Duty Poem by Samanyan Lakshminarayanan

Nowhere in the scripture has it been said like this. Duty has nothing to do with success or failure. Duty is duty and nothing else. Duty is something that we must discharge under a particular role and context for maintaining balance of the situation. Actually, Nature demands so. Sun has a duty. Moon has a duty. Likewise it goes on. Being a man we have some generalized duties. Having taken particular roles by birth (this is a vast canvas) , by profession etc, we have particular duties. We must discharge our duties in an impassionate way like the Sun and Moon. This is most important. Sun is equally bright for a saint and a murderer. River doesn't care whether it is giving drinking water to a King or a thief. This is the point. Now, about the Geetha verse. Man is simply misinterpreting this particular verse. As a man we can't simply sit without performing any Karma. The entire trouble lies not in the Karma but in the expectations behind it. Krishna was well aware of one thing - that happiness or misery meant the difference between the expected result and the actual result. For example, I expected a rank in an exam but missed it by just one mark! I am in misery. Who asked me to expect so? If I say that I have the freedom to expect, then, I should also admit that I am bound by the law of such Expectation - misery or happiness as the case may be. Accepting this fact, I can go on expecting this and that but am I ready to accept misery too by this law of Expectation? I am not and here lies the trouble. Krishna was aware of this mental situation. So he asked the mankind not to have any expectation attached to our Karmas. The fruits will reach our life according to the quality of the Karma itself! This means that salary is not our birthright but only the fruits of our work. We should respect our salary as the gift of god. This is the meaning of it. Do we have this attitude? Only an attitudinal change is required here behind such receipts - everything is the gift of god. Nothing is our birthright - not even this air and water. We may have to give up our salary when war breaks out in the country. When earthquake happens who can claim his lands? We will have to run into deserts and die. See, we have no respect for the five elements- air, fire, sky, water and earth and we suffer. Not even once we feel that our birth is the very gift of god. Expectation leads to misery - this is the key view behind this verse. One more thing: - 'There is no maximum limit for minimum expectation'. You can ponder on the statement now. Thanks.

I don't understand anything about this poem, so obviously I am not qualified to comment. Thanks for asking, your friend Lynn

Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita, 'Do your duty sincerely and leave its results to me.' The whole Universe is doing its duty systematically in the holy order. Does it expect anything in return? No. God created this example for us to follow its footsteps But on the other hand, man expects quick results for the duty done.

answer is given in bhavatgita.well done.voted10 surya

the duty be done without expectation....but how many of us do know the duty assigned to us!

the duty seems done only when there is success what do we do then.......Still thinking of it.........hey sam dont make me think so much.......I(we) go on contradicting everything......everything seems to have flaws...... ;)

do we ever know our destination? and yet we take on the journey...with the hope that we will.....

One who does the duty successfully succeed in life regards sandhya

just perfect, Sama, do your duty is an incredibly powerful force in life for, often, the result lies outside of our own activity; that is to say, what we do is often much greater than what we actually do, with consequences far beyond our expectations or our wishes. mark

sorry, your interpretation is wrong if that one is on Geeta...if it is your own, you float it there we accept it as yours...thanks