Install this habit in your mind, never think that you are the cause of the result of your work and never get attached to avoid doing your karma. So, this is the very important and famous verse of Buddhi Yoga that everybody knows but people missing the crux do not understand the actual import. So here Lord Krishna is saying you have a right to perform your duty but you don’t have a right on the result of the activity. So, somebody will tell. Oh, really? I have a right to do my work, I do not have a right to the result, and I do not have a right to my salary. Correct, that’s the right understanding. You can only control your own actions, but you cannot control the outcome that is being created in the process of action.

            Then how is it so? Why wouldn’t you? So, it is basically a simple understanding of buddhi yoga. This isn’t something we need much intelligence to know. We only see the species around us when we observe the world. Every plant and tree that we have, gives some kind of grains, fruits etc. Now imagine if the plant in the field says, ‘I stood here, you didn’t, and I stood here facing the heat the cold and even the light, and I generated these grains; therefore, they are mine.’ I’m not going to give it to humans, I’m not going to give it to other animals. Then human beings and animals will die. If the mango tree says, ‘I own this mango, I am responsible for this mango.’ And I will not provide it to anyone. What shall we eat? If there are no leaves forthcoming from the tree? It barks. It’s good to us. How shall we make our houses? So, we also need to understand that in nature there is a very nice symbiotic arrangement.

            Like some factory workers, say someone working in a mobility factory. The technology equipment, materials and the training given to manufacture the mobile handsets have all been provided by the proprietor of the firm. The worker can’t tell I’ve assembled this handset, so I’ll take it home with me. Just because he performs some activity, he has no claim to the outcome of it. It is in the same way owned by the owner. All those actions that we are doing from this body. This is not our body. We have not created this brain, this intelligence. So, the skills the body and the matter that we manipulate to create a little effect in this world are also matters that we have not created. So, all the raw materials, the ingredients, the training, the body, the brain intelligence, everything is given by God. So indeed, the outcome is in the hands of God. We are not entitled to the outcome. So, God has a plan to use it to enhance the welfare of all the other species.” Krishna also suggests in the 12th chapter that if we are unable to understand that it belongs to God, we can use it here. You apply for social general purposes for so-called pious activities and charity. But you shall not enjoy everything for yourself.

            Unfortunately, what is happening in society now is that, we think whatever I earn is mine. I will enjoy it. Whatever miracle, I have created to be mine, I will love it. This is ignorance. We are meddling with the laws of nature. Without the harvests of the plants and trees, there is no civilization.

            Human beings have got some freedom which they should use in the service of God. He exercises that freedom by becoming independent of God. So, this is really a bad mentality. Hence Lord Krishna is saying that you have the right to perform your duties; however, there should be no expectation from the results. Then, how am I supposed to take care of myself? Yes, we can take it for maintenance. For survival, for body and soul to stay together. That much contentment I can afford and beyond that, it should be utilized in the service of God.

            You do result you offer me, because I am the proprietor, that Lord Krishna will gradually reveal, his identity; I am the supreme proprietor. Everything belongs to me. Then do not let your activity be the cause of you. Activity for personal pleasure creates karma bondage because in this case I become the cause of that activity. If I do what I say is good activity I have helped some people and done a lot of charity. Then I asked if I did this charity for my pleasure? Oh, yes, I will enjoy name and fame not keeping the pleasure of God in mind, not chained to God’s direction. The money would then return to us. That money we should take one more birth to get back. And as soon as we take birth, then the pains of birth, staying in the womb of the mother, so many diseases, old age, and death also follow

            That’s why we get caught up in the bondage of action and reaction, so it is said do not do any work for your pleasures, you will feel good in helping someone else, and you will feel good when you eat some delicacies. So, I’ll work really hard so I can eat well.” You are proud to showcase your property to others. So, you are working? No. If you are doing any action for you’re feeling good, then you become the reason for the action and you have to face the result of that action.