Non-Attachment

Obligatory action performed without attachment, free of passion and hatred, by one who seeks no fruit — such action is called sattvic.

When obligatory duty is performed simply because it must be done, O Arjuna, with attachment and all longing for fruits relinquished — that renunciation is held to be sattvic.

But even these actions should be performed, O Partha, abandoning attachment and the desire for their fruits — this is My firm and highest conviction.

One who acts for my sake, who holds me as supreme, who is devoted to me, free from attachment, and bearing no enmity toward any being — that person comes to me, O son of Pandu.

One who neither rejoices nor hates, who neither grieves nor yearns, who has relinquished the auspicious and inauspicious alike, and is full of devotion — such a one is dear to me.

Yet those acts do not bind Me, O Dhananjaya — for I remain as one who is indifferent, unattached to those actions.

One who has no clinging affection for anything anywhere, who neither rejoices upon encountering the pleasant nor recoils from the unpleasant — the wisdom of such a person is firmly established.

That charity which is given simply because it ought to be given, to one who has not done any prior favour, at the right place, time, and to a worthy recipient — that is remembered as sattvic.

The Blessed Lord said: O son of Pandu, one who neither hates illumination, activity, or delusion when they arise, nor yearns for them when they cease —

Non-attachment and absence of clinging to son, wife, home and the rest, and always an even-mindedness whether the desired or the undesired befalls —

That threefold austerity practised with highest faith by persons of discipline, without desire for fruit — that is called sattvic.

A sacrifice performed according to prescribed injunction by those who do not desire its fruit — with the mind resolved that it is simply to be offered — that sacrifice is sattvic.

Regardless of their inherent nature, these things cannot help him love God as much as the smallest act of living faith and hope, which is done with selflessness and detachment from all things.

If one wishes to live a hundred years on this earth, they should live while performing actions, for as long as one lives, there is no alternative to this by which actions will not cling to them.

Don't worry about your future birth. Make the most of your current life, and free yourself from the cycle of birth and death. Cultivate devotion to the Lord, let go of base desires, and focus on doing good for others.

I am the non-doer, I am the non-enjoyer, I am changeless and imperishable; I am of the nature of pure consciousness, I am the One alone, the ever-auspicious Sadashiva.

Abandon attachment to one's own social station, caste, desire for fame, and the urge to accumulate — relinquishing all this, let the mind rest on nothing but the Guru.

"This," he acknowledged. "Dear boy, they have indeed told you only about the worlds; but I shall tell you that knowledge by which, just as water does not cling to a lotus leaf, no evil deed clings to one who knows it." "Let the revered one tell me." Then he said to him:

One should purify the mind by walking the path the Guru has shown, and should negate everything transient that appears to be part of the Self.

God wants His children to love everything as a part of Him, and not to feel delusively that death ends all. The man of unattachment, he who loves others as expressions of the Lord, understands that at death the dear ones have only returned for a brief vacation in the world beyond.