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The Gita’s karma yoga: acting without attachment to results

Rohan Desai Fellow
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Economy & workIndian#karma-yoga#work
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The Bhagavad Gītā's teaching on karma yoga, especially in chapters 2 and 3, says roughly: you have a right to your action, but never to its fruits; don't let the fruits be your motive, and don't be attached to inaction either.

Gandhi wrote a commentary called Anāsaktiyoga, "the yoga of non-attachment", and Tilak read the Gita as a call to action in the world.

As a founder, everything I'm trained to do is about results. Metrics, KPIs, outcomes. Is detachment from results even compatible with running a business? Or is it a recipe for not caring?

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3 replies

  1. Arjun Iyer

    Fellow

    Detachment from results doesn't mean indifference to them. You still aim at the result, plan for it, work hard. What you give up is the anxiety and the ego attached to it. Arjuna is told to fight, not to stop caring how the battle goes.

    Helpful · 2
  2. Javier Ferrandis

    Fellow

    Interesting parallel with Weber's Protestant Ethic: work as a calling, done for its own sake, with success as a sign rather than a goal. Two very different traditions arriving at a similar psychology of work.

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  3. Meera Kulkarni

    Fellow

    Notice that the Gita links action to duty, svadharma. You act because it's your duty, not for the fruit. For a founder, the question becomes: what is your duty? If it's just to grow the company, the teaching might not help much.