Bhagavad Gita Sara - Essence of the Gita Part 3
Chapter Three
One who Knows how to Succeed
Dhritarashtra went before Vyasa, who said: “Here is my disciple who will relay all of the events of the battle, though you yourself have no eyes to watch.” Thus, Sanjaya was brought before Dhritarashtra. What is ‘Sanjaya’?
Sanyuktijanaha sanjayaha
It means the ‘one who knows how to succeed’. Later we are going to see that the entire Bhagavad Gita is about how to be successful in battle. True success is not necessarily wining in the battle and subjugating the other party. Not at all. You may lose the battle, and you may still succeed. Success means expertise, the kushalata, fighting the battle without anger, without any recrimination, without revenge and fighting by surrendering oneself and the work of fighting and the final result to the Lord. And this is:
Yogakarma sukamsha…
Skillful Karma
What is the best way of doing any Karma? Whatever karma you do is going to involve you in birth and death again. You do good things, you give to Swamijis, you give to orphanages, you may build a hundred hospitals and you expect and then receive the result out of it. Therefore, you must take another birth. You may be born as a rich man’s son, and there is no guarantee that you will not accumulate papas. This leads to another birth of ill fortune.
Then you do more good things and you are again born into fortune. Thus you will go on from birth to death to birth to death, on and on. You are not going to stop, you are not going to get moksha out of it. You will be tempted to do work because you have Vasanas within. Thus you will not be able to remain without work.
Therefore, the right way to work must be known. Whatever you do, you must say to the Lord: “You are doing it, I am doing nothing!” All is being dedicated to the Lord. “O Lord, because You are making me do it, thus I am doing it, I do not want the result of it”. I am preparing for the examination because my father wants it, I do not care if I pass or fail. So when you disclaim the doership saying: “I am not doing this work, it is all being done by God”, the result will go to somebody else, the result will not come to you. Otherwise the papas and punyas come to you.
The best way of doing a work is to do it without taking the credit for it. You may build a school and receive a letter of praise from the President for the work, which you frame and place at home for all to see. But if the President writes and reprimands you for terrifically shabby work, you don’t frame that at all. You are careful that the praise comes to you, but the blame is avoided like the plague. You will give a thousand excuses that you were unable to get the proper cement and there was no water for curing it. The blame you will spread as thin as ice, the credit you will hoard like the most precious jewels. This is what happens. When we completely surrender all of the work to God, all of the results are His as well. That is the best and most expert way of doing any karma. Done in any other way, you only get entangled either in the punya or the papa, resulting in other births.
Posted by Swami Sadasivananda at 5/19/2011 5:06 PM 
Categories: The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita
Tags: Bhagavad Gita Ramana Maharshi Arunachala
Categories: The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita
Tags: Bhagavad Gita Ramana Maharshi Arunachala
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