In the previous episode, we had witnessed how the Vedas and other holy texts are common for everyone and how different people interpret them in different ways for achieving different purposes. For instance, spiritually realized “Mahatmas” chant the Vedas and approach it as a path for ensuring peace and harmony in the entire world, and also specifically to attain the highest “Moksha” and nothing else beyond it. However, a family-oriented person might also chant the Vedas everyday, but for a different purpose – To attain wealth, name, fame, material success, etc. On the other hand, a “Naastika” who doesn’t have any belief in the existence of Bhagawan would also chant the Vedas, perhaps to destroy all his enemies, and thereby if his wish materializes, some faith would enter into him to start following the spiritual path. Thus, we can see clearly that even though the Vedas are the same for everyone, different people employ it differently for attaining different goals and aspirations.
Moving on further thus, we come to one of the most important shlokas of the “Karma Yoga”. Bhagawan Krishna has now commenced His long accord on “Karma Yoga” and till now we’ve seen how one can attain “Moksha” by doing the duty assigned to him / her. Bhagawan Krishna emphasizes this through the narrative of how the Vedas specify terms and conditions for various aspects of life including attaining the highest “Moksha”. However, for Arjuna, now his duty on the battlefield is of paramount importance. Bhagawan says thus,
“Karmanyeva adhikaaraste maa phaleshu kadaachana!
Maa karma phalahe thurbuhu maa te sangaha asthu akarmani!!”
Here, Bhagawan Krishna affirms to Arjuna thus, “Oh Arjuna! You do not have any other option but to do your duty. Please do your duty, and this is where you have your prowess (“Karmanyeva-adhikaaraste”). Now, how should you do your duty? You should do it in such a way that you do not expect the result of your actions (“Maa phaleshu kadaachana”). For you, fighting the war is important here. Do not worry whether you will be on the winning or losing side. Your “Dharma” is to fight the war and you should focus on doing it. Moreover, please understand one thing – You are not the sole responsible person for the result that you get out of your action (“Maa karma phalahe thurbuhu”). Your job here is only to perform your action and leave the rest to Bhagawan to take over. You are only the doer, but the one who is giving you the result is someone else (“Maa te sangaha asthu akarmani”!”
This is yet another important philosophy that we’ve to ponder upon in detail here. What Bhagawan is trying to say here is very simple – For instance, let us assume that we’re writing an examination. Writing the examination with due preparation is our duty and we’ve to do it meticulously by putting our 100% effort into it. However, what Bhagawan says here is that when we finish writing the examination in the hall, we should forget about it henceforth and not worry about the result. We may pass or fail, or even may score high marks. But if we start worrying about the result of the examination – This is what Bhagawan doesn’t want us to do. We should have the mindset that even though we’re the doer here, we are controlled by someone else above. We are not the sole cause of the outcome that is going to reflect in the marksheet. There are many other factors involved. All we can do is to write the examination to our best ability and leave it at that. If we start worrying about the result too much, we would start losing our peace of mind. There might be many uncontrollable factors that would act upon it. For instance, the mindset and approach of the evaluator might be out of our control. We cannot go behind the evaluator, sit near him / her and instruct how many marks should be awarded for each answer that we’ve written, isn’t it? Similarly, there might be many other uncontrollables that might affect the result of our examinations. So this is why, Bhagawan says that there’s no point in worrying about the results.
As Bhagawan says thus, Arjuna is quick enough to respond and I’m sure, Arjuna’s response would be the one that we would also ask here. Arjuna replies thus, “Oh Bhagawan! You’re saying that I should do my duty with such a mindset wherein I do not expect anything out of it. If such is the case wherein I’m not the doer completely, why should I even do it? I can refrain from doing the action if the outcome is completely not under my control, isn’t it?” In our case, we would simply ask that if the result of the examination is completely out of our reach, why at all should we write the examination? 🙂 So for today, let us understand up to this point and in the next episode, we shall continue this discussion further to see what Bhagawan is going to reply! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 