destiny Bliss Liberation from the cycle of birth and death
What is spiritual growth from the perspective of Path of Action or Karma yoga?
People involved in charity work as spiritual practice follow the Path of Action or Karma yoga. However in brief, whenever a person does an action (karma), he either gets merits or demerits depending on the nature of the action. If a person is involved with charity work then he would gain merits from this action. He would also create a give-and-take account with the people for whom he is serving. However both merits and demerits keep us trapped in the cycle of birth and death.
However as one matures on the Path of Action or Karma Yoga one continues to perform good deeds; but does so with lesser and lesser doer ship and attachment to the action and expectation of the results. This finally culminates in a zero ego state where though one does the action but does not consider oneself the doer. As one begins to identify less and less with one’s actions one goes beyond merits and demerits and is liberated from the cycle of birth and death.
If one had to choose between just earning merits versus spiritual growth, spiritual growth far outweighs earning of merits as it burns one’s destiny and accumulated account (sanchit). It’s only through spiritual growth that we gain a superlative happiness known as Bliss and also liberation from the cycle of birth and death..
What does the average charity worker doing his work as spiritual practice gain at a spiritual level?
At the first stage there is some reduction in the ego of the charity worker just by the act of giving of himself for others. This is because thinking about the benefit