Hare Krishna
Every time we do anything for anyone, we often expect a benefit in return, we expect the credit for ourselves or at least one should appreciate me with good words or we want our desires to be fulfilled in some ways or other. And when other things or people do not meet our expectations, it leads to frustration and anger. But in reality our material expectations frustrate us, and there is no end to it.
Table of Contents
Let’s dive deep in Bhagavad Gita and understand what does it mean to act without expectations.
In Bhagavad Gita 2.47 Lord Sri Krishna says
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन ।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥ ४७ ॥
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.
Means, we should perform our prescribed duties as per our psycho physical nature and with a sense of duty and should offer the favourable results to the Lord, because we are not the actual proprietor or enjoy, then we can be really satisfied or else the same work will become the cause for our bondage in this material world, therefore that kind of work is not auspicious, and we become either false enjoyer or a sufferer of the actions either good or bad.
But at the same time Lord Krishna advises us to never be attached to not doing your duty, in explanation Srila Prabhupada says that not doing one’s prescribed duties is another kind of attachment. And actually our original nature as a soul is to be always active and we cannot refrain from working. Hence, we should work under the direction of the Lord, for His satisfaction, aligned with the teachings of Bhagavad Gita.
In Bg. 3.5, Lord Krishna says
न हि कश्चित्क्षणमपि जातु तिष्ठत्यकर्मकृत् ।
कार्यते ह्यवशः कर्म सर्वः प्रकृतिजैर्गुणैः ॥ ५ ॥
Everyone is forced to act helplessly according to the qualities he has acquired from the modes of material nature; therefore no one can refrain from doing something, not even for a moment.
By nature a soul is active and this quality is given to the soul by the Lord to serve Him and eternally remain in his blissful condition. But when the soul does not want to serve the Lord, the soul remains under the three modes of nature; Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, and we remain conditioned in this temporary world. For such souls, the Lord has given the injunction in scriptures to perform his activity as per his nature, like someone may be brahmanical in nature so he can do educative works in the society, like to learn and teach others, means one can choose his or her work according to one’s inherent nature and not by external pressure.
Someone may be administrative in nature so he can do the administrative works in the society, someone may be business oriented in nature so he can do business and generate profit from it and by this he gives charity to brahmanical class, gives tax to administrative class, gives salary to service executor class and similarly someone may like to offer services, so he may render service to all the three classes of the society.
In this way all the classes of the society can live together harmoniously, keeping the Lord and His teachings in the centre of their lives. Because without God consciousness, it will become a hellish life, everyone will eventually try to exploit each other for fulfilling their own selfish desires. The real goal of human life is to try to understand God, our relationship with Him and to transfer ourselves to an eternal life. So, by remaining in one’s occupational duties and at the same time engaging in the service of the Lord, gradually one becomes purified. By following this, people can live life, being satisfied and can gradually purify themselves in this way by serving the Supreme Personality Of Godhead Lord Sri Krishna.
But What is the Main Reason for Expectations?
In Bg. 3.27 Lord Krishna tells,
प्रकृतेः क्रियमाणानि गुणैः कर्माणि सर्वशः ।
अहङ्कारविमूढात्मा कर्ताहमिति मन्यते ॥ २७ ॥
The spirit soul bewildered by the influence of false ego thinks himself the doer of activities that are in actuality carried out by the three modes of material nature.
We think ourselves as doer of the work due to our false ego but it is not us, who is the doer but the three modes of the material nature are the doer of the work. When we forget our real identity as an eternal servant of the Lord, we immediately come under the spell of the material modes of nature and try to falsely enjoy in this material world and ultimately we suffer, as we being in this material consciousness, forget our eternal blissful nature in connection to Lord Krishna.
In Bg. 15.7, Lord Krishna says;
mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke
jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ
manaḥ-ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi
prakṛti-sthāni karṣati
Translation:
The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.
Hence, it is an urgent necessity for us to understand the knowledge of Bhagavad Gita under the guidance of a Bonafide devotee of the Lord, as at any moment death may come. When we know these factual truths from these divine teachings of Bhagavad Gita, then this divine knowledge cuts off our false ego and it eventually leads us to the path of eternal servitorship to the Lord, the path of actual liberation. We need to dovetail our working propensity for the happiness of the Lord, then our work becomes an act of sacrifice, as the Lord says in Bg.5.29, that He is the real enjoyer and proprietor of all sacrifices.
bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ
sarva-loka-maheśvaram
suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati
Translation:
A person in full consciousness of Me, knowing Me to be the ultimate beneficiary of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attains peace from the pangs of material miseries.
In the purport Srila Prabhupada beautifully writes,
The conditioned souls within the clutches of the illusory energy are all anxious to attain peace in the material world. But they do not know the formula for peace, which is explained in this part of the Bhagavad-gītā. The greatest peace formula is simply this: Lord Kṛṣṇa is the beneficiary in all human activities. Men should offer everything to the transcendental service of the Lord because He is the proprietor of all planets and the demigods thereon.
Therefore, if we want to act without getting bondage in this material world, then we need to offer our results, at least to some extent unto the Lord and should act and do our work keeping Lord Krishna in the centre, then we can gradually go beyond the modes of material nature and by doing our prescribed duties, not to satisfy ourselves but to satisfy The Lord. (संसिद्धिम हरि तोषणम). Because as soon as the Supreme Personality of Godhead becomes satisfied with us, then we also become automatically satisfied in our hearts as we are His part and parcels, and He is the Whole. If the Whole becomes satisfied, we being his sons also experience true satisfaction.
In Bg. 14.26, Lord Krishna teaches us the way to transcend the three modes of material nature,
मां च योऽव्यभिचारेण भक्तियोगेन सेवते ।
स गुणान्समतीत्यैतान्ब्रह्मभूयाय कल्पते ॥ २६ ॥
One who engages in full devotional service, unfailing in all circumstances, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman.
When one engages in full devotional service means engaging in Nabadhā bhakti process that starts from hearing and chanting about the Lord from bonafide sources, and gradually engages oneself in the transcendental service of the Lord under the guidance of a bonafide devotee of the Lord, then one can gradually transcend the three modes of material nature and the pangs of material miseries and act for the transcendental pleasure of the Lord, hence reaches at the stage of full knowledge, true satisfaction, bliss and no selfish expectations and becomes fearless in true sense, as he acquires the eligibility to cross over the material miseries known as birth, death, old age, disease and attains eternal, loving servitorship to the Lord, remaining in the pure, transcendental platform.
Hare Krishna 🙏
