Karmanye Vadhikaraste, Ma phaleshou kada chana,
Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhurmatey Sangostva Akarmani
This verse is from the Bhagawad Gita, where Arjuna was not willing to
fight the Epic war of Mahabhaarat and Krishna explains to him to
perform his duties.
The hindi translation is as follows:
कर्म करना तो तुम्हारा अधिकार है, लेकिन उसके फल पर कभी नहीं|
कर्म को फल की इच्छा से कभी मत करो, तथा तेरा कर्म ना करने में भी कोई आसक्ति न हो|
Let’s see what does this mean:
Karmanye Vadhikaraste, Ma phaleshou kada chana - You have the right to perform your actions,
but you are not entitled to the fruits of the actions.
Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhurmatey Sangostva Akarmani – Do not let the fruit be the purpose of your actions, and therefore you won’t be attached to not doing your duty.
This message was from the Lord Krishna to Arjun during the Epic War
of Mahabhaarat when Arjun was not willing to fight, given that he had
opposite of him, all those persons he considers to be his own. Arjun
says to Krishna, what’s the use of fighting against my own for just a
piece of land. What happiness will I get by slaying my dear ones? The
ones on the other sides are my own uncle, my cousin. Won’t I be
committing a sin? What will I get by killing all of them. Instead I
would have preferred that they kill me here itself.
Then Krishna explains to him about his duties. The above verse, which
is among the most famous verse in Mahabhaarat, is one of those
explanation he has given.
Let us study the context :
In this case Krishna tells Arjun that no matter what is the result of
the war, he should not be worried about it. His duty is to fight, then
he has to fight. He wins or loses that is not important. Even if he dies
during the war, he will attain heaven because he has correctly
performed his duty.
Now coming to the second phrase of the above verse, Krishna also
advises Arjun that he should never let the fruit be the purpose of his
action, in this case the action is his fight and the fruit is either he
wins or loses. In other words he is not supposed to worry about victory
or defeat. Either one wins or loses, he must be neutral about it.
In simple terms it means: Keep on performing your duties without
being attached to the result of your actions. Either you get something
or you don’t get anything, you should not worry about it. You should
have a neutral behaviour.
Well let us relate that in our context as a human being:
As an example:
A student – His duty is to study, he passes or fails that’s not in
his control. The student does not study just for the sake of passing his
exams. When he studies, he learns. Whether he pases or fails he should
not be too happy or too sad about it.
If ever a student studies for the sole purpose of passing his exams,
in the end he has not learned anything even if he has passed. But if he
studies because he considers learning and studying as his duty, he won’t
even need to be worried whether he will pass or fail. And such a
student as we have always seen they are most likely to pass their exams.
Unless they are not able to reach their exam for some reason. But still
he should not be sad about it. Why? Because the most important is at
least he performed his duty well.
We can also relate this to selflessness:
When we help someone, we don’t do it for the sake of something in
return, whether we are rewarded for our actions or not, this is not our
concern. And when we help someone without worrying about our own gains,
this is selflessness. We don’t think what are we going to get from that.
The importance is that as a human being we have been able to help
someone.
Note: In Bhagavad Gita, As It Is, By Swami Prabhupada, the part
Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhur means,
never to consider ourselves to be the cause of the result of our activities.This
is right too, because when we consider ourselves to be the cause of the
result of our actions, we will be tempted to be attached to that
result. So when we do something we are not supposed to take the credit
for the fruit of our action. We consider that it is our duty, so we did
it.
Today how many of us really believe in this principle? What does this verse means to us today?
For me this verse has a really great meaning in my life. Well I would
like to know about my other friends here, really think about this
verse.
**Src : http://pramoduniverse.com/philosophy/karmanye-vadhikaraste-ma-phaleshu-kada-chana/