Krishna's Advice

During the Mahabharat war, Krishna advice to Arjuna: Do your work but don’t expect the fruit out of it. The advice is a contrast in itself. if we leave expectations then how do we get the motivation to do the work? Without any positive hope for the future, one would never be able to start any work. Either Krishna was wrong or there is a misunderstanding in its interpretations. Lord Krishna was neither supposed to be wrong nor he just said it for the sake of motivating Arjuna. As lord said this, it should be a general rule just like the sun rises in the east and it should fit to explain any situation. Let us try to understand it in more detail. Arjuna was depressed and confused. The base of his confusion was his interpretation of the future. If everyone will die, would that be good or bad? Hence thinking about future results you will not be able to focus on the present moment. To do work as perfectly as possible, one needs to focus with mind and heart. In the case of Arjuna, he needed to focus on how perfectly he should operate his archery, instead of thinking about what will happen in the future as the future is unpredictable. Of course, Krishna motivates him to win the war. If Arjuna kept thinking win or lose doesn’t affect him in any way, then he would not have fought the war. But the statement means that while you are fighting, focus on how well you would fight, not indulge yourself in thinking what would happen if you win or lose. If you keep thinking about the outcomes then you would not be able to do the work as perfectly as it should be. This does not mean that you should leave the aspiration to win the war. It only means that while doing your work don’t divert your mind from thinking/imagining about the outcome. Indulge your whole mind body and heart in building the process.

Now let us take a daily life example if you are going for a job interview, preparation is the most important factor one should consider. Based on that you will get a job. But during the preparation, if you involve in thinking that If I get this job I will buy a car, home, etc or if I would not get this job I will be depressed, people would say bad about me and so on. Then you would not do enough preparation for the job. So the work is not being done properly. This is why your mind should not divert from the present work by thinking about the outcomes. Always focus on the preparation with strong faith that you will be get hired without imagining (making a story) what will happen in the future. Only then you will have the best chance to make it. So the exact statement can be rephrased as “Focus on your work with a strong faith to be successful, without imagining/exaggerating the stories about the outcome”.