Fruits of action

[Tirisilex]

I'm having a hard time understanding BG 2:45 and 47

 

45 : ...not caring for acquisition and preservation;

 

47 : ...let not the fruits of action be thy motive;

 

So say I'm in college and I'm studying for a test.. I shouldnt care whether my effort will give me a good grade on the test?

 

Dont care for Preservation? Where does compassion fit?

[theist]

The idea is if you act with a desire to enjoy the fruits of your efforts you will gewt the fruits of your efforts to enjoy. Those fruits come to us in the form of another birth in the material world either to collect the good or bad fruits of our labor.

 

What has to be asked is if anything is worth going through repeated birth and death to acquire. And that aquisition is at best only temporary. It's kinda like having to go back into a dangerous neighborhood to pick up a paycheck from your last job and getting beat up on the way. Better to just lose the desire for the paycheck.

 

Not much of an example I know but I hope you get the idea.

[Amlesh]

What you should know is the proper definition of Duty. Remember there are many types of action. That what has been described by Krishna in " 47 : ...let not the fruits of action be thy motive" is Akarma. And the example that you've given, i.e., " So say I'm in college and I'm studying for a test.. I shouldnt care whether my effort will give me a good grade on the test?" definately outlines KARMA MIMAMSA.

 

Coming to your example, I may ask you 1 question:

 

What guarantee can you give me that the result is always +ve even if the biggest effort is given.

 

Success or failure does not depend on us. The best thing you can do is to carry your duty expertly without any attachment and of course directed to The speaker of the Bhagvad Gita.

 

I know its a bit wavy but you can do some research work on the term Svadharma.