Done the work but cannot stop thinking about the result? The Gita draws a line: the work is yours, the result is not (2.47). Caring stays, clinging goes (2.48). A simple practice for tonight.
Your mind runs off in meditation, you are tired, and work is heavy, yet you want to come closer to God. In Gita 12.8-11 the Lord gives four steps, each for the person who cannot take the one above. Plain meaning, an example and a practice for today.
What if your mind wanders the moment you sit to pray? Gita chapter 12 gives every kind of person a step they can take today, and tells what kind of devotee the Lord holds dear.
Does the Gita ask us not to care how things turn out? Gita 2.47 to 2.51 explained verse by verse: the work is ours, the result is not, and work done this way is better work.
What if you cannot keep your mind on God? In Gita 12.6-12 the Lord gives four steps: mind and intellect on Him, repeated practice, work for Him, and giving up the fruit. Each verse explained, with a table, common misreadings, an example and a practice.
A map of the twenty verses of Gita chapter 12: Arjuna's question, the four steps for a mind that will not stay, and the devotee the Lord holds dear, with a guide to the reading for each part.
In Gita 12.8-11 the Lord says three times 'if you cannot, then this', and 12.12 seems to put the lowest step on top. Is that a conflict? A close reading of each verse, two streams of commentators, five objections and four questions answered.
Gita chapter 12 seems to pull two ways in four places: who is best, the order of the steps, giving up undertakings against working for the Lord, and disturbing no one. The wording of each verse, the commentators' streams and the open questions.
A close reading of Gita 2.47 to 2.51: what the right to action means, why the fruit is dropped as a claim, what moves the work instead, and how 2.51 can promise freedom without making it a price.
Can one work with the whole mind and not carry the weight of the result? In Gita 2.47 to 2.51 the Lord shows Arjuna this road in plain and clear words.
The twelfth chapter in short: the form or the formless, a ladder of practice when the mind will not stay, and the marks of the devotee dear to the Lord, all on one page.
What if the mind does not rest in the Lord? In Gita 12.6-12 the Lord gives four steps, each for one who cannot manage the one above, and at the end peace comes right after giving up the fruit of action. The meaning of the verses and three readings.
Can we work hard and still not be eaten up by the result? Gita 2.47 to 2.51: the work is ours, the result is not, and work done this way is better work.
What if your mind will not stay on God? In Gita 12.6-12 the Lord gives four steps, each for the person who cannot take the one above, and ends with peace that follows at once on giving up the fruit of action. The verses and three readings.