Study of the Bhagavadgita : Chapter - 5.6. Post- 19. - Swami Krishnananda.

 

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Monday, March 29, 2021. 10:43.AM.
Chapter 5: The Karma Yoga Principle of the Bhagavadgita-6.
Post-19.
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So here is a point in the expectation of no result. When you give charity to somebody, do you give it thinking what that man will give back to you? That is like a brother-in-law giving to a brother-in-law. It is not charity. If a father is educating his son under the impression that he will take care of him in old age, he is not doing any charity. It is some kind of social work or family work. Total joy has not gone. He expects something. If charity is given with the expectation of return, it is not charity. When you arrange a banquet, a large feast, it is said not to invite only your friends because you know they will also invite you to a banquet one day. This is no good. If you give a banquet to your own relatives and invite all your friends and relations, know the motive behind it. Your ego swells more and more on account of the expectation of a very good result. If you arrange for a function in your house and your relatives come and pour gifts upon you, they will also expect you to give the same when they arrange for a feast or a function in their own homes. Otherwise, what will they feel? “This fellow has not given anything.” This is not charity; this is not giving. This is not spiritual action at all. Hence, mere giving in a mechanical or commercial way is not to be considered as charity.

Thus, the Bhagavadgita doctrine of duty, giving, participation, is minus expectation of a recompense that will follow. You may be very worried as to what kind of work you are being asked to do, and do not want to simply drudge for no purpose. I have already given you the knowledge of the organism of the body. The participation of the limbs of the body to the body’s requirement also provides their own necessity, as the body sustains the legs, the eyes, the hands, and the nose, etc. If the stomach eats food, the legs and fingers also get strength, the eyes will shine, and the cheeks will bloom. Why should the cheeks say they have no connection with your eating? If this universal principle is maintained behind your every act, the Universal Being will protect you. How it will protect you will come in the later chapters of the Gita. The introduction is laid here, in the Second Chapter. Your duty is to be the motive, and say not anything else; and in this participation of yourself in the scheme of things, which is your dharma based on your svabhava or your inner constitution, you will lose nothing and will gain everything. 

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Gita -CH-2, slo-40.
"Nehabhikrama-nasho ’sti pratyavayo na vidyate
svalpam apyasya dharmasya trayate mahato bhayat" :

BG 2.40: Working in this state of consciousness, there is no loss or adverse result, and even a little effort saves one from great danger.

Ne’habhikrama-nasho ’sti pratyavayo na vidyate  = In doing duty one loses nothing. One only gains.
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You will not easily understand how you will gain a thing by expecting nothing from your work. It requires a new type of education to appreciate how it is possible that you can be happy and secure while you get nothing out of your work. It is not actually the work that is the source of your satisfaction; it is the connection of this work with the consciousness of your identity with the whole cosmos. That is why I am again repeating that karma is based on buddhi. It is not merely the work that brings results; it is the consciousness of your participation in the setup of the whole thing.

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Gita-Ch-3, Slo-5. 

"Na   hi   kascit    kshanamapi   jatu    tishthatyakarmakrt,
Karyate   hyavasah    karma    sarvah    prakrtijairgunaih."

 Lord's reply  ( continues from slokam-3. ) : All men are forced to do karma  helplessly according to the impulses born of the   modes of material nature   ( guna-s  of  prakrti  ) ; therefore no one can refrain from doing something, not even for a moment.
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Gita - CH-2, SLO-47.

"karmany-evadhikaras te ma phaleshu kadachana
ma karma-phala-hetur bhur ma te sango ’stvakarmani"

 karmany - eva ’dhikaras te ma phaleshu kadacana = Your duty is to act, and not to expect the fruit of an action. Here is the essence of the whole matter. 

karmany - eva ’dhikaras te = you have the right to work. You have duties, but no privileges. 
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You will be shocked to hear this because you feel, “Why should I work? I will get what I want at the end of the month.” People sit outside factories, banks and offices: “I will get my salary whether I work or not.” 

This attitude arises on account of not understanding the connection of your very existence in this world with the atmosphere around. Do not go for visible satisfactions. The Gita will tell you that immediate, visible satisfaction will be the source of sorrow afterwards. In the beginning, life looks very hard. It pricks like a thorn, but it will give you fruit. All good things look bitter in the beginning but they will yield the sweetness of honey later on, whereas all things that bind you will look like honey poured into the mouth, but later on they will strike, and you will repent for it.

To be continued ...

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