One of the most famous teachings of Bhagavad Gita is often quoted in simple words as:
Karma kar, phal ki chinta mat kar.
Sri Krishna expresses this idea clearly in the Gita
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन ।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥
(Bhagavad Gita 2.47)
Translation
You have the right to action alone, not to the fruits of action.
Do not let the results be your motive, nor fall into inaction.
This teaching sounds beautiful but for most people it also sounds confusing.
Because the immediate question is very practical:
If I don’t care about results, why will I work at all?
Where will motivation come from?
Swami Vivekananda faced the same doubt from his students. In his lectures on Karma Yoga, he repeatedly clarified that Krishna was not asking us to become careless or lazy.
Vivekananda said something radical:
Work done for reward binds us.
Work done as worship frees us.
The problem, he explained, is not work.
The problem is attachment to what work gives to the ego.
This is where most people get stuck and miss the liberating power of this teaching.
Let’s understand this through two simple ideas:
- Karma Yoga
- Focusing on the process, not the result
If these are understood correctly, karma stops being bondage and starts becoming freedom.
Karma Yoga – Liberation Through Work
Let’s take a simple, modern example.
Amit works as a Product Manager in a large e-commerce company. He has just been assigned an important project. If it succeeds, he may get recognition, a raise or better visibility. If it fails, it could affect his future opportunities.
Now pause and look closely.
Who exactly is getting praised or blamed here?
Is it Amit – the conscious being? Or is it the role, the image, the professional identity called “Product Manager Amit” ?
From the standpoint of Vedanta and Krishna’s teaching, Amit is not this limited image. His true nature is awareness itself – steady, complete, untouched.
The image that gets hurt by failure or inflated by success is what Vedanta calls the ego.
The ego is not something evil. It is simply a mistaken identity – confusing who we truly are with the roles we play.
Success and failure operate at the level of the ego.
Praise and criticism touch the image.
But the deeper Self remains untouched – just like the sky remains unchanged whether clouds gather or disperse.
Karma Yoga means:
Do the work fully, but don’t confuse the result with who you are.
Focus on the Process, Not the Result
There is another very practical dimension to this teaching.
Have you noticed how work flows better when the mind is calm?
When you are constantly worried about outcomes – appraisal, praise, failure, reputation – your energy gets divided. Fear creeps in. Creativity shrinks. Risk-taking reduces.
Think of a successful movie star.
He is loved when he plays a romantic hero. Now a script comes where he must play a comedian or a negative role. Immediately the mind says:
What if this fails? What if my image is damaged?
This fear limits growth.
But when he focuses on the craft, the character and the learning, something changes. He grows as an artist. Whether the movie succeeds or not is no longer fully in his control and never really was.
This is exactly what Krishna is pointing to.
Results depend on many factors: timing, people, systems, market and circumstances beyond us.
Effort is in our hands.
Sincerity is in our hands.
Attention is in our hands.
When attention moves from “How will I look?” to “How can I do this well?”
work becomes lighter – and strangely, more effective.
Now motivation no longer comes from fear or reward.
It comes from clarity, growth and contribution.
When Work Stops Binding
So the teaching is not: “Don’t care about results”.
The teaching is: “Don’t make results the source of your identity”.
When work is done only to protect or enhance the ego, it binds.
When work is done as an offering, with presence and sincerity, it frees.
Then karma no longer becomes a chain. It becomes a path.
And slowly, without forcing anything,
Good doesn’t feel like “I did it”
It feels like “It happened through me”
That is the freedom Krishna and Vivekananda were pointing toward.
Vedik Mind 