CHAPTER 2, VERSE 47 - Your Karma Will Decide the Result

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन |

मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि || 47 ||

 

Transliteration: 

karmaṇy-evādhikāras te mā phaleṣhu kadāchana

mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr mā te saṅgo ’stvakarmaṇi

Translation

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.

My Understanding:

ॐ नमो नारायण ! जय श्री कृष्णा 

I listened to Acharya Shri Shivender Nagar's lecture yesterday through online meeting and the following are my understandings. My intention is to record and share it with any other seeker (साधक) to read understand and share it further.

According to Acharya Ji, the following 7 are basic teachings which one can learn from this shalok:

1. You already got the result (फल): Nature (प्रकृति ), your society, your city, your community, and your county has already given you the result in the form of knowledge, health, education, etc while you are growing up. So, we should consider ourselves as someone who has already received gifts.
   Now the karma(कर्म) or duties which is assigned to you, like raising a family, running a business which provides employment to others, educating others, etc are duties given to you by nature as a payback for all those gifts that nature has given you. Nature has placed you in certain special circumstances, based on your own desires and especially due to your capabilities.
   So instead of complaining about how busy you are with work, we should perform the obligated or assigned duties considering God or nature has given some work to me and I should do perform them with a full heart.
   And most importantly, God and nature have no shortage of people, so if we deny or pass on some work. The work will be passed and done through someone more or equally capable.
2. Focus Lost: If you are focused on the result then you will lose the required focus one needs to do the action correctly. So, while doing your karma aim at the completion, but not what we get after the completion. Emphasis is on the action, not the result. The result is anyways dependent on how well was the execution, so it should not jeopardize that.
   Like, in cricket, if a bowler is thinking only about how he will celebrate after taking the wicket, then he can never succeed. The bowler should only think about what kind of delivery I need to bowl in so that the batsman makes a mistake and gets out.
3. The journey is more Enjoyable: If we are climbing a great mountain, then during the journey we will enjoy the most. The struggles, the pain, and the sense of achievement after every step are something we can only enjoy while climbing.  When we reached the summit then we do enjoy the view but it will be way less than what we have already experienced.
   If we have read about great people, they always talk about their struggles, how they became great. Like, winning a Noble or Oscar, the recipient always talks about how he achieved it. When asked how he feels after achieving the award, then the answer normally is: "It feels good".
4. Desires Fulfilled: When we have achieved one goal to reach the desired destination, our minds created new goals or a new destination that next in line to be achieved. That's normal human behavior.
   Like, a newlywed couple will not only wish for a son but also they will wish for a son who is beautiful, healthy, well behaved, fair, good in sports, A+ in all studies, etc.
5. Relaxed: If we achieve which we aimed for we become relaxed and lazy. That's too is normal human behavior.
6. We don't know what we want: If we only knew, what is our ultimate desire, what we will wish for after which we do not require anything. So, it's normal human behavior to move towards one goal, and after reaching it, we realize that we don't really need this but something else.
   Like, Like a rich young man, was facing some problems in getting married so he requested Bhagwan Ji to get married, and Bhagwan Ji said Done
   Then, he was facing problems in becoming a parent, so he requested Bhagwan Ji for a son, and Bhagwan Ji said Done
   A Son was born to the man. But the baby was deaf. He again requested Bhagwan Ji that his problem gets resolved. Bhagwan Ji said Done.
   But then the Son got very sick with some disease, the man's wife suggested that we should pray to Bhagwan Ji again. This time the man said no. Because he isn't aware of what he should really pray for.
7. Agitated and Angry: If our desires are not fulfilled, or the result isn't as we want it to be, we get angry and agitated. The consequences of the same are the worst. This will be covered in detail in Chapter 2, Verse 63, 64. Please read them here.

To summarize,  there are several core & complex meanings of this shlok, few are following

• Lethargy and procrastination are the real enemies that obstruct performing karma or the duties of everyone. Acarya Ji suggests picking up a higher goal, which can and will infuse new energy to complete it.
• Focus on the result will cause loss of required concentration on the required action.
• Bhagwan Ji has given us our karma or duty as per our capabilities.  

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