III
Krishna’s first teaching to Arjuna is that he isn’t the imaginary lead character in his story.1 The self survives the changing stories of life. We are spiritual beings, not the tiny persona we’ve created in our story. Remembering who we are frees us from identification with our stories.
Arjuna doesn’t quite understand how Krishna’s teachings about the self relate to his predicament, his inability to act on the battlefield. Krishna therefore teaches Arjuna the three secrets of Karma-yoga, the yoga of skilful action.2
We can’t escape action, not even in the dark night of the soul, Krishna explains.3 Even when we choose not to act, we’re engaged in a form of action. The real question, then, becomes, “What is the best way to act? How do we act with skill?”
Yoga is “skill in action”, Krishna explains.4 This is one of the first definitions of yoga that appears in the Bhagavad Gita. In other words, yoga is the art of making adept choices in life. It’s easy to act; but it’s difficult to act skilfully.
When our actions are propelled by fear, lamentation or confusion, we act in a way that is unskilful. Yet, there’s a way of acting that doesn’t lead to suffering. Unskilful action entangles us more deeply in our story; but skilful or yogic action frees us. It creates immense spaciousness and no longer binds us to suffering.
Krishna breaks it down into three easy steps:
1.     Be true to your own nature.
2.     Let go of the fruits.
3.     Make your work an offering.
We’re each born with a particular nature, which allows us to make a unique contribution in the world. While we can spend so much of our life fighting ourselves, Krishna counsels Arjuna to be true to his nature. “Beings must follow their nature; what can repression accomplish?” he says.5 Rather than pretend we’re someone else or try to be what others expect us to be, the first rule of Karma-yoga is to be true to our own nature. As Krishna observes, “One’s own path, even if imperfect, is better than another’s path followed perfectly. By carrying out action in accord with one’s own nature, one doesn’t go wrong.”6
The second step is to let go of the fruits of action. As Krishna tells Arjuna, “You have a claim only to the action itself, never to its fruits.”7
The best way to act, Krishna explains, is to give our best and let go of the fruits, or desired outcome. This seems like a radical teaching, because usually whatever we do is only for the fruits. Krishna explains how being overly anxious about the results creates suffering. It’s better to act with full presence and love, finding satisfaction in the action itself. Let the action, as an expression of love, be its own reward.
Letting go of the fruits doesn’t mean we don’t care about the results. It means we act with full commitment, but we understand that the results of our actions lie outside our control. We never know how things will turn out. We have some control over how we choose to act, but not over the results of those actions. Letting go of the fruits means giving up our attachment that something has to happen in a particular way. We remain open to whatever the results are.8
By consciously surrendering our attachment to the fruits of our work we free ourselves from the ego’s need to claim success for what we do and from the ego’s fear of failure. This brings out the best in us. We’re much less likely to suffer crippling disappointment if things don’t go as we had hoped or planned.
By contrast, if we’re fixated on trying to force an outcome, it usually brings out the worst in us: our ego flourishes and we’re caught in a cycle of want and frustration, tied to our story. We lament about the past, when things haven’t gone as we desired, and we’re fearful of the future. We’re not able to live with presence in the field of now. This is bewildered action, or action that binds us to suffering.
Krishna then discloses the third component of Karma-yoga: make your work an offering. Krishna explains: “One who offers his actions to the Divine, having let go of attachment, isn’t affected by misfortune, as water doesn’t cling to a lotus leaf.”9
What a beautiful teaching! By making whatever we do an offering of love, an act of service, we purify our being. We’re released from misfortune.
In taking this third step of Karma-yoga, we cultivate an attitude of devotion and a mood of service in whatever we do, bringing out the best of ourselves. This is a life-changing approach. The work we do no longer binds us; it becomes the means by which we develop what is most valuable and fulfilling to the soul: sacred love.
Like all the greatest teachings, this sounds simple, and it is. Throughout our life, we’ve reinforced our story through our actions. This has had a binding effect. Yet, our actions, if skilful, can also have a releasing effect. This is Karma-yoga, the yoga of skilful action.
Ostensibly, Duryodhana and Arjuna are on the same battlefield engaged in the same activity; but Duryodhana is acting in a way that binds him further to his story, while Arjuna is urged to engage in Karma-yoga, which will release him from his story and help him cross the dark night of the soul.