This summary is about pressure at work. It holds no new teaching. It puts the matters of other hubs on one heavy working day: loosening the grip on the fruit, staying even (Equanimity), and offering work (Offering All Actions). It is the first subject on Work and Career, and after it comes Action Without Claiming the Fruit.

The answer in one line

The Gita does not call pressure false, and does not tell us to run from work. It gives a way of staying steady in the middle of work. Pressure is not one thing. It is three layers, and each layer has its own remedy.

If it is the demand of the work, do the work in front of you (Gita 2.47). If it is fear of the result, loosen the claim on the fruit (Gita 2.47–51, Gita 5.12). If it is a wave of panic, bear it and keep the mind even (Gita 2.14, Gita 2.38, Gita 3.30). Once the layers are apart, work does not get worse, it gets better.

What confusion this answers

Monday's meeting, Friday's deadline, the month's target, and inside, the fear of falling short. Where exactly does the Gita speak to this pressure, and what does it want us to do today?

The three layers

The first layer is the demand of the work: deadlines, targets, the real size of the task. The Gita says to do the work in front of you (Gita 2.47, Gita 3.8).

The second layer is fear of the result: "what if it doesn't happen?", "what will people say?" The Gita says to give up the claim on the fruit (Gita 2.47–51, Gita 5.12).

The third layer is the wave of panic: tightness in the chest, racing thoughts. The Gita says to bear the wave and keep the mind even (Gita 2.14, Gita 2.38, Gita 3.30).

All three arrive as one bundle on the head. The first step is to tell them apart.

Layer by layer

The first layer: doing the work is in your hands

There are four things in verse 2.47. First, the right is to action, meaning planning, effort and the attempt to finish on time. Second, never to the fruit. Whether the target will be met, whether the customer will agree, rests on many things. Third, do not be one who works only for the fruit, and do not think yourself the sole cause of the result. That is, do not let the result become the master of your work. And fourth, there should be no attachment to inaction either. Giving up worry about the fruit does not mean giving up work (Gita 2.47).

Verse 3.8 says to do your set action, action is better than inaction, and even the upkeep of the body will not go on without action (Gita 3.8). The Gita is honest here. One part of pressure is simply the true size of the work, and it is not shown as smaller than it is. The start of nishkama karma is here: what is the next task, and how do I do it well?

The second layer: the fear is in the result, not in the work

What breaks sleep at two in the night is not the list of work. It is the thought "what if it goes wrong?"

Verse 2.48 says: giving up attachment, even in success and failure, standing in yoga, act. This is called the yoga of equanimity (Gita 2.48). Yoga is not a separate practice after work. It is the mind staying even while working. Success should not carry the mind away, and failure should not bring it down.

Verse 2.49 says that action done from desire for the fruit is far below action done with an even mind. Those who work for the fruit are pitiable (Gita 2.49). This is no judgement on ambition. The feeling is that a mind whose peace is mortgaged to what it does not control gets cramped.

Verse 2.50 says that skill in action is yoga (Gita 2.50). An even-minded person works better. A frightened hand shakes, a steady hand does fine work. Equanimity is not slackness. It is the first condition of skill.

Verse 2.51 says that the wise with even intellect, giving up the fruit, are freed from the bond and reach a state free of sorrow (Gita 2.51). The direction is that the lighter the grip on the fruit, the less the sorrow.

Verse 2.40 says that on this road a beginning is never lost, there is no reverse effect, and even a little practice saves from great fear (Gita 2.40). Setting fear aside for one day, one meeting, one message also counts.

The sum is that fear lives in the result, and the result was never wholly in your hands.

The third layer: the wave of panic goes down by bearing it

A message from the boss arrives and the chest tightens. Verse 2.14 says that the meeting of senses and objects gives cold and heat, pleasure and pain. They come and go, so bear them (Gita 2.14). The verse does not call pain false. It adds two things: the wave comes and goes, and the answer is bearing.

Bearing does not mean pressing down. It means making no decision and giving no reply at the crest of the wave. The wave rises, reaches the crest and goes down. The mind after it goes down is the one that can give the right reply to the work.

Verse 2.38 says to treat pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat alike, and then enter action (Gita 2.38). The order is clear: first the mind even, then the hands in the work.

