[Advaita-l] dedication fruits of an action to Lord

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

 Sri Narayana Iyer- PraNAms
 
You have raised interesting and important question that requires clear understanding. 
 
In the series on Karma yoga which you can download from archives, some aspects of these are discussed.  
 
Here is my understanding, in brief. 
 
First, it is not offering the results but offering the action to the Lord. Yat karoshi yad ashNaati .. whatever you do or whatever you eat offer it to me as naivedyam or kainkaryam.
 
I cannot but perform an action without some expectation. Since I am not omniscient, I cannot dictate the result and I should expect that my expectation can go wrong.  But Krishna says offer every action to Him  as a prayer. When I offer anything to the Lord, I have to make sure that it is the best that I can offer. If I am offering the actions then I have to make sure the actions are the best that I can do - hence yogaH karmasu koushalam - the dexterity in action cannot but follow for a karma yogi.
 
The results come from Him - The laws of nature that are beyond my control frame the results for my action. He is the author of these laws.  He is impartial in giving the results - just as gravitational law is impartial whether the fellow falling from the 10th floor is physicist or a layman - hence Krishna says - samoham sarva bhuuteshu. 
 
The fact is every action that anyone performs is a local perturbation in the global system. The global system responds (in science it is called Le Chateliar Principle -when a constraint is imposed on a system the system responds to oppose the effect of the constraints imposed - which is same as action - reaction in Newton’s law). Acceptance that the results are framed by the laws beyond my control is the recognition that the results come from Him. That is the essence of prasaada buddhi - Since the Lord is giving the results, I have a reverential attitude in accepting  the results - which means I do not react to the results. I accept the results as they come. A non-reacting mind is the mind that has maximum potential for creative action or even to gain knowledge of the relation between action and its result - or in understanding the laws behind the action and the result. With the result in hand and understanding of how the laws operate I can
 perform better action again offering it to the Lord as part of prayer. - This is what Krishna calls as eternal wheel of action and results. 
 
What do I gain of following this eternal wheel of action - My mind becomes non-reactive and becomes a learning mind - always vigilant and always lives in the present since action can only be done in the present. To that mind if the Vedanta teaching comes, that mind begins to realize that I am not even a doer - the local perturbation and global response and subsequent local response to the global input - forms the eternal self-sustaining action-reaction - that Krishna calls as 'prakRityaivaca karmaaNi kriyamaanaani sarvaShaH| yaH pasyati tadaatmaanam akartaaram sa pasyati| The prakRiti does all the actions all the time and one who recognizes this clearly recognizes that he is never a doer at any time. Doing is being done in his presence. He becomes a jnaani. 
 
Hence it is not offering the results but accepting the results as His prasaadam. 
 
If one regrets about the past action, the energy gets dissipated and in the process one cannot act properly next action.  One can learn from the past action based on the present results, and act again now with renewed intelligence and better informed frame of mind. One can also act again to perform prayachitta action or repair action to neutralize the results of past bad actions.  There also one has choice in action and not in the results - Accept the result as His prasaadam and proceed on with the next action, now with the renewed recognition, that you are offering the action as naivedyam to the Lord and therefore it better be the best that you do. 
 
Hence every action by a karma yogi becomes a devoted action that is it becomes his best that he can perform and there will not be a scope for regrets in the action that is already been performed.

Hari Om!
Sadananda


--- On Sun, 6/8/08, narayan iyer <z1e1b1r1a at yahoo.com> wrote:

From: narayan iyer <z1e1b1r1a at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Advaita-l] dedication fruits of an action to Lord
To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
Date: Sunday, June 8, 2008, 4:17 AM

Pranams,

Would someone explain what exactly is meant by dedicating the fruits of an
action to the Lord?  It looks easy enough to understand, but exactly what it
is?

For eg. I perform an action with prayers to the Lord.  (a) The action suceeds. 
I am slightly elated (though I should not, I think).  I thank the Lord.  Is it
(the dedication of fruits) over?

(b) I fail in the mission.  I pray to God to make me more capable in future
endeavours.  I am slightly disappointed, not much though.  Is the dedication
over?

regards

narayan


      
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