Karma: Why Everything You Know About It Is Wrong

by Acharya Prashant

Does a righteous action need to be influenced by how the world perceives it?

Also, when Krishna is urging Arjuna to remain equanimous in pleasure and pain and life and death, then why does he ask Arjuna to consider infamy as worse than death when such a consideration might disturb his equanimity?

So, the question of who the king will be was a very crucial question in determining the very fate of Bharata (India). Therefore, sides had to be taken. Therefore, Krishna had to really stand with and behind the Pandavas to ensure that they win. Therein lay Dharma: fight Duryodhana; he is the mascot of evil right now.

Merely telling him that fighting Duryodhana is important for the welfare of north India would be no good. Those kinds of Dharmic invocations would not matter so much to Arjuna.

Krishna, even though he is using Arjuna’s weakness, is using it for the right cause. But what if by way of chance Arjuna were to fall in the hands of somebody like Shakuni? Then Shakuni would capitalize all of Arjuna’s weakness to turn Arjuna against Dharma.

So, you must understand that it is not at all right to harbour any such weaknesses. And having a soft spot for fame, being very, very desirous for name and honour, is a big weakness. Arjuna is just somehow luckily getting away with it. Not everybody is going to be so lucky. Your hunger for fame will be used by the forces of mischief to turn you to all the wrong directions, so do not wait for that to happen.

You will not always be so lucky or so very discreet that your companion would be a Krishna. More often than not, your companions will be of the mischievous and unworthy kind, and they will use all your frailties, all your weaknesses against you and against Dharma. Do not let that happ...

The questioner is asking, ‘Does a righteous action need to be influenced by how the world perceives it?’

You see, it doesn’t need to be, but that’s the way we are. We are so thoroughly influenced by the world. While we are deciding about anything, whether to do it or not, the factor of honour, of fame, of perception, of social regard always somehow seeps into the equation.

And many a time the question of fame and honour very strongly disbalances the equation. You might be making the right decision, but the factor of infamy starts weighing upon you...

The one who gives the opinion of others a lot of weightage will obviously not be able to give the hi...

That doesn’t mean that you must not hear others out or consult others; rather that means that even if you are listening to others, your objective is not to gain something in the eyes of that person; your objective is to gain the Truth.

Let people have value in your life only in context of the Truth they bring to your life.

Is It Possible to Work Without Expecting Results?

Fulfillment of expectations does not give you fulfillment. Expectations might get fulfilled; you do not get fulfilled.

Your right is for action alone, never for the results. Do not become the agent of the results of action. May you not have any inclination for inaction. —Shrimad Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse

I was reflecting on my life in the context of this verse, which says that work should be done without attachment to the fruit. However, I go to the office and work for money; I learn music for pleasure; I read the scriptures for freedom; I exercise for health; I practise yogāsanas, prāṇayama, dhyāna for peace and health; I interact with people and family for pleasure, peace, and security. There’s nothing that I do which is not for some gain, and if I am convinced that I will not get what I am expecting out of my action, most probably I will not do it.

How can this be changed in the light of Shri Krishna’s wisdom?

The Gita is not for those who are smug and settled in the niceness of their patterns.

The law of karma, the teaching of niśkāma-karma, begins at the point of dissatisfaction.

For that matter, all spirituality is only for the d...

Is it worth it to intrude into somebody’s peace—howsoever superficial or artificial it is—and shake him up when he doesn’t want to be shaken up? The effort may not be worth it; there might be better candidates to teach, to bring up, to support.

Maybe your expectation that work will give you money was fulfilled. But why are you hiding from me that there was another expectation? The expectation was that money will give you That. Did that expectation materialize? Did that happen?

First, when you go to the office and work, there is much more than money that you get. Maybe you are not conscious of all that you are obtaining when you are at your workplace, but there is much, much more: all kinds of nonsense, blemishes, rubbish, stress, comparisons, and anxiety.

It is a complex situation that you are presenting in a deceptively simplistic way.

Therefore, this verse is only for those who have, first of all, seen the futility of their self-centric endeavours, those who have seen that we hardly ever get to fulfil our expectations, and more importantly, even when the expectations get fulfilled, we do not get fulfilled.

one who is setting the goal is setting the goal for itself, but the one setting the goal does not know how to set the goal; therefore, whatsoever goal it will set will not be of any use for itself; therefore, there is at least one thing I can do now: I will not set the goal for the sake

The sofa-set, the furniture is worth slogging the month for.

To listen to Krishna is to know that money, when spent in the service of the ego, just inflates the ego and deepens its pre-existing illness. So, money has to be spent in a way that dissolves the ego. That is the rightful use of money.

So, you work, you get money. Some money is obviously needed for your basic physical sustenance, for your basic securities. And then, the surplus has to be spent for a higher cause, not for your own little gratification, not for the kind of titillation that most people are found indulging in.

Ego knows only tangibles, and to work for your liberation is to spend money in an intangible way, towards an intangible objective. The ego resists; it says it is foolishness: ‘Where is the money going? It is my hard-earned money! What am I really getting by spending it?’

The ego does not realize that even as it is resisting the intangible, it is the intangible that it deeply craves for, that it is actually in love with. Is there any tangible thing that can really satisfy the ego?

That resistance has to be either overcome or overlooked.

To the extent I know, any little bit of security that is there in your mind disappears the moment you start gossiping with relatives, etc.

To talk sense with family members is the most difficult thing to do.

The central thing is: Whatever we do, we do for a purpose. Let the purpose be a great purpose.

Bonded Work Is Compensation, Free Work Is Compassion

The wise man established in the Self should not unsettle the mind of the ignorant one attached to action, but should get them to perform all their duties while dually performing his own duties. —Shrimad Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3, Verse 17 and 26

You have to look at everything together to get the complete picture.

So, the common person has duties because he is not liberated, and the liberated one puts duties upon himself because he is liberated.

the common person has duties because he is not liberated, and the liberated one puts duties upon himself because he is liberated.

The one in shackles has to bear kartavya or duties as punishment; you will have to live within your duties because you are not liberated. This is your punishment. And the liberated one loads himself with duties not because he is fu...

Krishna is asking, ‘What am I doing here? They are fighting because they are ignorant. I am fighting because I am not ignorant.’

They are fighting, you too fight. They are fighting from their darkness; you fight from your light. You cannot run away.

Now you know why a Buddha, a Mahavira, a Kabir works so hard all his life. Don’t you wonder? What does he have left to achieve?

‘Arjuna, you will never really know why I work because I work without a why. You work for a reason; I work for no reason. And if you have to have a reason, the reason is compassion. You know, you are a man of words. You need some word to satisfy your shallow inquiry, so I give you a word: the word is “compassion”.’

The realized one just works. He doesn’t work for a cause, really. Though apparently, he might declare a cause. He will say, ‘You know, I am working for such and such reasons, for such a cause, for such a mission,’ such things. But really, he’s just working—just working. He cannot help it. It has to happen. You cannot go to him and question, ‘But why are you doing it?’ Somebody

That’s how the realized one acts. He doesn’t do it intentionally. He just acts. He just acts.

Somewhere, if I remember correctly, Krishnamurti also said, ‘When the flower blooms, the fragrance spreads.’ The flower doesn’t really intend to make your day; it just happens.

‘Oh! Bad! But we thought he is quite empowered; we thought that if you are realized, then you are all in control of yourself!’ Oh no, not at all. Rather, what you call as realization is about losing all self-control: you just flow—flow not in the way the common man flows.