Action & duty
Karma
Act without attachment to the fruit — the yoga of action.
- 1
Read
Sit with a few of these lines from scripture — read slowly, more than once.
- 2
Reflect
Let one of the stories below settle the teaching into the heart.
- 3
Live
Do your duty today fully, then release the outcome.
📜 Read — verses on action & duty
Bhagavad Gita · Bhagavad Gita 2.47
…the results of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be…
Bhagavad Gita · Bhagavad Gita 6.1
…bounden duty without depending on the fruits of his actions—he is…
Bhagavad Gita · Bhagavad Gita 3.19
Therefore, without attachment, always perform the actions that should be done; for…
Bhagavad Gita · Bhagavad Gita 4.20
Having abandoned attachment to the fruits of the action, ever content, depending…
Sri Bhashya · Sri Bhashya 4.1.19
…Having destroyed the other good and evil works the results of which…
Bhagavad Gita · Bhagavad Gita 4.14
…a desire for the fruit of actions. He who knows Me thus…
Sri Bhashya · Sri Bhashya 3.4.50
…results without obstruction (which implies that the action of other works is…
Bhagavad Gita · Bhagavad Gita 4.23
To one who is devoid of attachment, who is liberated, whose mind…
📖 Reflect — stories
Thirunedunthāṇḍakam
The “long” tāṇḍakam, sung largely in the voice of a heroine pining for her beloved Lord and of the mother who watches her pine. Thirumangai uses the old Tamil love-poetry of separation to give shape to the soul's longing for God — one of the most cherished of his works.
Thiruviruttam
Nammāzhvār is the greatest of the Alvars, and the Thiruviruttam is the first of his four works — counted as the Tamil echo of the Rig Veda. In a hundred verses cast as the laments of a heroine separated from her love, he prays to be freed from the cycle of birth and to be joined to the Lord. The longing of human love becomes, in his voice, the longing of every soul for its source.
🪔 Live — your practice
Do your duty today fully, then release the outcome.
Continue your path
A guided path for reflection — the verses are drawn live from the scripture library by theme. Follow the guidance of your sangat or teacher for practice.