Although desire is essential to prompt us into action, it does not determine the final outcome of our work. This is determined both by our actions, which are in our control, as well as other forces, which are outside our control.
We may plan for a particular result; we may work towards it creatively and diligently, but that work must be with the full understanding that the outcome is not in our hands. What is available to us is the opportunity to work with full effort and dedication.
Desire can prompt us to act, but while acting, if that same desire is allowed to linger and percolate in our minds, we can become filled with expectation, doubt and fear, which rob us of our mental equipoise and hinder our performance.
If we act in a spirit of acceptance – as in, ‘Do your best and leave the rest’ – then our actions gain a vitality that arises when the mind is fully in the present, free from expectation, doubt and fear.
Such an attitude brings out the best in our abilities. Actually, what alternative is there? Worrying about something over which we have no control is detrimental to our current action, and is, therefore, both inefficient and illogical.
(An excerpt from Storm to Perform by Swami Swaroopananda, published in Chinmaya Udghosh.)