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.
When every person you ask gives different advice, more advice does not help. The Gita (2.41, 2.53) says a settled mind rests on one clear aim, and shows what scatters it and how to come back to it.
The Bhagavad Gita is one conversation between Arjuna and Lord Krishna on a battlefield, in eighteen chapters, about how to act when you are torn. Here is who speaks, why, and what it asks of you.
Arjuna asks whether the one who worships the Lord in a form or the one who worships the formless is better. Read Gita 12.1-5 in order: what the Lord answers, why the road of the unmanifest is harder, and how to choose your own.
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.
A verse-by-verse reading of Gita 2.39–46 and 2.52–53: how the teaching of the self becomes a steady, resolute intellect, what scatters the mind, and how the mind comes to rest so that yoga can happen.
Four voices carry the Bhagavad Gita: a blind king asks, his minister reports, Arjuna questions and Lord Krishna teaches. See why the teaching is given on a battlefield and how Arjuna's questions move it along.
A close reading of Gita 2.39–46 and 2.52–53: what the single resolute intellect is, why talk of enjoyment and power blocks it, how the passage fits the Vedas, hearing and the Lord's care, and the difficulties it raises.
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.
In its closing verses the Bhagavad Gita names itself a dialogue, a secret yoga and a teaching to be studied as an offering, then leaves the choice to the listener. A close reading with objections and replies.
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.
When everyone gives different advice, how do you decide? A short revision of Gita 2.39-46 and 2.52-53, where Krishna speaks of a steady intellect with one firm resolve that keeps the mind from scattering.
Whether one worships the Lord in form or the formless, which is ahead? A short revision of Gita 12.1-5, Arjuna's question and the Lord's answer: the goal is one, but the difficulty of the road differs.
What is the Gita, who is speaking to whom, why did this conversation happen on a battlefield, and what is the book for? Answers in three readings for someone reading the Gita for the first time.
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.
How the Gita turns the knowledge of the self into a steady, resolute intellect: one aim in place of many branching thoughts, what scatters the mind, and the rest in the Self where yoga begins.