “action,” but Sadhguru laments that no other word has been so “grotesquely oversimplified or needlessly mystified.” He wants to make the term completely accessible to everyone because it is key to understanding the workings of the world and to unfolding our own destiny as individuals and a world community.
In the first half of the book he lays out the philosophy of karma. He truly has a knack for making the teachings clear! What helps is that he adds stories to illustrate his points. Yes, karma is action, but not just the action of doing something in the physical world. Karma sets things in motion that have consequences. And karma is not limited to simply the things we do, but also what we say, think and even the intention we have when say, think or do.

Another practical point he makes is that our action, or karma, usually settles into routines and habits. We begin to identify with those routines and habits in ways that can take us toward a more liberating life or a more deceitful one. We can convince ourselves that this is just the way we are and that we can’t or won’t change. In hardening our own hearts we seal our own fate of suffering. “Externally, it may be a new day. You may have a new job, a new home. . . But, internally, you are experiencing the same cycles—the same internal oscillations, the same behavioral shifts, the same mental reactions, the same psychological tendencies.”

The second half of his book is dedicated to the many ways we can work with the karma we have to live a life of freedom and joy. No, it’s not a “grin and bear it” attitude that gets us through the pain of life, but rather understanding that our life is our own creation. The error we make is to look to the world to give us answers as to why life is so challenging. The positive step the yogi takes is to turn inward, to see oneself as part of the greater whole, and thereby take full and complete responsibility for their own karma.

One of the best practices is karma yoga where the yogi explores how everything we think, say or do is an opportunity to get more entangled in the drama of the world or presents the possibility of being liberated from it. How? “It is quite simple,” he says. “Whether you walk or dance, work or play, cook or sing, just do it with total attention and awareness. Or else, do it with total abandon. Both ways are closer to creation.” You can begin your karma yoga journey today: You can live with awareness, a state in which you become conscious and take in all life has to offer with acceptance and joy. Or you can live with abandon, a state of immersion where you truly lose yourself in the ecstasy and gratitude of living in this magnificent world. Neither path is easy, but it is made easier when we share it with our fellow yogis under the guidance of a learned teacher like Sadhguru.

Sadhguru. Karma: A Yogi’s Guide to Crafting Your Destiny. Harmony Books, 2021.