Karmany eva dhikaras te ma phalesu kadacana
Remembering my high school in Denpasar, we have the golden quotation as our slogan. It is said in the Bhagavad Gita (2.47) :
karmany eva-dhikaras te
ma-phalesu kadacana
ma karma-phala-hetur bhur
ma te sango ’stv akarmani
“You have a right to perform your duty, but you have no right to enjoy the fruits of your work.” This is a great warning. Krishna says, “Do not think that because you are not the beneficiary of the fruits of your action, you have no reason to take so much trouble to work - never.” That is the most heinous curse, to think that because I am not the beneficiary, I am not going to work. Even selfless activity is also of a lower order. Rather we must perform godly activity for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord. That is Bhakti, or devotion. And there is also a gradation in Bhakti: there is a big division between vidhi-bhakti and raga-bhakti, calculative devotion and spontaneous devotion. [1]