Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 19. RITUALS, FIRE AND KNOWLEDGE
This phrase ”freedom from attachment to the fruit of action” has put many interpreters of Krishna in
difficulty. These interpreters were themselves at a loss to understand or accept Krishna’s emphasis
on renunciation of the fruits of action. So they found a clever way to circumvent the real meaning of
Krishna’s teaching and bring in ”the fruit of action” by the back door. They said one who relinquishes
attachment to the result of one’s labor attains to moksha, liberation. So the fruit of action was back
in the form of liberation
What is after all this ”fruit of action”? We then say, ”If you do this you will achieve that,” or ”If you
do this you will not achieve that.” This is what we mean by the term ”fruit of action.” It is the same if
you say that one attains to liberation if he gives up his attachment to the fruit of action. In my view,
however, these interpreters have been very unjust to Krishna. They have betrayed him.
When Krishna says ”A wise man, who gives up attachment to the fruit of action is released from the
bondage of birth and death,” he is not providing an incentive to desireless action. An action with
an incentive can never be desireless, because what is incentive but a desire for result? Krishna’s
”release from bondage” is a consequence which follows desireless action as its shadow.
Krishna does not say that those who want to be free from the bondage of birth should give up
attachment to the fruit of their action. If he says so, he is providing a motive, he is contradicting
himself. No, he only says that freedom or liberation is a con sequence of desireless action, not its
motive. One who desires liberation or freedom can never come to it, because desiring is the barrier.
So the question is: How to work without attachment to result?
To understand this thing rightly, it is first necessary to know that there are two kinds of action in our
life. One of these is what we do today in order to achieve something tomorrow as a result. Such an
action is future-oriented; future is leading you into action. Just as an animal is dragged by a rope
tied to its neck, so our future is dragging us into action. I do something with an eye on the future
when my action of today will yield some result for me. While action takes plaice in the present, its
fruit lies in the future. And the future is unknown and uncertain. Future means that which is not in
existence, which is only a hope, a dream, an expectation. In that hope we are being dragged like
cattle by our future.
The Sanskrit word for animal is pashu, which is meaningful. Pashu is derived from pash which
means bondage. Hence pashu is one who is a captive, a slave. In that sense we are all animals,
because we are captives of the future, we live in future hopes. The reins of our life are in the hands
of the future. Man always lives today in the hope of tomorrow. And likewise he will live tomorrow in
the hope of the day after, because when tomorrow comes, it will come as today. So he never lives
really, he goes on postponing living for the future.
And he will never live as long as he lives on hope for the future. His whole life will pass away unlived
and unfulfilled. At the time of his death he will say with great remorse, ”All my life I only desired to
live, but I could not really live.” And his greatest sorrow at the time of death will be that the future is
no more, there is no hope of achieving result in the future. If there was a future and a hope beyond
death, he would have no regrets. That is why a dying man wants to know if there is life after death. In
reality he wants to know if there is any chance of reaping a harvest of hopes in the future, because
it was only hopes that he had sown in the soil of his life.
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 364 Osho