Renouncing the Fruits of your Labor

The correct application of the practice of meditation is the gradual, slow and steady control of all desires through the constant practice of love for God. By controlling the sense organs and controlling your desires it will become possible to carry on all your activities in a totally natural and spontaneous way, without expecting to reap any fruits from your labors. Actually, it is impossible to have work without fruits. Whenever you engage in an activity there will necessarily follow some consequence or result; this is the fruit of that action. So, it is not that there are no fruits, but the Gita teaches that you should give up interest in the fruits. The fruits will always be there, but do not work for the purpose of obtaining these fruits. Work only because it is your duty to work, because it is God's will.

While discharging your duty there will incidentally be some desires and there will also be some results, in other words, some fruits. There is no harm in that. Just continue doing your duty. Gita has not taught that actions will be without fruits. People who have not correctly understood the meaning of sacrificing the fruits of action are giving up the action itself. But actions must be engaged in. What the Gita stresses is renunciation in action and not renunciation of action. Until the food is cooked there is need for the fire. Until you understand the inner secret of work, and that of sacrificing the fruits of work, you will have to continue to engage in activities and discharge your duties.