19 results
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Article
The Gita says that feeling like the doer is an ego's illusion. Does that mean we can say "I didn't do it" and walk away from our mistakes? No. An everyday case, two verses and three sentences to say after a mistake.
Level: Simple English 3 min Who Is the Doer?
Article
Done the work but cannot stop thinking about the result? The Gita draws a line: the work is yours, the result is not (2.47). Caring stays, clinging goes (2.48). A simple practice for tonight.
Level: Simple English 6 min Action Without Claiming the Fruit
Article
After honest effort, the result may still be out of our hands, and the mind says that fate decides everything. What does the Gita say? A farmer's case, two verses and a practice of two columns before you start a task.
Level: Simple English 3 min Who Is the Doer?
Article
A kind word in the morning lifts the whole day, and one cold remark ruins it. What the Gita says about keeping the mind level when praise and blame, gain and loss keep coming, with one small practice for today.
Level: Simple English 5 min Equanimity
Article
When a task goes well the mind swells, and when it fails the mind sinks. The Gita says every action has five causes and you are one of them. Three verses, an example and one small practice for today.
Level: Simple English 6 min Who Is the Doer?
Article
Does the Gita ask us not to care how things turn out? Gita 2.47 to 2.51 explained verse by verse: the work is ours, the result is not, and work done this way is better work.
Level: In Depth English 10 min Action Without Claiming the Fruit
Article
How the Gita builds evenness of mind in three steps, taken verse by verse: bearing pleasure and pain, acting the same in gain and loss, and seeing the same Self in all. With misreadings, an example and a practice.
Level: In Depth English 12 min Equanimity
Article
The Gita lists destiny among the five causes of action and denies a right to the fruit. Does that make effort pointless? The count of the five causes, the third clause of 2.47, why effort is never lost, and two opposite mistakes, read from the verses.
Level: In Depth English 5 min Who Is the Doer?
Article
The Gita says 'I do nothing' in one place and counts the doer among five causes in another. Read the verses from 3.27 to 18.17 in order, and see how pride and guilt both grow lighter without effort being lost.
Level: In Depth English 13 min Who Is the Doer?
Article
The Gita says the modes of nature do all action and that the knower thinks he does nothing. Does that free us from blame for our mistakes? A reading of the verses, the difference between an honest use of the idea and an alibi, and a short worked example.
Level: In Depth English 5 min Who Is the Doer?
Article
The Gita says nature performs all action, then counts the doer among five causes. Why these claims do not clash, where 18.16–17 is hard, and where the commentators divide: a verse-by-verse reading.
Level: Deeper English 16 min Who Is the Doer?
Article
A close reading of nine Gita verses on evenness of mind: what 'bearing' pleasure and pain means, how one can see all alike and still act differently, and how the Gita and its tradition answer the doubts that remain.
Level: Deeper English 15 min Equanimity
Article
A close reading of Gita 2.47 to 2.51: what the right to action means, why the fruit is dropped as a claim, what moves the work instead, and how 2.51 can promise freedom without making it a price.
Level: Deeper English 14 min Action Without Claiming the Fruit
Quick summary
Can one work with the whole mind and not carry the weight of the result? In Gita 2.47 to 2.51 the Lord shows Arjuna this road in plain and clear words.
English 7 min Action Without Claiming the Fruit
Quick summary
Keeping the mind the same in pleasure and pain, gain and loss, honour and insult is the Gita's equanimity. It is not going numb or giving up work, but going on with one's work with a calm mind in every condition.
English 11 min Equanimity
Quick summary
The Gita says that the qualities of nature do all action and the self is not the doer, yet it counts the doer among the five causes of every action. Gita 3.27-29, 5.8-14 and 18.13-17 on the mistake of 'I do everything' and its remedy.
English 9 min Who Is the Doer?
Hub
Can we work hard and still not be eaten up by the result? Gita 2.47 to 2.51: the work is ours, the result is not, and work done this way is better work.
Hub
Keeping the mind level when pleasure and pain, gain and loss, praise and blame come and go: the Gita's teaching of evenness on three fronts, and what it is not.
Hub
The Gita says nature's modes perform all action and the self is a non-doer, yet it counts the doer among five causes. Gita 3.27-29, 5.8-14 and 18.13-17 on the mistake of 'I do it all' and how it is mended.