Now Krishna after describing this in next section He will tell how we can practice karma Yoga.
BG 2.47
karmany evadhikaras te
SYNONYMS
karmani — in prescribed duties; eva — certainly; adhikarah — right; te — of you; ma — never; phaleshu — in the fruits; kadacana — at any time; ma — never; karma–phala — in the result of the work; hetuh — cause; bhuh — become; ma — never; te — of you; sangah — attachment; astu — there should be; akarmani — in not doing prescribed duties.
TRANSLATION
You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.
We will discuss Karma Yoga now, till now we have discussed superiority of Karma Yoga over Karma kand from 2.38 to 2.46.
Now we will discuss how Karma yoga is to be practiced, in this section we can see the chronological flow of BG as we are talking about Karma Yoga at the same time these characteristics can also apply to Bhakti Yoga, so we get eternal result that we require one point intelligence, this can apply to general transcendence and it also apply to Bhakti Yoga. So within the sequential flow of BG because Krishna has not explicitly referred to Himself it refers to Karma Yoga but Srila Prabhupada refers everything in Gita to its ultimate conclusion and from that perspective all the section can be seen as referring to Krishna Consciousness also.
This verse is most often quoted verse of BG, this quoted most often but not understood clearly.
BG 2.47 => Only ¼th of this verse is quoted. karmany evadhikaras te. That we have right, Adhikar, authority to do Karma
But it has four parts and each of these parts has significance
First ¼ : We have right to do karma.
Second 1/4: we don’t have right for fruits of our karma. We should not demand the fruit.
Third ¼ : one should not think himself producer of the of the fruits.
Fourth 1/4: one should not think that because I shouldn’t get the fruits so I will not do karma only.
Half hen logic – if one take BG only those section which fit into our world view and we reject those which don’t fit to our world view, then we miss out on much of what BG can offer us. BG can offer us all round elevation, understanding of our self & God and our relationship. That will come if we accept BG as it is.
Most of the people only quote this ¼ verse, karmany evadhikaras te, I have a right to do my work so actually speaking what does this verse actually talking about here? If we look at the flow of BG, essentially Lord Krishna is talking to seek the eternal don’t seek the temporary, He has not explicitly stated that but He has talked about the eternal soul in BG 2.11 to 2.30 and then He told be detach from the material BG 2.38 onwards, that is the theme from BG 2.38, Sukhe Dukhe Same Kritwa, that means you are the eternal soul and everything in material is superficial so don’t be excited about that, be equipoised in happiness and distress and then after this He has talked about the superiority of this over seeking materially good things, He is describing the way to attain eternal.
So let us look the four parts:
First is karmany evadhikaras te, ¼: we have right to do work, what it is referred to? Actually most people think that we have right to the results we don’t care whether we have right to work or not it is seen that students don’t want work but wants result that why there are last min guide and things like that they wanted to put least efforts and wanted the result. Few people think that I have right to work. BG says opposite you have right to work but do not consider that you have right to the fruit. What does it mean actually?
Work is performed in the world not only for material results but also spiritual results. How can work produce spiritual result? It depends on what kind of work it is, if one is doing its own activity not according to scripture but according to worldly standard of what is right and what is wrong, then you continue at the ordinarily worldly level but if one understands spiritual knowledge and tries to practice spiritual knowledge then one understand that I am soul and I will rise to the level of soul, so how I will rise to the level of the soul by purifying myself. What does it mean to purify myself, it mean that the soul is Sat Cid Ananda and everything which makes soul forget sac cit ananda nature in one sense impurity now those which are gross sensory or immoral pleasure they are consider to very impure form spiritual point of view these are anti-spiritual they choke and check out spiritual life. E.g. purpose of study is learning, byproduct is to perform in exam so by study not only we learn the subject but by this our mind (here ref to faculty for deep thought) grows by study…by study person develops thinking, reasoning & grasping capacity along with the understanding of the subject and all of these as a byproduct leads to acquire good marks.
Similarly we do our worldly duty with spiritual understanding of life that enables us to grow in our inner understanding, develop knowledge. When I act in detachment, by that the understanding that I am not body I am soul increases.
Purpose of action is to grow in wisdom and not just acquision of fruit. When a person acts in knowledge then knowledge deepens further,…every work is done with objective of some result so ma phaleshu kadacana, doesn’t mean that one not care for the result…e.g. I don’t care whether I will be able to understand BG or not while reading BG Or a cook don’t care how the food was cooked was it good or bad, properly cooked or not…this is misunderstanding about this verse. So ma phaleshu kadacana doesn’t mean I shouldn’t care for the result at all…It is result which motivates us and that is not wrong if we seek a particular result but the idea is we do our duty not just for result but we do our duty because we know that through that we will get purification and illumination.
