How to act in the World as per Bhagavad Gita

On the journey of self-mastery, a question we all encounter is this, how can we act in the world without being affected by it? The Bhagavad Gita offers us 3 key distinctions to this. 

Most of us in India know this popular verse on Karma Yoga, Ch 2 V 47

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन | 

मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि || 47 ||

karmaṇy-evādhikāras te mā phaleṣhu kadāchana 

mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr mā te saṅgo ’stvakarmaṇi

Thy right is to work only, but never to its fruits; 

let not the fruit-of-action be thy motive, nor let thy attachment be to inaction.

3 key insights to act in the world:

Don’t be attached to inaction: This is equally powerful because he goes on to say, that just because you realise you’re never going to be a New York Times Bestseller it doesn’t mean you don’t write a book at all. This is for all perfectionists here who drop the action when they feel they can never truly be the best in it. So we need to continue to act, however imperfectly.

Our right is only to put in the work, but not its results: Most of us today suffer because we forget the second part of it. We believe if we’ve put in the work, the result must always be 100% in our favour always. But Gita clearly distinguishes the two and reminds us the only thing in our control is our actions, not the results. We can show up to our best and the result could be favourable, unfavourable, or mixed (Ch 18, V12)

Don’t let the fruit-of-action be the motive: This means don’t start writing a book because you want to be a New York Times Bestseller or begin training in Tennis to win the Wimbledon. This doesn’t mean that you cannot aim high or have lofty goals for yourself. The verse indicates only that the fruit alone cannot be our motivation to do an action because then we would give up at the first sign of failure.

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So, how should we act then

योगस्थ: कुरु कर्माणि सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा धनञ्जय | 

सिद्ध्यसिद्ध्यो: समो भूत्वा समत्वं योग उच्यते || 48||

yoga-sthaḥ kuru karmāṇi saṅgaṁ tyaktvā dhanañjaya 

siddhy-asiddhyoḥ samo bhūtvā samatvaṁ yoga uchyate

Be steadfast in the performance of your duty, O Arjun, abandoning attachment to success and failure. Such equanimity is called Yog.

Self-mastery is when we keep showing up regardless of success or failure, when we fall in love with the journey or the process beyond mere outcomes. When we show up with equanimity and give our best in all our efforts. The last part of this verse is also a popular definition of Yoga – samatvam yoga uchyate – Evenness in Mind is called Yoga.

How to act with equanimity?

My Yoga Teacher says it beautifully. He says, to act so we need to realise 2 important things, that we have to 

Act as if you have Nothing to Lose

One of the biggest reasons we lose the stability in our minds while pursuing our goals is because we have attached so much of our self-worth and self-esteem to the work we do. If we fail, it’s not just that we are not good at our jobs, but that we are not good enough. 

We seek promotions at work like our entire life depends on it, because psychologically for us it does. Our entire identity and self-worth are attached to our role, so we feel we have everything to lose if we don’t get promoted and somebody else does.

Most of us operate in the world as if we have everything to lose. But what if we could create some distance between our identity and our actions? Imagine anchoring your sense of self-worth to something much deeper and permanent within and only acting in the world either as a sense of duty or because you love doing what you do. This is true self-mastery because there’s both freedom and choice. Also, it would take the pressure off and remove unnecessary mental angst about what if I fail or what others think of me.

Act as if you have Nothing to Prove

Most of us also operate from a space of deep inadequacy within ourselves. We believe we are not good enough and set ourselves goals to say ‘If I create xx crores wealth” or “If I become the CEO before I turn 35” I’ll prove to them that I was good enough all along. This is a classic ego move. We feel inadequate and our ego pushes us to take on audacious if not slightly unreasonable goals to prove to ourselves and the world that we are good enough.

True self-mastery is recognising that we are good enough as we are. Nothing is lacking in us that we need to overcompensate for and nothing that we need to acquire to feel complete.

When we act because we need to prove something, we push ourselves without recognising our limits, we take on more than we can fulfil, and constantly drain our energies in doubt or fear spirals worrying people will find out we are not quite good enough.

When we ignore both these mindsets, our actions are inefficient because the best part of us is drained away in unnecessary mental churn. Doubts, anxieties, and fears take away our energies and leave us with little to do.

It’s like Brene Brown’s words, Don’t shrink. Don’t puff up. Hold your sacred ground (and in the case of Karma Yoga – act!)

There’s a 2nd definition of Yoga that follows soon after

That is योग: कर्मसु कौशलम् (Ch 2, V 50) which translates to ‘Yoga is skill in action’. 

Here Krishna is not talking about amassing Harvard and Stanford certifications in functional skills or the latest LinkedIn course on Generative AI. No, what Krishna goes on to say is that when we do an action with such even-mindedness without anxiety for the fruit of the results our actions are efficient. Action done with a balanced mind without unnecessary mental drain is Yoga. So when we act by recognising we have nothing to lose or prove, we act in Yoga, with skill in action.

Meraklis Insight:

Observe your underlying motivations behind your actions and explore how you can reach that state of nothing to lose or prove. Experiment with it in a small, low-stakes activity and gradually deepen the self-mastery to act as if you have nothing to lose or prove.