Do Your Duty
Dr. Jayadeva Yogendra
Young ones nowadays keep moving from one place to another all the time. There was a student at Shantiniketan, who quit Shantiniketan to become a private secretary to an ex-Maharaja. He left that and became the Chief at a giant automobile showroom. But he gave it up because he was trying to set up a soft drink factory. I lost trace of him till I learnt that he passed away in a very pitiable condition in a slum, penniless, unknown, uncared. He happened to be the grandson of an eminent celebrity of India.
The old saying strikes us, "You have full rights over what you do, but no rights over the result. Just keep doing your job full heartedly. Do not hanker after the results". Work keeps coming to you and you should carry it out with full attention and reach levels of excellence while performing it. One should never start dreaming about what one should get from the work in future. Krishna advised Arjuna on the battle field when the great war of Mahabharata was about to begin. The commander Arjuna suddenly wanted to quit the fight because there would be killing so many and that in turn will create problems in the families of those killed. "Do the work you have taken up to the best of your ability. Do not quit in between. If you keep quitting a job in between giving some excuse, this process may continue ever so often. The job would not be completed, nor you gain any satisfaction". This was the advice given and is enshrined in the Gita.
Life is very large. We hardly understand it. That we are born in certain situation and have definite and clear duties to do is the only thing we know. If we fit into this arrangement as a cog in a giant wheel of life we would have fulfilled our part in this factory of life and in the end would achieve a sense of fulfillment. A policeman quitting his duty because he sees faults in the law books and the order he has to execute would ultimately paralyse the whole police force of which he is a part. If you have voluntarily accepted a job or a situation, then you should stop any further analysis of the righteousness of the job you are to do. Do your duties and leave the rest to God.