Action is ours, results belong to God
Yes, I am referring to the famous verse 2.47 of the Bhagavad-Gita. There are four instructions in this verse. The first instruction is: “You have a right only in action.” Lord Krishna is talking about what we do with our mind, words and body. In the spiritual language, these must be our duties, including to self as a soul, to family, nation, etc. And the right is what is within our control as a soul. We can act as we wish, exercising our free will, but the result is not in our hands.
Recently, I was faced with a serious problem; our company’s income tax return had come under scrutiny. We were asked to submit supporting evidence of the expenses, and they gave a date by which to submit them. It was a monumental task of transmitting all the expense vouchers. We consulted tax experts. They all advised taking their shelter and, of course, giving a very fat fee to manage this problem. After giving the matter serious thought, we decided to take the pain part; we began transmitting the information sought by them. To cut a long story short, we managed to transmit all the supporting evidence, as sought by the tax authority. Still, the result was not in our hands, whether they would be satisfied or not. To the relief of all and surprise of the so-called tax experts, we got a no-dues acknowledgement.
This brings us to the second instruction of Lord Krishna, which is: “Not ever in determining its fruits/result.” The question naturally arises, then, about who decides the results. The answer lies in the ‘Karmaphala Principle’, which is: “What you sow is what you reap.” God has set up a Divine Authority under His superintendence to shoulder the responsibility of deciding the results of our ‘karmas’ (deeds). They take all relevant factors into consideration and decide. Therefore, all decisions are, in effect, made by God only.
And God is perfectly just in awarding them. The result belongs to the person concerned, and no one else; he must get it. A wrong impression is prevalent that the fruits of our acts don’t belong to us. This is farthest from the truth. God does not need these fruits. Doesn’t He own everything? What happened in the income tax scrutiny? We exercised our right to act, and the result was given to us. We had also obeyed Lord Krishna’s instruction of not trying to manipulate the fruit of action. And we also did not disobey the Lord’s fourth instruction: “Your attachment to inaction also should not be there.” We painstakingly did our duty.
The conclusion is: We all have a right to do our duties, which is the only right we have. Results are not in our hands. We should do our duties, and neither try to manipulate the results nor be inactive. Then, we will be rewarded suitably; we can be sure of it; God has arranged it.
The writer is a spiritual teacher and columnist; Views presented are personal.