00:00In nowadays students' life, everything is very much attached to the rewards, the grades, the placements, the opportunities.
00:06If students are told, grades are assured, you don't need to write the exams.
00:11How many would still write the exams?
00:13You will struggle to find even five students in the classes.
00:16Because it is not for the love of learning that we join an institution.
00:20The concern for result came first, and then came the action.
00:24How has Nishkam Karam been popularly interpreted?
00:27The Gita starts with internal clarity, and from this understanding, it will become automatically clear what you must do now.
00:36And when action comes from such clarity, then it becomes unstoppable.
00:45Good evening, Acharya Prashantji. A very warm welcome to IIIT Bangalore.
00:49We are today privileged to have you here.
00:51So, I am Shuta Nuka. I am from the Outreach and Media Department of IIIT Bangalore.
00:57So, a very common question and a common doubt among students is that you talk a lot about the Bhagavad Gita and the Vedanta,
01:08which focuses on doing work without any attachment to the rewards.
01:14But in nowadays students' life, everything is very much attached to the rewards, the grades, the placements, the opportunities.
01:23So, in this world where we are constantly chasing these things, how can a student keep going towards knowledge without the expectation of getting rewards at each stage?
01:37How to keep that motivated?
01:39That's my question. Thank you.
01:42See, the Gita doesn't start with work.
01:50It doesn't say, all right, you have chosen your work, whatever it is, and now get into it, do it without any expectations.
02:08Do not clamor for results and just keep doing whatever you are doing.
02:13No, that's not what Gita says.
02:14The starting point is not work or action.
02:20The starting point is the choice of work.
02:24The Gita says that your work must be a result of deep self-awareness.
02:37You cannot just get into something, invest your energy there, invest time, resources, life itself, without knowing why you are getting into it.
02:54And you cannot prescribe particular types of work as universally good and other types as universally not good or undesirable.
03:09So, how do I know what I must do?
03:14How do I know the right action to undertake?
03:21The Gita says, know yourself.
03:23Because action cannot be random, action has to be in the context of who you are.
03:33I must know what I am internally.
03:36My fears, my perceived weaknesses, my troubles, my scars, my hopes.
03:47And I must know what these things are and where they are coming from.
03:51Out of this self-awareness emerges a spontaneous choice of work.
04:02Now, this work has not even been very deliberately chosen.
04:08This work has spontaneously emerged because I deeply know who I am and I also see what my relationship with the world currently is.
04:21And world includes everything, my family, my past, the environment, the state of the nation, the state of the other countries, climate change, everything.
04:38That's all included in the world.
04:41So, I know myself and I also see the situation of the world.
04:46And from this awareness emerges, we are saying, a spontaneous choice of work.
04:53It's so spontaneous that it can't even be called a choice.
04:57So, it's a choiceless choice.
05:01You are helpless in front of this choice.
05:06You cannot refuse this choice.
05:11The matter has become so clear in front of you, like the sun shining, that you cannot even attempt to hide behind any kind of screen.
05:25There is no darkness left available anywhere.
05:29Everything is now crystal clear, like daylight.
05:33So, you are choiceless.
05:35In that sense, you are helpless.
05:37You will have to do this.
05:39And when you know that you have to do this, this choicelessness leaves you with no scope to worry about the future.
05:49Work itself becomes so important because that work is arising from your own core.
06:01That work has not been imposed on you.
06:04You are not blindly getting into that work.
06:07You have a very deep, heartful relationship with that work.
06:11So, now, that work consumes you so much and you get so deeply immersed in it that there is no time, space, energy or need left to worry for the results in future.
06:31Now, this is Nishkam Karam of the Bhagavad Gita.
06:35When work has been chosen rightly, when it's a choiceless choice emerging out of awareness, then you will have no need and no desire to worry about the future or what you will get from the work.
06:56The work becomes its own reward.
07:01You can call it love.
07:04There is so much love in the action itself that there is no need left to desire anything from the future.
07:16Whatever could have been obtained is being obtained right now in the process of the work itself.
07:26One says, it is sufficient that I am able to act rightly.
07:32It would be in gratitude to ask for more.
07:37So, that is Nishkam Karam.
07:39Now, instead, how has Nishkam Karam been popularly interpreted?
07:45You do whatever you are doing, any random blind action, coming from ignorance, coming from social pressure, or familial pressure, or peer pressure, social trends, whatever.
08:02That's how most people decide what to do.
08:07It's not even a decision.
08:09It's a kind of sleepwalk.
08:11You are being carried with the flow.
08:14Everybody is getting into that particular line of vocational education.
08:19I too will get into it.
08:20Everybody is taking such kind of career or life decisions.
08:25So, I too feel internally pressurized to take those decisions.
08:29That's how we decide on our actions.
08:35Now, when such actions are there, obviously you will worry about the result.
08:41Because how do you, first of all, commit yourself to such actions?
08:46Somebody tells you, you see, if you choose a certain branch of engineering or management or any other professional education, then you will get such and such results, right?
08:59So, the desire for results comes first.
09:06And with a view, with an eye on the results, you decide the action.
09:10Isn't that how the common mind, the common man works?
09:13First of all, you say, I want to go there.
