6 Dec 2011 - QA 3

How can one act without getting attached to the fruit of the action?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: In the sixth chapter of the Gita it is said, ‘Anāśritah karmaphalam kāryam karma karoti yah.’

He is the one who is centered; he is the one who is a yogi who does not base his action on the past karma.

‘Anāśritah’, means one who does not react.

You recognize that whatever is in this moment is the result of past actions.
When you recognize this then suddenly you wake up and you say, ‘okay, I am going to put my past behind me. Today I am different; I am going to do everything fresh and new.’ Then you get such centeredness.

You drop the past. Forget that you are an engineer or a doctor or a commerce graduate. Keep all the titles that you have aside, all the roles you play aside. Then suddenly you wake up and you are a brand new person. Suppose you are taken and put on another planet tomorrow. You are on that planet and you have left all your degrees, all your associations, everything behind.
Wake up! Now, today, ‘I am’; ‘right now, right here, I am’.
It brings in a huge surge of energy with such centeredness.
Your hanging on to the past is gone. Your hankering about something that you have heard or seen or imagined for yourself in the future is gone and all that you are left with is this moment - totally alive!

This is what is said as not depending on the results of the past actions because whatever we have today on hand is all the result of past actions. You are a doctor it is because you studied medicine. You are an engineer it is because you studied engineering. If you are unhappy today it is because of the past actions.

So letting go of all the past and being in the present moment is what ’Anāśritah’ means.

I am not saying discard all the past actions and results of all the past actions, it is not possible. You can’t get rid of the actions. Our body is a product of past action. Our Mind is a product of past action. Our intellect is a product of past action. All that we have, our ego, body, mind, everything is a result of past action.

Not depending on them and acting from a deep source of intuition, from a space of nothingness, fresh new thought, and fresh new action is what Sanyasi or Yogi means.

So if you can act like that for one day that means you are becoming a yogi. You are skillful and you are acting now.

Somebody has blamed you. You are not hanging on to the blame but today you are talking to them as though nothing has happened. This is: not depending on the past actions.
You have received some favors from somebody in the past, and you feel so obliged to return that favor. That is: depending on the past action.

Not depending on the past action is: today you take the merit the way it is. Now, this moment! That action is most skillful.
It is easier said than done. I know it is difficult to do, but it is not impossible.