We Are Too Concerned with Results

We are so concerned with results, with the fruits of our labor. We so easily look past what we are doing in order to gage what the ultimate effects might be, for ourselves and for others. We worry so about results, that we tend to overlook the fact – if not deny it – that the results are usually out of our hands.

Take human relationships. It is not for any of us to “make someone happy.” While we may assist, we are not responsible for the happiness of another. And it takes two to make and sustain a relationship, never just one. Yet I have seen where one person feels or is made to feel responsible for the other’s happiness – and thus feels blame or guilt when the other claims unhappiness.

The Bhagavad Gita, perhaps the most significant among the scriptures of the Hindu faith, is a remarkable continuous poem with profound turnings. Written perhaps in the fifth century B.C.E., it unfolds on a battlefield separating two armies. Arjuna, the hero general, has gone out between the opposing armies for earnest reflection before battle. He is accompanied by Krishna, his charioteer, who turns out to be God incarnate.

The world stops in “freeze-frame” fashion as the two have a revelatory dialogue about the meaning of life and how to live it. Early in their exchange, Krishna tells Arjuna that he must let go of the results of his actions. The twentieth century Mahatma Gandhi said that the “renunciation of the fruits of action is the center around which the Gita is woven. It is the central sun around which devotion, knowledge, and the rest revolve like planets.”

Krishna’s actual words are these: “You have the right to your actions, / but never to your actions’ fruits. / Act for the action’s sake. / And do not be attached to inaction. // Self-possessed, resolute, act / without any thought of results, / open to success or failure.”

This bears marked similarity to the Chinese Taoist scripture, the Tao Te Ching: “Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.”

Most interesting words. The are words likely to brook a reaction from Westerners like me, and perhaps you, something like: “That’s crazy, I live for results; how could I ever explain that to my boss, who is busy evaluating me on the results of my actions?” Or you might say, “Tell that to my husband – or wife!”

Yet on reflection, I hope you will realize just how freeing these words are. What would your life be like if you focused fully on your actions, acting for the action’s sake, and letting the consequences fall where they will, whether to success or failure?

This would be most difficult to do in my former field. Pastors are expected to focus on results, on whether their churches are growing in numbers, spirit and finances. Yet I have heard pastors say that they would rather be faithful to God than successful – with the usually unspoken reaction of their listening peers being “liar, liar!” or, “that’s just ‘sour grapes’.”

I recently told someone about this principle. After a few days, he called to say he finally understood it, and that it had changed his life. He said he was staying in the present and focusing on his actions, without looking ahead to others’ reactions. He said he felt a new kind of freedom.

I am convinced we are responsible to heaven for our actions, not their results.