INTRODUCTION
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Here are two techniques by which one can liberate oneself from attachment to work. One is by telling oneself, 'I am not the doer.' By continuously reminding yourself that it is the senses and not you who is doing something, you distance yourself from the action. The other way is by surrendering the fruits of one's work to the Divine, to the ultimate life force that is conducting this Universe. This is the technique that Kṛṣṇa talks about here. Bhagavān says, 'O Kaunteya, perform your work for Me and you will do it with authenticity, liberated and without attachment.' When you do work as a sincere, humble offering to the Divine, the very attitude of this surrender will make you do the job authentically to your peak capability and you will be liberated.
When you are excessively bothered about the results, you actually think you are the doer of the action! That is why you get attached to the work and its results. This is when you start getting stressed and tensed about results. Naturally, when you are tensed, you are not performing at your maximum efficiency because so much of your valuable energy is getting wasted in being tense.
How will you then be able to get your job properly done? I always tell people, ‘When you are afraid to make small mistakes and are overcautious, you end up making big blunders.’ You waste your entire life trying to avoid making mistakes and attempting to be perfect, and your life becomes a blunder. This doesn’t mean you can be careless about your work. I am only saying that you should have the courage of authenticity to make mistakes and learn to not give up on yourself.
Only when you make mistakes can you learn from them and complete with your unconscious inauthenticity's.
Only then have you been exposed to your inauthenticity and seen both sides of the coin. Then, with experience, when you have learnt from the mistake and stood up powerfully with completion, you will have the cognition of both sides.
Otherwise, just at the crucial time, your inauthenticity's that have been hiding from you will make you commit mistakes and you will powerlessly give up on yourself.
You can have this courage of authenticity only when you are not attached to the ownership of tasks and results.
When you see that Existence is
purposeless and you are living
in the loving, caring arms of
Existence, you will relax and
surrender to that very
Existence. When you are in this
relaxed mood, you can function
at your best and enjoy every
moment of life without feeling
like the doer and therefore not
worrying about making small
mistakes.
Real surrender happens when
this understanding becomes
your experience.
