WE MUST ALL LEARN TO WORK WITHOUT A REWARD IN MIND

Looking for sure success? The teaching of the Bhagvad Gita, “Karmanyevadhikarstu ma phaleshu kadachana” quoted in the verse (2:47) is something that you should cherish. The advice by Lord Krishna is simply about doing one’s karma without thinking about reward. Thinking about rewards all the time makes us unproductive; we lose our focus and are unable to complete the work at hand.

Since childhood, many of us have read or heard the famous teaching, “You have the right to perform action, but you are not entitled to the fruits of those actions.” we have authority only over the actions performed by us, but never on the result. In other words, we do not have complete control over the outcome of our activity, as the results are not dependent only upon our efforts.

Beside our efforts, numerous factors come into play in determining the result, like the role of destiny which is our past karma, the will of God, the cumulative effect of our karmas, the efforts of other people involved, the place and the situation, etc. We are even unaware of all the factors that end up determining the outcome. So, unless we logically convince ourselves that we do not have complete control over the result of an action, we will not be able to learn the main teaching of this verse.

The more we work for a reward, the less focused we become on what we’re good at. When your work is a result of your pure efforts, your work will speak for itself.