The main points to remember

How pressure turns into anger

The chain of verses 2.62 and 2.63 is this: dwelling again and again on the result, then attachment to it, then the wish to have it at any cost, then irritation and anger at whoever comes in the way, then clouded thinking, then ruin of the intellect. In the end work and relationships suffer (Gita 2.62–63). It is taken up in From Thought to Ruin.

The easiest place to break it is the first link. Do not fix the mind on the result. If it strays, bring it back gently to the work in front of you (Gita 6.26). Then remember the two things that loosen the grip: the right is to action (Gita 2.47), and staying even in success and failure is yoga (Gita 2.48). At the moment of flaring, stopping anger is hard. At the first link it is easy.

The picture of the steady intellect is in verse 2.56: not disturbed in pain, not longing in pleasure, free of attachment, fear and anger (Gita 2.56).

Two kinds of workers

Verses 18.23 to 18.27 show two kinds of workers. The difference is not in effort but in grip.

In attachment, the worker driven by pressure is deeply clinging to the fruit of work (Gita 18.27), while the steady worker is free of attachment (Gita 18.26). In ego, the first works with ego (Gita 18.24), and the second does not praise himself (Gita 18.26). In mind, the first goes up and down with joy and sorrow (Gita 18.27), and the second stays even in success and failure (Gita 18.26). In strength, the first works under heavy strain (Gita 18.24), and the second has steadiness and enthusiasm (Gita 18.26).

The most useful point is that enthusiasm stays in the steady worker too. The Gita does not want a dull, cold worker. What goes is the grip on the fruit and the swaying of the mind, and under pressure these two are what make work heavy. The steady one's work is the set duty done without attachment and irritation, without wish for fruit (Gita 18.23).

Verse 3.30: the three layers in one promise

The Lord says: fixing the mind on the self, offer all actions to Me, give up hope and the sense of mine, give up the inner fever, and fight, meaning do your duty (Gita 3.30).

Offering the action and doing it is the first layer. Giving up hope and the sense of mine is the second, the claim of "mine" on the result. Giving up the fever is the third, the inner heat that runs along with work. This was said to a warrior on a battlefield. An office desk is not Kurukshetra, but the spirit reaches everyone who works: with the whole mind, as an offering, without inner burning.

The work is a duty being offered. It is not a verdict about you. If the report is incomplete, the report is incomplete, not you. A big root of the fever is that every task becomes a test of one's worth. It is taken up in Offering All Actions.

Verse 5.12: the reward is peace

One joined to yoga, giving up the fruit, gains lasting peace. One not so joined, clinging to the fruit out of desire, is bound (Gita 5.12). Both work. The difference is in the grip behind the work. Nishkama karma does not reduce work. It reduces the restlessness after work.

Why pressure lightens when the layers are apart

There are five reasons.

First, a mind lifting the whole mountain at once cannot see the next step. Once the layers are apart, each shows in its true size.

Second, fear of the result steals attention (Gita 2.49). One stuck on "what will happen" cannot rest on "what is to be done".

Third, a wave passes by being borne (Gita 2.14). Fight it and it rises higher. Follow its word and it spoils decisions.

Fourth, a day kept in measure keeps the mind strong. For one moderate in food, recreation, work and sleep, yoga destroys sorrow (Gita 6.17). Work dragging on late every night takes you away from the very evenness most needed under pressure.

And fifth, the double worry of getting and keeping is the deep root of pressure. Verse 2.45 says to rise above the pairs of pleasure and pain, stand in purity, give up the worry of getting and keeping, and be self-possessed (Gita 2.45). Those who worship with undivided mind have their yogakshema carried by the Lord (Gita 9.22). This is no promise of a job or a promotion. It is a trust by which the mind does not sink in the fear of gaining and losing, and can return to work.

Being free of envy

Verse 4.22 says that the karma yogi is content with what comes of itself, beyond the pairs of opposites, free of envy and even in success and failure, and is not bound though acting (Gita 4.22). A large part of pressure comes from comparison with colleagues. Verse 3.35 says that one's own duty done with shortcomings is better than another's duty done well (Gita 3.35). Walk your own road. Do not run on another's. It is taken up in One's Own Duty.

The calm of the head of a team

Verse 3.21 says that whatever the best person does, others follow (Gita 3.21). A panicked head spreads panic. A steady head spreads steadiness. It is taken up in Acting for the World.

