Question: How can we avoid the desire for the fruits of action?

Sri Chinmoy: First we must understand the word 'desire'. When we fulfil a desire we may feel happy for a short time, but soon we have another desire that we want to fulfil. The fulfilment of one desire does not give us abiding joy and peace. Even the fulfilment of our most cherished desires does not stop us from desiring something else. If today's desire is fulfilled, tomorrow we cry for something else. When tomorrow's desires are fulfilled, the day after tomorrow we are overwhelmed by some other desire.

There is no end to our begging and grasping when we live in the desire-world. We bind ourselves constantly by crying for some specific result in our relationships with our near and dear ones. Desire brings us to one point always, and that is the physical body. How can we be freed from this prison cell? Only through aspiration. If we walk on the path of aspiration it will tell us that the goal and the path are one. The goal is infinite, eternal Bliss and the path is the path of aspiration. In the path itself we see the goal.

But how can we free ourselves from desire for the fruits of action? When we work we naturally want the result. If we feel that it is we who have done something, then we will cry for the results. But if we feel that it is not we who are working, then we will not care for the results. If we feel that somebody else is working or studying, then we will not be concerned about the results. So let us feel that somebody else is working in and through us. Who is this somebody? It is God. If God is the Doer, then it is He who has to think about the results. The easiest way to free oneself from desire for the fruits of action is to feel that we are not the doer, that God is eternally the only Doer, and that He is acting in and through us; therefore, the results are His business.

Please try to play the part of a conscious instrument or a channel for the Divine to act in and through. We must feel that God is infinite and that we are God's children. Then we can never be satisfied unless and until we have become what He has and what He is. If we keep in mind that the infinite Light, infinite Bliss and infinite Power which God has will ultimately be ours because it is our birthright, our divine heritage, then we shall start our journey towards a different goal. That journey is the journey of aspiration. In this way we can avoid crying for the fruits of action.