Bhagavad Gita 18.9

kāryam ity eva yat karma

niyataṁ kriyate ’rjuna

saṅgaṁ tyaktvā phalaṁ caiva

sa tyāgaḥ sāttviko mataḥ

 

“This is my duty,” one should say,

And do the work without delay;

Giving up attachment and ego’s claim,

Know that as wise renunciation by name.

 

My dear Lord, you have arranged this world not so that I may become entangled in chasing its pleasures, but so that I may elevate my consciousness by realizing what truly matters.

O omniscient Lord, help me see that renunciation of the world is a natural and evolutionary result of thoughtful and dutiful engagement with it. You have made this world such that its pleasures are fleeting and superficial, and you have made me in such a way that I long for pleasure that is lasting and deep. Thus, if I engage thoughtfully with the world, the emptiness of its pleasures will become evident to me—through my own experience and through observing others who pursue such pleasures, thereby seeing the futility of striving for them. Bless me with the reflectiveness to gain these realizations that will raise me toward renunciation.

O omnipotent Lord, while I am in this world, you want me to be responsible and dutiful—not apathetic or lethargic. Through the challenges and changes you bring into my life, and through my dutiful acceptance of the responsibilities that come with them, you strengthen my determination and increase my capacity to manage my mind.

O merciful Lord, dutifulness helps me discipline my mind, and thoughtfulness helps me direct my mind away from the world toward you. May both together help me redirect my heart from the world to you, the eternal Lord of my life.

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18.09 O Arjuna, when one performs his prescribed duty only because it ought to be done, and renounces all material association and all attachment to the fruit, his renunciation is said to be in the mode of goodness.