The Fruits of Action

"You should never engage in action for the sake of reward, nor should you long for inaction...Those who are motivated only by the desire for the fruits of action are miserable, for they are constantly anxious about the results of what they do." Lord Krishna to Arjuna in the Gita:2:47-49 as translated and explained by Eknath Easwaran

Say what???????  You expect me to work and not get paid?

It would be pretty gracious of us to go to work for forty hours a week and not take a penny for it, wouldn't it?  Gracious and absolutely nuts!  But what Lord Krishna is telling Arjuna in this section of the Bhagavad Gita is that attachment to physical world reward in our obsessive need to do for the sake of "me" and "mine" will  lead to great disappointment. Excessive doing will not make us happy.  Selfish reward seeking will not make us happy, nor will the rewards the world offers us for such seeking and doing make us happy.

Huh?

That pay check that you seek, that social acceptance and or recognition, the things you can own because of your work...are the "fruits of your labor" ...but if you are working only for the attainment of that fruit and not the work itself you are ultimately going to find yourself miserable. Why?

These are lower mind pursuits (kama) and a result of ego motivation and control of the mind. They belong to the "I-ness' and the 'mine-ness' objectives we spoke about in previous entries. "I-ness' and "mine-ness' we know lead us away from the only true source of joy there is-the Self which is actually a union of all things (Yoga). Happiness is found within, not without.  Happiness is found in selflessness, both selfishness.

Are you saying I am selfish for getting paid and I should opt not to take a pay check?

Of course not!  You live and operate in a body in the physical world.  You need to take care of those physical world needs...basic survival, safety and security, a need to belong and to love, and eventually to strive for self actualization. (As you may have noticed, I listed all of Maslow's hierarchy needs with the exception of Esteem...still not sure about that one lol). In most cases you need a pay check to do that.

The thing is not to work only because of that pay check or that Esteem component of the pyramid. Do not make that the carrot that drives you forward.  Work for the sake of fulfilling your duty to Self which encompasses all of humanity. Definitely reap the rewards that come to you in what ever form they come but do not "strive " for them.  Strive for wisdom instead and let the material rewards be something you can take or you can leave behind.  Do not be attached to the need for these selfish and petty desires...do not live for them.  Establish a life of wisdom instead.

Arjuna: Tell me of those who live established in wisdom, ever aware of the Self, O Krishna.  How do they talk?  How sit? How move about?

Krishna: They live in wisdom who see themselves in all and all in them, who have renounced selfish desire and sense craving tormenting the heart.
Neither agitated by grief nor hankering over pleasure, they live free from lust and fear and anger.  Established in meditation, they are truly wise.  Fettered no more by selfish attachments, they are neither elated by good fortune nor depressed by bad. Such are the seers.
...
They are forever free who renounce all selfish desires and break away from the ego-cage of "I","me",and "mine" to be united with the Lord." (Gita:2:55-72)

Accept your pay check and the perks.  Reap the rewards with gratitude when they come your way but do not make them the purpose of your work or your duty. Make wisdom your goal with whatever you may 'do'.

 Should I become a renounciant?  

For a very few that is the answer...that is what they are called to do.  For most of us it isn't.  We have to live in this busy world.  The object is not to run away and escape it but to find our way within it...while realizing Self and living in wisdom. We need to remind ourselves that the body and personality is not who we really are.  We are so much more.  We live with that knowledge that the spirit in us is in everything and everyone...we honor and respect that thus living with peace and compassion (Metta-kindness as Buddhist tradition refers to it). We don't necessarily throw everything away...we just let go of our "need' for it  and our attachment to it.

If doing is so bad should I stop doing all together?So would it be better to stay home all day and just meditate so ego doesn't tempt me?

For some this works but for most of us...Definitely not.  " ...nor should you long for inaction." Our bodies and our minds are designed to move and to act.  It is natural! The problem is not with the action but the goals for our actions.

The motivation and potential consequence for each action we take is to be considered.  So many of us act blindly...not sure why we do what we do...just moving with the masses like a guppy in a school of fish.  We are lost in learned, conditioned and ego dominated habitual and often Self veiling  behaviours.

Stop long enough to know why you are doing what you are doing.  Ask if it fulfills you or takes you towards wisdom or further away. Is your doing an escape? Does it serve? Act mindfully, purposefully and with wisdom.  Make everything you do  inspired action rather than ego reaction.

So what is your story crazy lady?

I have been thinking a lot about action, about doing and not doing lately because I find myself in an ego world conundrum.  Life led me through a series of circumstances to this point where I can no longer be that guppy in a school of fish...my little fins ( or gills) don't seem to allow me to keep up though there is no one scientifically explaining why. :)

A lot of the fruits of my labour that I worked so hard to earn have thusly been swept away by the current...With that the second top layer of Maslow's pyramid has also been washed away.  I found myself at a crossroads.  After tuckering myself out trying to keep up with the rest of the school, to cling to some of these things that were floating away....I had to make a decision...keep swimming towards the physical world pursuits or go my own way.  I found myself stopping and considering that. 

I then made a decision based on inspired action. I left the school. My own way, I am realizing is the One way

I judged it all  as terribly unfair at first but now I see the absolute blessing in it. I realized the hard way that I can reach self actualization without the school, without the fruits of my actions, and without the ego/Esteem.  In fact, I will reach it faster. :) What I really want is not out there. It is in here.

Did you stop doing?

No...far from it.  Though I cannot maintain the high level of physicality I once took for granted, I can still do a lot.  My mind is still so engaged.  I am learning so many things, studying so many things, absorbing so many things.  I am taking courses like Yoga Teacher Training (the theory is a breeze...the physical component a little more challenging).  I am also studying  photography and learning anything I can about everything I can.

I have a list of 20 potential books to write and a series of potential articles.

I am no longer working at what I once worked at but I am working. I am still teaching. (Not for money). I feel I have a purpose and a duty that calls me here every morning whether I want to come or not lol.  And there are little to no "fruits of my action" here...no "I" ness or "mine-ness" rewards. I have little readership, little recognition, no pay and still I come because I know, in some strange way I cannot explain, that this is my work, my duty. It is purely selfless and beyond the little me.  (That's not true... ego is still around but ego is obviously not the reason I am here.) 

How are you going to survive in this physical world with no job, no income?

I haven't a clue lol!  I would be lying is I said that I am not at all worried.  I am. Ego is still clinging to me.  On top of my debts and monthly bills, I now have a daughter in university.  She is mostly taken care of so I feel so very grateful for that but I know I need some income :) There is, after all, that bottom layer of Maslow's pyramid to consider. :)

What I have learned from this section of the Gita though and from all I am learning in Yoga and my other spiritual seeking is that I don't have to sweat over what action to take, what to do next.  I don't have to be "constantly anxious about the results of what they do." I just  have to keep doing what I am doing, maybe meditate a bit more on it and then simply let life unfold   It is all good.

All is well in my world!