Sai Baba Gita - Focus on the Action, Not on the Fruit

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Focus on the Action, Not on the Fruit

If your actions are good, then your birth will be good. Your actions are the

original cause, your birth is the final result. In this context, Krishna said,

"Keep all your attention on performing good deeds; do not pay any attention to

the fruit." The fruit will follow by itself, but your focus should be on the

action.

In the past, you have been associated with a number of good or bad actions and

as a result, you are now enjoying or suffering their consequence in the form of

joy or sorrow. How do you get rid of the sorrow that is the result of your past

bad actions? It is only by engaging in good actions that you can remove this

sorrow. That is the reason why action has been given primary importance in the

Vedas. Bad actions must be replaced by good actions, which then lead to totally

selfless actions, where there is no personal interest in the fruit. This, then,

becomes karma yoga and brings you into union with divinity.

If you are careless with your actions, or if you waste your actions, your whole

life becomes a waste. Life has been given to you so that you engage yourself in

good karma and ideal activities. Karma does not mean just performing actions

with the body. Karma is the very name of the body itself. Since the body has

come as the result of actions performed previously, one of the meanings of

karma is body.

Body is the consequence of actions; it is associated with time, circumstance and

causation. But this applies only to the waking state. In the dream state, the

body is inactive, so there cannot be any action at all; there will only be the

illusion of action, or maya. In dreams, all the senses will be still. In the

state of deep-sleep, which has been called the causal state, there will not

even be any mind. Beyond this state is the ultimate source, that which is

called the great cause, the original cause. It transcends the causal state.

This original cause is the divinity. Here is a small example to illustrate

these states.

Those of you who are students walk here from the hostel, which is about one

kilometer away. At 4:15 in the afternoon, you leave the hostel and by 4:30 you

reach the gates of the ashram. So, it takes you about 15 minutes to move your

body from the hostel to this complex. Your purpose for coming here is to hear

Baba's lecture. In every action you undertake, there will be these same four

factors, a time, an activity, a cause or purpose and a result. The time, as you

have seen, was 15 minutes. The activity was to walk from the hostel to the

prayer hall. The reason was to listen to the lecture. The result is that you

will be sanctifying your life thereby. In this way, the waking state can be

used for one's spiritual advancement.

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Sai Baba Gita, Compiled and edited by Al Drucker - Published by Atma Press -

http://www.atmapress.com - ISBN: 0963844903Online Edition:

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