To attain this unattachment is almost a life-work, but as soon as we have reached this point, we have attained the goal of love and become free; the bondage of nature falls from us, and we see nature as she is; she forges no more chains for us; we stand entirely free and take not the results of work into consideration; who then cares for what the results may be?
Do you ask anything from your children in return for what you have given them? It is your duty to work for them, and there the matter ends. In whatever you do for a particular person, a city, or a state, assume the same attitude towards it as you have towards your children — expect nothing in return. If you can invariably take the position of a giver, in which everything given by you is a free offering to the world, without any thought of return, then will your work bring you no attachment. Attachment comes only where we expect a return. (I, 59)
What binds us to work is our desire for the fruits of our actions. Anasakti yoga or yoga of detachment trains the mind to rid of this desire for result. Once it is removed, we learn to work for work’s sake and execute our work like a master and not as a slave. “In the world we find two things that affect the conduct of men; might and mercy. The exercise of might is invariably the exercise of selfishness ……. Mercy is heaven itself; to be good, we have all to be merciful, even justice and right should stand on mercy.” These words of Swamiji must ring in our ears as we go on working for oneself and others.
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