Duty Uncontaminated by Desire
60 Minutes • 56m
April 22, 2021
I fluctuate a bit between doing things for the experience of doing them, and doing things because I’m looking for some sort of result or positive feedback from my actions. It’s hard to do things for the sheer experience of doing them, without having desire for a particular outcome.
According to the Bhagavad Gita, it’s all about the actions not the results. Here’s a short stanza from the book:
“The ideal, Arjuna, is to be intensely active and at the same time have no selfish motives, no thoughts of personal gain or loss. Duty uncontaminated by desire leads to inner peacefulness and increased effectiveness. This is the secret area of living a life of real achievement.”
I think of it in terms of watching a beautiful sunset, or sitting the rim of the Grand Canyon. We you don’t do those things so we can have some further result down the road, the experience is the result. So, interesting to consider living all of life that way. :-)
I hope you enjoy today’s class.
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