Do your best, and then let go

Nishkama Karma is the Gandhi’s summarization of Gita’s message about freedom through renunciation. It means “work that is without kama, that is, without selfish desire.”

When one is acting most of the time one acts for the rewards, either physical or psychological rewards, s/he will get at the end of act. These feed our ego. We become attached to the feelings we get after engaging in certain actions or activities. Acting out of self-gratification and urge to satisfy our desires emphasize the ego, I, and make the person feel separate from the rest of the world. Nishkama Karma is about freeing yourself from the attachment you feel to the output of your actions, and also engaging in actions from that others may benefit, but necessarily yourself, the doer. However, this doesn’t mean that one should be indifferent to the results of their actions. One should consider the output that may result due to engaging in the action. Thus, someone who is “renouncing the fruits of their actions” is a person who is 1) acting with pure heart and good intentions (intention), 2) with the knowledge of the result that is expected to follow (knowledge/alignment of knowledge to the act), 3) committing to the act and performing the task using full capacity (action), but having no set expectations or desires for the outcome, leaving the rest to the universe. Acting without a set of expectations, and attachments to the results, and acting in a way that may benefit others, but not necessarily benefit you.

We can’t always control what happens even if we work to the best of our ability on a certain task. There are many different elements that play a part in the happening of things. Our intentions and actions are only one of those factors. So, we need to put our best intention out there, and do the best we can to our ability, but do not associate ourselves with the results, whether it is pleasure or pain, because we are not the ultimate reason for those results. Don’t define yourself with the results of your actions. Do your best, but don’t assume it is all you that created the outcome. You are only one of the many elements that make things happen. Thus, don’t be proud when something happens, and succeeds, and don’t feel like a loser when something fails. Associating ourselves with the output of those actions, would be feeding the ego, by praising or degrading ourselves. Detaching ourselves from the output is accepting the workings of the universe. This is the way to true joy and happiness in life.