05 Apr 2024
[Shri Durgaprasad asked: Paadanamaskaram Swami, Krishna preached mental detachment to the fruit while doing work to reduce mental tension (Karmanyevaadhikaaraste maaphaleshu) in worldly life. Swami, my understanding with reference to Nivrutti is that one shall be fully attached to the success of work with full emotions while doing God's work and the verse 'Karmanyevaadhikaaraste' is not applicable in Nivrutti. Is this correct? Kindly enlighten me. At Your lotus feet, -Durgaprasad]
Swami replied:- In Nivrutti, the work done by the devotee belongs to God’s mission. Therefore, there is no selfish aspiration on the fruit of such work because the fruit belongs to God. In such a case, naturally there is no attachment of the mind to such fruit that belongs to God. The sincerity and attachment in getting such fruit has no trace of selfishness. Therefore, there is no place of selfishness in the case of God’s work. This verse is strictly applied to Pravrutti. But, in the Nivrutti also, this verse can be applied because the attachment to fruit increases the tension or internal energy so that the work done becomes zero (Q=E+W, if Q=E, W=0). Therefore, from the point of success in the work, this verse can be applied to Nivrutti so that the devotee can concentrate all his energy on the work only without wasting any energy in emotional tension. Here, detachment from the fruit does not mean lack of interest in the fruit. For the time being, you must have lack of interest in the fruit to save your energy even though you are ultimately attached to the fruit in Nivrutti. The detachment on the fruit in Pravrutti is always good since if the fruit is damaged on any day, you will not get any tension.
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