The answer to perfectionism

Verse 18.48 says that all action is covered by some fault as fire is by smoke, and natural work should not be left even if it has a fault (Gita 18.48). "I won't begin until everything is right" is also a form of avoiding work.

Peace is the first thing to go

Verse 2.66 says that one whose mind and senses are not steady has no resolute intellect and no peace, and for the unpeaceful, where is happiness (Gita 2.66)? Under pressure, peace goes first, and without it neither good work nor happiness is left.

The mind is a friend and also an enemy

Verses 6.5 and 6.6 say to lift yourself by your own self and not let yourself fall. For one who has conquered the mind by understanding and practice, the mind is a true friend. For one who has not, it behaves like an enemy (Gita 6.5–6). Under pressure the inner voice, such as "you can't do this" or "everyone will see", does not come from outside. And the strength to handle it is within too. Whatever the circumstances, the way you speak to your own mind is in your hands.

Do some work simply because it is to be done

The details nobody will read, the old sorting, mending someone else's mess: where the mind asks "if nobody will even see, why the effort?" The Gita's settled view is that even actions like sacrifice, giving and austerity are done giving up clinging and fruit (Gita 18.6). The set action done only because it ought to be done, giving up clinging and fruit, is pure relinquishment (Gita 18.9).

The work gets done. The hunger for praise goes. The hidden part of pressure is this hunger to be seen and applauded. When it goes, even dull work becomes light. It is taken up in Relinquishment and Renunciation of Action.

Common misunderstandings

The first misunderstanding is that giving up the claim on the fruit means not caring about the goal. It is the opposite. The right is to action (Gita 2.47), and action is better than inaction (Gita 3.8). Planning, preparation and effort are all action. The yoga spoken of is skill in action (Gita 2.50), not carelessness.

The second is that equanimity means silently putting up with any amount of work. That is not so. Equanimity is inner steadiness. It is not silence about facts. The Gita asks for moderation in both action and rest (Gita 6.17) and gives the support of an even intellect (Gita 2.49). A clear mind sees how much work and how much time there is, and can say so calmly.

The third is that work offered to the Lord is an excuse for slack work. That is not so. What is offered is offered in its best form. Yoga is skill in action (Gita 2.50), and the very promise of offering ends by asking for action (Gita 3.30).

The fourth is that pressure is an illusion and does not really exist. That is not so. The verse admits that the meeting of senses and objects gives cold and heat, pleasure and pain (Gita 2.14). The sting is real. The Gita does not deny it. It teaches bearing it.

Questions people ask

If we don't think of the fruit, how do we plan for a goal? Planning is part of action, not of the fruit (Gita 2.47). What is to be loosened is the mind's clutch on the result, not the plan.

Why are those who work for the fruit called "pitiable"? Because their peace rests on what they do not control (Gita 2.49). It is the feeling of a cramped mind that bows to the result at every moment.

What about a boss who adds to the pressure? The three layers are the same. Finish your own work. The boss's mood is in other hands. Reply only after bearing the wave of his sharp words (Gita 2.14). And keep in your own hands the moderation of work and rest (Gita 6.17) and a clear, even intellect (Gita 2.49).

Are equanimity and skill against a high goal? No. Verses 2.38 and 2.50 are two parts of one road. An even-minded person is more skilful, because attention is not split by fear. A high goal and not being bound by the result go together.

Does the "fight" of verse 3.30 apply to an office too? The verse was said to a warrior on a battlefield. The spirit is for everyone who works: your work with the whole mind, as an offering, without inner burning. What the ground of duty is, is in One's Own Duty.

If you have to explain it in thirty seconds

Work pressure is not one thing but three. First, the demand of the work: the answer is to do today's work with full attention, since the right is to action (Gita 2.47). Second, fear of the result: the answer is to loosen the grip on the fruit, since the result was never wholly in your hands (Gita 2.47–51). Third, the wave of panic: the answer is to bear it and speak after it goes down (Gita 2.14). Beneath all three is one promise: do the work with the whole mind, as an offering, without inner fever (Gita 3.30). Work does not shrink by this. The restlessness after work does, and with the fear gone the work gets better. The Gita wants a worker not dull but steady and enthusiastic.

Related hubs: Work and Career (path) · Action Without Claiming the Fruit (next) · Equanimity · Offering All Actions · From Thought to Ruin · One's Own Duty · Relinquishment and Renunciation of Action · Acting for the World