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

CHAPTER 19. RITUALS, FIRE AND KNOWLEDGE
something remains to be done, even if you have to wait in expectancy for its result, then the act is
not total. Your act is complete in itself when you don’t look forward to some reward, some recognition
or even appreciation.
For this reason Krishna says, ”Leave the fruits of labor to God.” By God he does not mean there
is some accountant-cum-controller general sitting some where in the heavens who will take care
of it on your behalf. Leaving it to God means: please do your work and leave it at that, leave it to
existence.
Existence is like a mountain which echoes every sound that is uttered around it. It is like some one
telling us, sitting here among the hills, to make a sound and leave it to the hills to echo it. We don’t
have to wait prayerfully for the echo, it will come on its own.
If one worries about what the echo is going to be, he will not be able to create a sound properly. And
then it is possible the hills won’t echo it. To produce an echo a proper sound, a sound of a particular
volume is needed. This is how the desire for a result, the tension caused by desire and expectation
does not allow you to do your work rightly.
People who are anxious for results often miss the moment of action itself, because the moment of
action is now and here, while the result lies in some future. So those whose eyes are set on the
future are bound to miss the present. If you are concerned with the result, if the result is what is
important to you, then the action itself becomes meaningless. Then you don’t love your work, you
love only the result. Then you don’t give your whole heart and mind to action – you do it reluctantly,
haphazardly.
If your attention is focused on the future – and you are where your attention is – then you can not be
totally in the present. And action lies in the present. And that which is done inattentively cannot be
deep and total; it cannot be blissful.
Krishna’s vision of action without attachment to results is clear. He tells you to be totally in the
present, in the moment. He tells you not to divide yourself between the present and the future. Not
even a fraction of your attention should be passed on to the future. Then only you can act wholly
and joyously, and then only will your action be total.
Desire for results is a distraction from action, so give up your attachment to results and be totally in
action.
Leave future to the future, to existence, and be totally in what you are doing now and here. Then you
will also be total in the future when that future comes. Otherwise your habit of being fragmentary
will pursue you throughout. Be whole in the now and you will be whole in the future, you will always
be whole. And this wholeness, not your desire, will bear fruit. So you can trustfully leave the matter
of fruit in the hands of God or existence or whatsoever you like to call it.
I would like to explain it in a different way. Unless we make action our joy, unless we love what we
do, unless we do something for the love of it, we cannot be free of our attachment to the future, to
the result. And unless our action flows from our being, our blissfulness, like a stream flows from its
source, we cannot be totally into it; we will always be pulled by the future.
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 367 Osho