​How are the attached the cause of the fruit and the detached not?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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Mahabharata says in 2.47, one who is attached, that person is the cause of the work and therefore that person has to incur the karma and enjoy the good or bad result. So, whether the person is attached or not, they are actually causing the work.
So, what does this mean actually? See, when we see the cause of the work, that is primarily in terms of the soul cause of the work. In the 18th chapter, Krishna says, I think 16th or 17th, 16th verse, tatraivam sati kartaram atmanam kevalam tuya pasyatyakrutabuddhitvan nasa pasyati durmatihi tatraivam sati kartaram kartaram, one who thinks that I am the karta but what kind of karta? Atmanam kevalam tuya one who thinks I am the only doer. So, that person, what is that person’s idea? That person is a reducer.
pasyatyakrutabuddhitvan that person’s buddhi is not very void. Nasa pasyati durmatihi He is not able to see at all actually. So, when we say that, when we think we are the cause of the result, that means we think we are the sole cause of the result.
See, we are definitely the cause. If you see, the same Bhagavad Gita which contains prakrteh kriyamanani gunaih karmani sarvasah ahankarani mudatma kartaham iti manyat which says that one who thinks I am the doer is an illusion. That same Bhagavad Gita, what does it conclude with? yathe chasi tatha kuru The concluding verse which Krishna speaks is in 18.63, or one of the concluding verses, as you desire so you should do.
Krishna is asking Arjuna to be a doer. Isn’t it? And what does Arjuna also say at the end in response to Krishna? He says, karishe vachanam tava, I will do your will. That means he will be a doer.
So, it is actually, to think that I am not a doer, it’s just not possible because we are doers. But the illusion is to think that I am the only doer. So, when I think I am the only doer, and I think that I produce the result, then I am taking credit for the result, and I take credit for the result, then I get the karma for the result also.
So, when we are attached, or we are detached. Now, we are the doer, in both cases. In that sense, we are the cause of the result.
But when we are attached, we think we are the only cause of the result. And that’s what causes bondage. When we are detached, we understand that I am one cause, and the higher cause is destiny, the will of destiny.
In 1815, Krishna talks about five factors of action. And he says, daivam chaivatra panchamam. Daiva is the fifth factor of action.
To understand that, our ultimate cause of result is Krishna. And thus, we don’t think of ourselves as a doer of the result, as the cause of the result primarily. We are the cause, but not the sole cause.
And that’s how we stay detached. So, what causes bondage is action in illusion. When I act with a false conception of life, then I become bound.
And if I don’t act with a false conception of life, I don’t become bound. It’s clear? Yeah, it’s the same thing. One is attached to the result of the work means, that person thinks that I want the result, and I will get the result, and I will get it by my own sweat and toil.
And no one can stop me from getting it. I remember, you know, at the end, I’m an author, so at the end of a book, we write acknowledgements. So, I read one book in which the acknowledgements, so author writes, the first acknowledgement goes to me.
I worked so hard to write this book. This is an extraordinary level of egomania. So, what happens is, people can just be, they just don’t see others.
See, I only did it. They don’t see others, and they don’t see Krishna at all. So, when we are attached to the cause, attached to the result, that means, basically, we think that I am the cause of the result.
That’s how it is. In that context.