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.[43]For people who overindulge their sense gratification, acquisition of power and worldly plea-sures, their spiritual abilities are diluted, unable to focus on, or feel conviction of purposeto God.[44]The Vedas deal with the three gunas.O Arjuna, be free from attachment to these Gunas;free from pairs of opposites (e.g., heat/cold, pleasure/pain), free from greed and hoarding,be ever steady and self-reliant.[45]For a realized wise person (experiential knowledge), book knowledge of Vedas are of littleuse, just as well water is of little value when there is fresh lake water at hand.[46] Chapter 2 Bhagavad Gita for Modern Times24Unselfish GivingLord Krishna then discusses the relationship between working (in-cluding intellectual work) and experiencing eternity (a state of noboundaries, often called a state of nonaction).The insight is that a person has the right to work to help othersor to perform devotional work.But one is not to work to achievethe results (fruits to get something personal from the action as thereason for working).That would be working for a greedy or selfishmotive.So there is something uplifting, something spiritual aboutworking for the sake of working.There is honor in doing your best,honor in selfless work.This is very similar to the story of the Garden of Eden where Godadmonishes Adam and Eve to not eat the fruits of the tree of knowl-edge.God says, avoid trying to get/use/enjoy the fruits of intellect(and stick to the experience of God or God s grace (eg, the garden,the spirit).Because, when you put intellectual knowledge over theinnocence of living and enjoying God s world, believing that youcan know more than God, then suffering comes.Krishna continues his reasoning.Working for rewards results in aninferior form of work than does working to help, a more utopianattitude.So even if we do good work but expect some reward in re-turn, that work becomes inferior owing to our lesser intent.(Clearlyit is better than not doing good works, but in this context, we areexamining various types of good works only.) For example, if theABC Company decides to work/donate to help feed and clothe thechildren of poverty, that is good.But if they flaunt their results tolook good in their community, then this becomse a something-for-something giving agenda that diminishes their actions.This is already clear to us when a company has done something dis-honorable in the community such as mistreating workers, harmingthe environment, stealing from investors, etc.The response to beingfound out is often a PR effort to appear good, such as airing a com-mercial that highlights the supposed good actions of the company.Many people do see through this façade.However Krishna is talk-ing about something higher, about an already reputable person. Bhagavad Gita for Modern Times Chapter 225How many of you remember doing something just for doing it?Helping for no reason? Giving without anyone knowing about it,or giving without wanting anything in return? How has that madeyou feel? Most people I have spoken with say it is the best feelingin the world; better than earning salary.This is what Lord Krishnais talking about.One wonderful idea Krishna uses is, do your best to do good.Thatis all a person need to do.Success is in God s hands so just tryyour best, but do not try to make something happen.Otherwise theego gets in the way and proclaims itself The Doer.The value of do-ing your best, or stated another way, act out of love, removes fearand guilt of failure from the picture.That is all God asks of us.There is a Vedic tale of how the god Indra tried to hurt the vil-lagers who stopped worshipping him and instead worshipped theone almighty God.Indra hurled a storm of objects down on the vil-lage.Lord Krishna lifted a mountain over the village to protect thepeople.In their gratitude and enthusiasm, the villagers all gatheredpoles and pushed the mountain up as if they were helping Krishnalift the mountain.They were overjoyed to think they were helpingKrishna; but in reality, Krishna was doing all the lifting.So it is inlife: we only need to hold our pole up in love and goodness.If itsucceeds, it is because God is protecting the people.Krishna also discusses work on the spiritual level.There are peoplewho do spiritual acts, expecting to receive certain results
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