During the course of my work with wellness, philosophy & mentoring, I come across people from various streams & walks on a daily basis. I have been recently coming across people who seem to be quoting the following verse from The Bhagvad Gita to me, trying to give it a very different meaning from what it actually is. I thought I’ll share my two bits from my perspective.
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन। मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि॥ २-४७
Karmanye vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana, Ma Karmaphalaheturbhurma Te Sangostvakarmani
What comes to your mind when you read above verse from the Gita? That one should not expect results? That one should not have ambitions? That one should not have materialistic ambitions?
Well that’s not what it really means ! Lord Krishna recited the entire Gita to Arjuna with the sole Intention of cleansing his mind from illusions and make him ready to fight the war with his own people, with a goal to win and establish Dharma or the Welfare Rule. Then how can he or his teachings be suggestive of not having goals ? The real meaning of the shloka is “You have the right to work but never to control its fruits. Let not the fruits of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be to inaction.” This the most practical answer ever could come up with ? Focus on your efforts and forget the results !!
Lets analyse this a bit more with an example.
Consider Case 1: A student wants to get 90% in his 10th board. He drafts a schedule to be followed with help of his teachers and seniors and decides to follow it religiously. He gets up early, starts studying with continuous focusing on the the result to be achieved. What happens? In most cases, he/she gets anxious and in this anxiety the concentration drops down because of which he’s unable to cover the portion he may have decided to finish on Day 1. He sleeps with stress!
Day 2, he wakes up with the burden of pending studies of day 1, which further creates more anxiety and same effects continue. Days pass by and due to poor concentration & lesser focus, it leads to lower grasping resulting in the pending portion of the syllabus to be covered to finally result in lower confidence. In this state of mind and status of studies, he gives his exams. What do you think would be the result? Obviously he fails to achieve the expected results.
Reason? Focus and attachment to result!
Now lets consider Case 2: A student wants to get 90% in his 10th boards.He drafts a schedule to be followed with help of his teachers and seniors and decides to follow it religiously. Day 1 he gets up starts studying with hiss entire focus on his efforts. He focuses on how best he can put his efforts. What happens? His concentration and focus are high because he is not anxious, and hence he successfully grasps whatever he reads and covers the syllabus he may have decided to do on Day 1. He gets to sleep in peace.Day 2 : He begins with a positive confidence that there is nothing pending and the flow chart continues.Days pass by and Good concentration, Good focus leads to better grasping and covering entire portion and finally result in elated confidence. With all this he appears for the exam..And the result? Obviously he ends up achieving his result!!
Which case did it better? Doesn’t the case 2 just follow the above stated verse ?!
Now lets imagine applying the same principles in your day to day work, projects and targets. Wouldn’t it give you your desired results ? Moreover, not continuously thinking about the results, keeps you away from so much of stress? Its just easing it out with an important thought that you just cant control your results, All you can do is control your actions and efforts and hence end up giving your best in a way.
No stress of controlling the outcomes, just dedicated efforts ! So lets all wake up to this reality and understand the real message thats been with us for ages.
Now your mind is starting to ask “what if one by chance fails to achieve results with the positive flow chart of case 2, why did it happen so? What to do next ? ”
Hold it on and keep tuned to my next article on Karmayoga.
Till Then Keep Going, CHARAIVAITI CHARAIVAITI meaning Enjoy the journey & the destination is yours.
Reach out to me on WhatsApp on 8928458479 to hear more stories from Indian mythology-history, The BhagvadGita, Mahabharata, Ramayana and know more about Hindusim!
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