In Bhakti Sashtri course our goal is to be purified and illumination, spiritual understanding increases by understanding Krishna Katha by trying to internalize it. Purification means all the impurities subside because we are coming in contact with Krishna, illumination means our spiritual understanding all increases. So this is primarily we seek when we do services.
Our primary objective is to please Krishna, even if result doesn’t come out Krishna will see the intention and will be pleased.
We should do Book distribution for prize or for out purification?
If we…
- Do duty for result
For example if we want our name to come in top most book distributor, and if we didn’t get the result we will be frustrated. Lot of insecurity…we will be thinking like whether we will get it or we will not get it…we will be thinking like that.
- Do since it purify us
Doing this for purification, serious thought on message of Krishna so that it purifies us.
- Do to please Krishna
Krishna I am doing this for your pleasure. Even if 100 books are distributed or 2 books are distributed, still Krishna is pleased as I have put all endeavor.
If I don’t have spiritual consciousness then I can’t make advancement.
If goal is result I will be continuously thinking of result that will make me week.
First level of detachment -> I am not attached to the result.
2nd level of detachment -> Do not think that you are producing or cause of result.
So here when Krishna is saying you have right to the work and not to the result that doesn’t mean we don’t care for result or strive for result but our primary motive is not acquiring the result , our primary motive at the level of Karma Yoga is purification at the level of Bhakti Yoga is for the pleasure of Krishna, if my goal is to have material result then I cannot have spiritual consciousness and if I can’t have spiritual consciousness then I can’t make spiritual advancement because if the goal is result then I will be continuously thinking about the result I cannot think about anything else and that makes me weak.
ma karma–phala-hetur bhur, then if I don’t want to be weak in terms of not being overcome by the craving of result then there is one more level of detachment. First level of detachment is I am not attached to the result I don’t become emotionally depend upon result for motivation of my action, but after that it also ma karma–phala-hetur bhur, do not think that you are producing the result, ma karma–phala-hetur bhur, do not think that you are the cause of the result, now how is that possible?
e.g. When in a cricket match result is depending on last ball a batsman may say that I have hit last ball so I am the cause of result…I am the one who gave class so I am the karma–phala-hetur, if I would not have done it desired result would not have come so how can somebody say that do not think that you are cause of result …Here Krishna’s message is very profound and what we have to understand is that He is saying ma karma–phala-hetur bhur He is saying that do not think that YOU are the ONLY cause of the result…so we know that for result we need to act but we know that results are not entirely in our hands there are always other factors which will affect the result.
There are cricketers or players who believe on some superstitious thing which are auspicious for them and they always do that always or use that, are also not fools though they are acting foolishly, they understand that, but they are acknowledging that there are something which are beyond their control and that which is beyond their control should go their way…they know that their performance matters, but it not just performance but some other factors are also involved it can be called destiny, fate, chance…those factors which are beyond our control also matters a lot…if we know what are those and how to align with that, then that is imp. When we know how much they matter then we know impetus and we aligned with them. An acknowledgement of factor beyond, they may or may not be correct.
So when Sri Krishna is saying ma karma–phala-hetur bhur, He is saying do not think of yourself as ONLY cause of the result recognize that there are other factors involved.
To the extent we think that we are cause of result we will become bound and to the extent we think that we are not cause of the result we will won’t become bound.
Two level of detachments are (i) don’t work just for the sake of the result and (ii) while working do not think that I am the cause of the result. So this way one can remain detached.
So till now we have discussed 2.47 a.b,c.
Now 2.47 d. ma te sango ‘stv akarmani, do not be attached to not doing work. So what does this refer to actually when I start working then someone told say you appear for this exam but you will not get any marks for this, then you think so why I will do this, you should never think like this, we should not be attached to inaction because action only purifies us when we will work in yoga my primarily goal it to connect with higher spiritual reality which is manifested in topmost level as Krishna, but the primary goal is to connect with Krishna and how I will connect with Krishna only when my consciousness is not obsessed with temporary material things, so if I am just inactive then I am actually not engaging myself in what Krishna has given positively and it is not artificially possible to directly think of Krishna constantly, we have to think of Krishna generally by rendering service to Him so it is services which purifies us, service which elevates us, service which liberates us, ma te sango ‘stv akarmani.
So let us summarize again to understand this verse:
- karmany evadhikaras te, you have right to do work because the prescribed duty which are given to us they purifies us.
- ma phaleshu kadacana, Do not caught up, obsessed in result because that will not allow us to be spiritually conscious Krishna Consciousness, do not think that we are the producer of results why because then we will identify with our material skills our material abilities and material identity and forget our spiritual identity and forget Krishna thereof.
- Do not be attached to inactivity, because inactivity will not purify us, it is engaging our body engaging our mind engaging our speech in Bhakti yoga this will purify us and elevate us.
So this is Sutra like verse which contains very profound depth of meanings.
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