The Essence of Karma Yoga

Basically, Karma Yoga is about action. It says you reach the same point by acting as you would reach via devotion towards God.

But the acts of action should be selfless. It is difficult to act & not expect anything in return. You need not worry though. Because what goes around, comes around. Action always produces results. These results, good or bad, are sure to come back to you sooner or later. Maybe not in the same life but they sure come back. You cannot simply act and escape the results.

The Gita says, "Act. Don't worry about results." But results will always be there and you'll have to experience them. Isn't it contradictory?

The Hindu scriptures say you can reduce effects of bad karma by performing acts of charity. Like feeding the fish, ants, and other animals. In the villages, they still follow the rule of making the first roti for a cow. Then there are other acts where people feed other people to get better results from their acts.

Then again, the above acts are performed to receive good points (karma) and to reduce the effects of bad karma and sins. Do the acts performed with such intentions fall under the category of selfless karma? I don't know. The Bhagavad Gita says action should always be selfless and dedicated to God. This confuses me. I find it extremely contradictory. Something here doesn't add up. Or maybe there are indeed the type of people who know how to act selflessly.