09:16So, desire comes first and then you figure out the action.
09:21So, should I walk like this, a serpentine walk, a haphazard walk, a straight line or should I fly over?
09:28Should I dig a tunnel underneath?
09:31So, these are the possible options.
09:33Whatever be the options, the fact remains that first of all, the common man says, that is my desire.
09:40Now, that is my desire and I want to obtain that thing.
09:43I want to reach that point.
09:45So, I will now undertake action.
09:47That's how we commonly work, right?
09:49And we are asking, where did that desire come from in the first place?
09:55It's not your desire.
09:56We said social pressures.
09:58General trends.
10:01Internal laziness.
10:03Why try to figure out what life is all about?
10:06Just do what everybody else is doing?
10:09So, that's where the target comes from.
10:13Internal laziness and fear and pressure and ignorance and greed.
10:18That's what sets that target.
10:20The target is the first thing and then comes the action.
10:27Then comes the action.
10:29Now, with this kind of action, in this framework, how are you going to act without concern for result?
10:40Because the concern for result is what has decided the action.
10:45The concern for result came first and then came the action.
10:49And now, some wise man comes to you and says, you know, Bhagavad Gita says, do what you are doing and don't worry about the result.
10:56But the fact is, I have already worried about the result.
10:58That's why I am doing what I am doing.
11:00So, what nonsense is being preached?
11:04It's not nonsense being preached.
11:06That's not Bhagavad Gita.
11:08That's not what Shri Krishna had to offer.
11:11What he is saying is something totally different, dimensionally different.
11:15But we have totally missed it and misinterpreted it according to our own convenience.
11:22So, unless your action is coming from internal clarity, desireless action is impossible.
11:35Without internal clarity, you cannot have Nishkamkar.
11:40From internal clarity comes the type of action that doesn't worry about results.
11:47But the common kind of action, you will have to worry about results because it is for the sake of results that most people work.
11:56They will not work if result is guaranteed without working.
12:00If students are told grades are assured, you don't need to write the exams.
12:07How many would still write the exams?
12:09Because they are not writing the exams for the sake of enjoying the examination.
12:15They are writing the exam for the sake of the degree or the placement.
12:18Right on the day of admission, if you are told, placement is guaranteed, you don't need to attend the classes.
12:25You will struggle to find even five students in the classes.
12:30Even at places like IT's and IM's attendance has to be made compulsory.
12:39And wherever attendance is not compulsory, the classrooms struggle to see even twenty percent occupancy.
12:49Why?
12:50Because it is not for the love of learning that we join an institution.
12:55We join an institution for the sake of placement or degree or reputation or something, money or pressure, something.
13:04You tell people, salary is guaranteed even without working.
13:09How many people would turn up at the office?
13:13Because it was not for the love of the work that they were reaching the office.
13:18They were coming to the office just so that on the 30th, they could get a paycheck.
13:24That's how the common mind works.
13:26The desire comes first, the action comes later.
13:30That's not what Gita is talking about.
13:32The Gita is talking about a totally different framework.
13:35It's a different dimension, the whole paradigm is not what we think it to be.
13:45The Gita starts with internal clarity.
13:47Please understand where you stand.
13:50Please see who you are.
13:52Then look at your relationship with everything around you.
13:57And from this understanding, it will become automatically clear what you must do now.
14:03And when action comes from such clarity, then it becomes unstoppable.
14:13Desirous action is very vulnerable.
14:17It can be stopped very easily.
14:20You are going to that point and somebody comes and tells you, irrespective of how much you walk, that point can never be attained.
14:26You will stop.
14:27Your action has no energy.
14:31Your action has no energy.
14:34But when your action is not for the sake of a particular point there, rather your action is emanating from a deep point here, then your action becomes unstoppable.
14:46What will you tell this person?
14:48He is already in love.
14:50He is in love with what he is doing.
14:52How will you stop him?
14:53You will tell him, you know, you will not reach anywhere.
14:55He said, I don't care about reaching.
14:57I care about walking.
15:00You know, people will obstruct you.
15:01They will hate you.
15:02You might face repercussions.
15:05You will say, you know, the biggest harm that can come to me is that I stop.
15:15I will not let this harm happen.
15:18Other things I can manage and tolerate.
15:21So, you cannot stop this person.
15:25So, you cannot just wish that doing any random thing, you will be able to not worry about the result.
15:32Worrying about the result will become a compulsion with you if your action is not coming from the point of inner clarity, lucidity.
15:42So, before committing yourself to any action, ask yourself, why must I?
15:46Is this worth doing?
15:48What am I getting into it for?
15:51Those are very important questions to be asked, especially as a youngster.
15:55Otherwise, we make decisions that are sometimes irreversible and if you get into something and stay there for long enough,
16:06sometimes you will stop feeling bad about it because you get conditioned, because you get habituated.
16:16You're doing something for the last 20 years, for the first one or two years.
16:21You knew it was not the right thing to do, but now the sheer force of habit keeps you going.
16:27Like the momentum of a thing going down a slope.
16:31Nobody has to push it, just the slope and the existing momentum will keep it going.
16:38After a while, not even the slope is needed.
16:42It has gained so much from the past that it can keep going for another five years, just out of the pre-existing momentum.
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