February Gītā: 2.47

karmaṇy evādhikāras te
mā phaleṣu kadācana
mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr
mā te saṅgo ‘stv akarmaṇi

You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.

Bhagavad Gītā 2.47

I wanted to come back to this Sloka because it’s the essence of karma yoga and one of the most famous teachings from the Gita.  It’s also teaching we can apply to all aspects of our life.

If we focus on our duty, or any task we need to complete, and do our best, it’s a tangible action we can take.  

Focussing on the fruits of our actions is likely to lead us to suffer because we have no control over whether these results will meet our expectations.  

We can never take credit for the results of our actions because they’re influenced by multiple factors. The situation we’re in, our karma, the people involved, and wider society all have an influence on the outcome of any action we take.  

 Internally, the more we feel we’re responsible for the results of our actions, the more we’re driven to act.  This attachment to a positive outcome is the very thing we’re trying to avoid because it creates more suffering when things don’t go our way.

We have three options with regard to action.  The first option is to not take any action, which is tamasic.   Not acting goes against our purpose in life and can lead to laziness, apathy, feelings of depression and loneliness.  The second option is to act with desire which is rajasic, it creates more attachment. The third option is action without desire (karma yoga) which is sattvic in nature.  In order to achieve sattvic desire-less action we have to move through tamas (inaction) to rajas(desire led action) and then finally to sattva.  Therefore, it’s better to act even if we’re still working on being unattached to the outcome.

We relate this idea of non-attachment to our daily asana practice.  By being unattached to the outcome we can completely focus.  We forget to compare ourselves to yesterday’s practice or to look around the room at what others are doing.  We’re not attached to our practice being better or worse.  We become absorbed in our breath and the present moment.  And when this happens, even for a brief second, we have a momentary glimpse of stillness.

– Lauren Munday