Doing actions without expectations! Is this possible?

Difficult. But not impossible. This action of doing a work without expecting returns is known as " NISHKAMA KARMA".

The Sanskrit shloka is Karmanyevadhikaraste, Ma phaleshou kadachana, which literally means “You have the right to do your duty but are not entitled to the fruits thereof”. In the context of Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna that his duty is to fight irrespective of whether he wins or loses. It simply means “Do your duty without being attached to its result”. But outside Gita, it has several interpretations. The best interpretation is “Help others selflessly without expecting anything in return”. And the worst one is “Work, but do not ask for payment”. The former is possible, but the latter is impossible. 

 working for others without expecting returns is also difficult in the present scenario of " What's in it for me."?

But not impossible. There are many voluntary organizations rendering Selfless services. Especially Old age Homes run by retired Army personnel.

We do each and everything for a purpose. We help fellow human being for our peace of mind or for charity. Craving for a certain fruit or result is the onset of any work. 

Geeta says, there are certain works or duties assigned to a person are to be done. That's the Dharma which is expected from the person. So you are not doing anything extra or great by sticking to your work assigned to you. A parent brings up his child because the child was brought by the parents into this world. The child neither demanded or wanted to be brought into this world. Hence the parent is doing what he is supposed to do.

RAMAKRISHNAN. A wrote:

The Sanskrit shloka is Karmanyevadhikaraste, Ma phaleshou kadachana, which literally means “You have the right to do your duty but are not entitled to the fruits thereof”. In the context of Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna that his duty is to fight irrespective of whether he wins or loses. It simply means “Do your duty without being attached to its result”. But outside Gita, it has several interpretations. The best interpretation is “Help others selflessly without expecting anything in return”. And the worst one is “Work, but do not ask for payment”. The former is possible, but the latter is impossible. 

Ramakrishnanji, you have given a lovely and simple explanation. In the modern context we can applied it thus, according to my interpretation, work sincerely and dedicatedly, give our fullest efforts and expect suitable compensation in return for our honest efforts. This is with reference to our work we need to do for earning livelihood. Whereas , when we deal with others besides our work, be it friends, relatives, other components of the society, we need to do what is right and do not expect any gains from those interactions, just do what is right .

Geeta says that do the right and do your work without thinking the consequences. It is like Shri krishna said to Arjun to demolish the people who did wrong because it was required. Krishna wanted to tell actually that one should fulfill the duties not necessarily selflessly but without thinking the consequences. However, whatever we do in our life, we expect consequences whether good or bad, it is secondary. Therefore, we regret duehe expectations and hence, expectations leads us to be fragile in our lives and to build our strength we should try working without expecting. However, it is very difficult to do so.

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

RAMAKRISHNAN. A wrote:

The Sanskrit shloka is Karmanyevadhikaraste, Ma phaleshou kadachana, which literally means “You have the right to do your duty but are not entitled to the fruits thereof”. In the context of Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna that his duty is to fight irrespective of whether he wins or loses. It simply means “Do your duty without being attached to its result”. But outside Gita, it has several interpretations. The best interpretation is “Help others selflessly without expecting anything in return”. And the worst one is “Work, but do not ask for payment”. The former is possible, but the latter is impossible. 

Ramakrishnanji, you have given a lovely and simple explanation. In the modern context we can applied it thus, according to my interpretation, work sincerely and dedicatedly, give our fullest efforts and expect suitable compensation in return for our honest efforts. This is with reference to our work we need to do for earning livelihood. Whereas , when we deal with others besides our work, be it friends, relatives, other components of the society, we need to do what is right and do not expect any gains from those interactions, just do what is right .

Exactly. To earn our livelihood, we need compensation for our work, without which we cannot survive. Beyond that, in the personal and society level, we can do selfless service without expecting any gains.  And there are great souls who do such works just for work’s sake. They do not even think about the resulting peace of mind.

I agree. In this scenario of selfishness and hypocrisy, Doing selfless work looks like an uphill task. It's difficult. But not impossible.

I have total faith in Lord Krishna's teaching in this reference and keep doing my efforts. It will not be whole truth if I say I don't expect results but even if I don't get what I must, I will not give up but keep on with my efforts. After all the result is bound to come, no matter how small or big.

I too believe in doing things without expecting returns. I have done it and still continuing. If some one out of gratitude offer some thing in cash or kind, I don't have any objection.

It is not possible in today's scenario to do any work without expectation. If we start any work then we expect some result for that work, without thinking about the result of that work we cannot start work. If we start some work without expectation, then it may not be completed with proper efforts. We apply efforts only when we have some expectation from that work.

