Bhagavad Gita 18.24

yat tu kāmepsunā karma

sāhaṅkāreṇa vā punaḥ

kriyate bahulāyāsaṁ

tad rājasam udāhṛtam

 

Action done for selfish gain,

Or driven by ego’s restless strain;

Performed with effort, stress, and drive—

Know this as passion’s way to strive.

 

My dear Lord, how I conceive myself—my place and purpose in the overall scheme of things—determines how I function. When I think of myself as a solitary being, fighting against the world with all its complexity, hostility, and even perversity, my mode of working becomes disruptive, even destructive.

O all-pervading Lord, I begin to fear that my work is my only pathway to significance, or even to existence—not merely in the biological sense of survival, but in the psychological sense of self-worth. Such a conception makes me frantic and feverish in the pursuit of my work, driven by the belief that everything will fall apart without me.

O gently guiding Lord, please help me evolve beyond this distorted and disintegrating self-conception to a more holistic and wholesome inner story about myself. Through your words and your wisdom, you offer the most empowering story for my life journey. You explain that my existence and endeavors are always integrated within your cosmic and compassionate plan. Indeed, you adeptly advance your benevolent purpose for me even when my actions, driven by illusion, are at variance with you or even at cross-purposes with you.

O merciful Lord, when my plans go apart from yours and therefore fall apart, please let that frustration not push me to further fragmentation from you; may it prompt me to seek a healthier harmonization with you.

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18.24 But action performed with great effort by one seeking to gratify his desires, and enacted from a sense of false ego, is called action in the mode of passion.