Do Thine Duty

You know what, it is astonishing how we have such a keen eye for what other people's duties are and how they are doing it. As for our own...well, truly, do you really expect me to do anything? But that is what I set out to talk about. It is more about that thing everyone spouts from the Bhagavad Gita - 'Karmanyeva adhikaaraste maphaleshu kadachana'. Yeah, the same 'Do thine duty, bother not about the fruits thereof'. This, I thought, was the one thing that I understood completely without someone bashing me up on how I mucked up thoroughly. (You know, I sort of deserve a Nobel for perfection. All my friends are agreed that I achieve perfection in mucking up things.) So, when I first was employed, I knew what to do. Just concentrate on doing my job and the raises and promotions will automatically come to me. (You know, I do my duty and the fruits will automatically accrue? Exactly). It, somehow, did not work that way. I mean, yeah, I was doing my duty but there always seemed to be someone around who thought, or at least claimed, that it was he who deserved the reward and, presto... As for me, you know that thing? Work is its own reward? (It was Virtue, not work, huh? No matter, the principle is the same.) That's how it worked for me. So, I do a good job and, as a reward for it, I got more work. Then someone kindly advised me that my definition of 'duty' in that 'Do thine duty' was too narrow, which is why I was failing. So, accordingly, I adjusted the definition of duty to include shouting out my own achievements and things became better for a time. Good things never last. It is easy enough to define and convince people about your achievements when you are lower down the ladder. I mean, if you make a chair, it is there to see, to sit in and identify whether it is a good chair or no. It is not quite as easy when you are managing a team of people who are analyzing the relative chair-making efficiency of your multiple branches. So, there, I still stuck to the 'Do thine duty' thing. Even to the extent of doing my best despite not getting the raises and promotions I deserved. But when it came to not even getting praise for a tough job done...or even being blamed despite doing a good job merely because the results did not suit the man above... And, then, this chap tells me that it is not about 'allowing the results to take care of themselves'. It is about not even needing the raises or promotions to motivate myself to do my best. AND, would you believe it, he says even the expectation of praise IS a result and to need that means that I am really not living by the tenets of the Gita.
Ye Gods! This thing was not as easy as I thought it would be. So, now, I need to do my duty only for the satisfaction of doing it well. That is hard. Especially when the daughter is lining up an expenditure of crores for a medical seat and the son wants to go to Paris for furthering his fabric design career and you bloody well need a huge raise if you want to continue to eat after all that... I could still see that as a sort of ideal to shoot for, you know, this thing about doing a job only for the satisfaction of a job well done. Maybe not immediately possible for me but... And then comes this last guy with a huge bombshell of a revelation. He says that 'Do thine duty' says that you need to do what is there at hand for you to do regardless even of the possibility of success! Eeeps! I was, like, come on, if I knew it would fail, why would I even start on it? He sneers and says that I am not even to spare of thought to assess the possibilities, only just get to doing it. I scream that it is idiocy to start doing something without looking ahead. What he said, then, though, I could not counter. He said that it was all a question of what I considered my duty. If, say, you wanted to remove racism from your society, or corruption, or casteism, does it ever work if people will think first of how likely they are to succeed? And abandon it because they think they won't? Is that not why most people do nothing towards the important things, because they feel too small or the challenge too high to attempt...and, so, no-one actually attempts it? Hmmm! Well, I have been saying this 'Do thine duty' all my life, thinking that I understood it totally but... Nishkaamya karma. Work without being MOTIVATED by any desire. Yet, desire is what drives human beings and the most basic one (if one is not starving, that is) is the desire to measure progress in the work at least. To keep working without even a desire for feedback... Is this something that is really being expected of human beings to be or become? No wonder, a person is considered a Saint if he manages it.