Manoj Kumar Lamba wrote:

It is not possible in today's scenario to do any work without expectation. If we start any work then we expect some result for that work, without thinking about the result of that work we cannot start work. If we start some work without expectation, then it may not be completed with proper efforts. We apply efforts only when we have some expectation from that work.

That is what I have said in my earlier post with respect to current scenario, but whatever we lay our expectations at, they should be realistic and balancing with how sincere and honest our work is.

I beg to differ with you. If any work which I can do and my work, which doesn't involve any financial burden on me, and is useful to the other person, even if he uses for commercial purposes, I never mind doing any work without any compensation. For example I have donated blood many times to the needy. I refused to accept any money from them. Rather I advised them to use the money that they are offering for the rehabilitation of the sick person for whom my blood was transfused.

rambabu wrote:

I beg to differ with you. If any work which I can do and my work, which doesn't involve any financial burden on me, and is useful to the other person, even if he uses for commercial purposes, I never mind doing any work without any compensation. For example I have donated blood many times to the needy. I refused to accept any money from them. Rather I advised them to use the money that they are offering for the rehabilitation of the sick person for whom my blood was transfused.

 

That is from the humanitarian point of view, many people are not involved and do not bother to ever get involved in such activities. Possibly what Manoj is alluding to is from only livelihood point of view. There are also many who expect to be paid for smallest of the jobs. But I feel in the current context, all we need to be is to be willing to offer help when someone is in trouble before our eyes and not turn a blind eye. We do not need to go out of way to do good deeds. We see an accident occur, we need to step forward to help the victim. We know someone is abusing and beating his wife, we step forward and try to put a stop to it. etc. There are many instances where we can just come forward and help without expecting any thing.

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

rambabu wrote:

I beg to differ with you. If any work which I can do and my work, which doesn't involve any financial burden on me, and is useful to the other person, even if he uses for commercial purposes, I never mind doing any work without any compensation. For example I have donated blood many times to the needy. I refused to accept any money from them. Rather I advised them to use the money that they are offering for the rehabilitation of the sick person for whom my blood was transfused.

 

That is from the humanitarian point of view, many people are not involved and do not bother to ever get involved in such activities. Possibly what Manoj is alluding to is from only livelihood point of view. There are also many who expect to be paid for smallest of the jobs. But I feel in the current context, all we need to be is to be willing to offer help when someone is in trouble before our eyes and not turn a blind eye. We do not need to go out of way to do good deeds. We see an accident occur, we need to step forward to help the victim. We know someone is abusing and beating his wife, we step forward and try to put a stop to it. etc. There are many instances where we can just come forward and help without expecting any thing.

Exactly. When it comes to stretching my helping my hand to the really needy and are in distress, I do not hesitate to take the initiative. It may be seeing an old woman cross a busy road or calling an ambulance for the immediate medical aid for a person who is lying in a pool of blood unattended and uncared. But the irony is, in this process I earned many enemies. But I never cared.

rambabu wrote:

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

rambabu wrote:

I beg to differ with you. If any work which I can do and my work, which doesn't involve any financial burden on me, and is useful to the other person, even if he uses for commercial purposes, I never mind doing any work without any compensation. For example I have donated blood many times to the needy. I refused to accept any money from them. Rather I advised them to use the money that they are offering for the rehabilitation of the sick person for whom my blood was transfused.

 

That is from the humanitarian point of view, many people are not involved and do not bother to ever get involved in such activities. Possibly what Manoj is alluding to is from only livelihood point of view. There are also many who expect to be paid for smallest of the jobs. But I feel in the current context, all we need to be is to be willing to offer help when someone is in trouble before our eyes and not turn a blind eye. We do not need to go out of way to do good deeds. We see an accident occur, we need to step forward to help the victim. We know someone is abusing and beating his wife, we step forward and try to put a stop to it. etc. There are many instances where we can just come forward and help without expecting any thing.

Exactly. When it comes to stretching my helping my hand to the really needy and are in distress, I do not hesitate to take the initiative. It may be seeing an old woman cross a busy road or calling an ambulance for the immediate medical aid for a person who is lying in a pool of blood unattended and uncared. But the irony is, in this process I earned many enemies. But I never cared.

 

That is the whole point, doing your job and not caring what others may think or what the outcome may be, as long as what you are doing is indeed the right thing to do. "Neki kar aur kue mein daal"

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

rambabu wrote:

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

rambabu wrote:

I beg to differ with you. If any work which I can do and my work, which doesn't involve any financial burden on me, and is useful to the other person, even if he uses for commercial purposes, I never mind doing any work without any compensation. For example I have donated blood many times to the needy. I refused to accept any money from them. Rather I advised them to use the money that they are offering for the rehabilitation of the sick person for whom my blood was transfused.

