2 Jan 2012 - QA 13

If you don’t feel attached to the fruit of action, how can you leave people? This is a puzzle for me.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, if you are attached to the fruit of action it can cause feverishness.
Like a farmer; you know what the farmer does? He ploughs the soil and throws the seeds. He is not anxious to pick up each seed every day to see has it sprouted or not. Then it will not sprout.
So when you have confidence, you have no attachment to the fruit of action.
That does not mean indifference. Do you understand what I am saying?
A farmer throws the seeds and he comes home and sleeps well. He does not worry that all the seeds may disappear or it may not sprout. Then he will not even go home, he will sit there and wait for it to sprout. He will dig the soil every day to see if it has sprouted. No, nothing is going to happen.
So a farmer is the best example. He throws the seeds on the fields and he goes back and has a good nap. Next day he comes and sees all the tulips have come, all the sunflowers have blossomed. It takes a while; it doesn’t come the next day. But in the next month when he comes and sees, all the seeds have sprouted. Some of them have not sprouted, so what! If he throws one kilogram of seeds, not every seed will sprout, correct. And he doesn’t cry, ‘oh, some didn’t sprout.’ Those which blossomed into flowers, he just enjoys them.