 

That is from the humanitarian point of view, many people are not involved and do not bother to ever get involved in such activities. Possibly what Manoj is alluding to is from only livelihood point of view. There are also many who expect to be paid for smallest of the jobs. But I feel in the current context, all we need to be is to be willing to offer help when someone is in trouble before our eyes and not turn a blind eye. We do not need to go out of way to do good deeds. We see an accident occur, we need to step forward to help the victim. We know someone is abusing and beating his wife, we step forward and try to put a stop to it. etc. There are many instances where we can just come forward and help without expecting any thing.

Exactly. When it comes to stretching my helping my hand to the really needy and are in distress, I do not hesitate to take the initiative. It may be seeing an old woman cross a busy road or calling an ambulance for the immediate medical aid for a person who is lying in a pool of blood unattended and uncared. But the irony is, in this process I earned many enemies. But I never cared.

 

That is the whole point, doing your job and not caring what others may think or what the outcome may be, as long as what you are doing is indeed the right thing to do. "Neki kar aur kue mein daal"

Quite encouraging. Do you know, even my friends and relatives abuse me for being nosy.

rambabu wrote:

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

rambabu wrote:

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

rambabu wrote:

I beg to differ with you. If any work which I can do and my work, which doesn't involve any financial burden on me, and is useful to the other person, even if he uses for commercial purposes, I never mind doing any work without any compensation. For example I have donated blood many times to the needy. I refused to accept any money from them. Rather I advised them to use the money that they are offering for the rehabilitation of the sick person for whom my blood was transfused.

 

That is from the humanitarian point of view, many people are not involved and do not bother to ever get involved in such activities. Possibly what Manoj is alluding to is from only livelihood point of view. There are also many who expect to be paid for smallest of the jobs. But I feel in the current context, all we need to be is to be willing to offer help when someone is in trouble before our eyes and not turn a blind eye. We do not need to go out of way to do good deeds. We see an accident occur, we need to step forward to help the victim. We know someone is abusing and beating his wife, we step forward and try to put a stop to it. etc. There are many instances where we can just come forward and help without expecting any thing.

Exactly. When it comes to stretching my helping my hand to the really needy and are in distress, I do not hesitate to take the initiative. It may be seeing an old woman cross a busy road or calling an ambulance for the immediate medical aid for a person who is lying in a pool of blood unattended and uncared. But the irony is, in this process I earned many enemies. But I never cared.

 

That is the whole point, doing your job and not caring what others may think or what the outcome may be, as long as what you are doing is indeed the right thing to do. "Neki kar aur kue mein daal"

Quite encouraging. Do you know, even my friends and relatives abuse me for being nosy.

 

I can understand that, the reason why such people are disliked by others is because it puts pressure on them too, they fear that they too may have to emulate you at some point, hence the dislike. 

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

rambabu wrote:

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

rambabu wrote:

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

rambabu wrote:

I beg to differ with you. If any work which I can do and my work, which doesn't involve any financial burden on me, and is useful to the other person, even if he uses for commercial purposes, I never mind doing any work without any compensation. For example I have donated blood many times to the needy. I refused to accept any money from them. Rather I advised them to use the money that they are offering for the rehabilitation of the sick person for whom my blood was transfused.

 

That is from the humanitarian point of view, many people are not involved and do not bother to ever get involved in such activities. Possibly what Manoj is alluding to is from only livelihood point of view. There are also many who expect to be paid for smallest of the jobs. But I feel in the current context, all we need to be is to be willing to offer help when someone is in trouble before our eyes and not turn a blind eye. We do not need to go out of way to do good deeds. We see an accident occur, we need to step forward to help the victim. We know someone is abusing and beating his wife, we step forward and try to put a stop to it. etc. There are many instances where we can just come forward and help without expecting any thing.

Exactly. When it comes to stretching my helping my hand to the really needy and are in distress, I do not hesitate to take the initiative. It may be seeing an old woman cross a busy road or calling an ambulance for the immediate medical aid for a person who is lying in a pool of blood unattended and uncared. But the irony is, in this process I earned many enemies. But I never cared.

 

That is the whole point, doing your job and not caring what others may think or what the outcome may be, as long as what you are doing is indeed the right thing to do. "Neki kar aur kue mein daal"

Quite encouraging. Do you know, even my friends and relatives abuse me for being nosy.

 

I can understand that, the reason why such people are disliked by others is because it puts pressure on them too, they fear that they too may have to emulate you at some point, hence the dislike. 

A pertinent point indeed. You exactly located what is the reason behind my being branded as nosy.