 Continuing with our talk about the theory of Karma, today we talk about Nishkama Karma as written on the screen with the diacritical marks. The dot below S makes it a sure and the line above A makes it a longer pronunciation of R of A as R. So, it is called Nishkama Karma. Now, Nishkama Karma is something that perhaps most of us have heard in our day to day talks if you have been raised in the Indian cultural milieu. And this is interesting, both as an ethical theory and as a religious doctrine that how what is prevalent as a means of belief as Nishkama Karma or as a religious doctrine is also very potent philosophical ethical theory, which in a way also contrasts with what is the practice today. Now, to many people would read Nishkama Karma as having a fundamental conflict with what is the basis of the economic system today or the financial system today. The very fact that are desire less or incentive less actions possible. Now, perhaps the most preliminary understanding of Nishkama Karma would be that well actions are ought to be done without any incentives or detached actions or actions without any attachment. And now contrast it with the current scenario that we are in perhaps most of us would be working for a living or would be doing something for a living and that is something be it a profession, be it entrepreneurial venture may not be something that we enjoy from end to end. We are perhaps doing it to attain something to attain our livelihood to attain our comfort to attain our luxury. So, the very fundamental backbone of the today's financial and economic world order seems to be that well every action should be incentivized. Whereas, every action that needs to be discouraged should be punished. Let us look at it this way, I would like this to be as a contemporary introduction to the philosophy of Nishkama Karma that why do we have this notion of fines. Fines as in if you are late for a due payment you are asked to pay a fine and if you pay it on time sometimes you are given a 2 percent or a 5 percent discount on the next bill. Now, what are these very elementary we come across this in various forms you buy in bulk you get some discount you buy in a staggered fashion you are made to pay a little extra you pay in advance you are given some discount you pay in a staggered fashion you are charged something else. Now, apart from the financial component of these or financial justification of these delays there are places where one simply is using incentives and punishments as a or incentives and fines as a means of moderating human behavior. Now, any system any financial system any any system or any corporation or any government or any collective that works would like to have some incentives to encourage the behavior it expects and some disincentives to discourage the behavior that it does not want. We have prisons to put in people who have violated the law we have awards and glory for people who follow the expected behaviors right. So, these are very preliminary forms of a carrot and stick policy you place a carrot for a behavior that you would like to take place and you punish with a stick when you do not want to see that behavior to happen. Now, why is this this is fairly obvious this seems to be a very fundamental building block of the world order we are in today. Why am I talking about this well now to bring in with this contrast which we call which is called the Nishkama Karma. Now, Nishkama Karma is a notion that is .explicated in the Bhagavad Gita which is a part of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita consists of very dense philosophical doctrines. It is a religious text also and it is a philosophical text too. Now, extracting the philosophical component about this notion of Nishkama Karma which is a very terse dense philosophical and ethical notion discussed in Bhagavad Gita which also draws its analogies in the western tradition to Kant's notion of Immanuel Kant's notion of ethics of duty ethics of rigorism. Now, Nishkama Karma on the other hand is saying that well incentives do not affect an action. Now, wait does not that seem to be strange that actions which are detached with the consequences. Let us take a look at what Nishkama Karma would actually mean well Nishkama Karma would mean if you will take a look at the screen it means actions done without any attachment that is without any conscious intention of achieving something without any conscious intention of achieving something. I am grateful to Kedarnath Tiwari for the formulation of Nishkama Karma as written on the screen. Now, without any attachment when we mean that there is no attachment or any conscious intention of achieving something what does it mean? Does it mean go less that there is no goal well let us look at it this way now. When this doctrine of Nishkama Karma is claiming that well one should not be attached or Nishkama Karma is that which happens when one is detached with the fruits of the action and thereof in the action itself. Now, this is a continuation of the karma theory because when we talked about the karma theory we also critiqued it as being retributives or retributivistic that is it was retributive that is whatever action I do I will get a result of that action either in this life or in the next life or it becomes my moral baggage which I need to carry and there is no loss of morality in the moral universe it is everything it is internally closed or complete. Now, if this is the case with the theory of karma that every good action that you do yields results and every moral action that you do be it praiseworthy or condemn worthy yields its own result then are we not in an infinite loop or of actions we are continuously spinning off into creating good actions or bad actions and that is all that the loop is up to well that is why Nishkama Karma is the in continuation with the theory of karma that well that theory of karma is at a level when we have if you would remember the definition of karma that we talked about us actions that have originate out of desire for certain fruits. So, when I am acting let me give me an example when I am acting that I say I am distributing blankets to the poor in winter say I am acting with the desire that the poor stay happy or that shallower still that some credit comes to me and therefore, I am distributing blankets among the downtrodden. Now, this is an action which is tied up with a desire at a shallower level it is desire about my own gratification at a slightly deeper level it is about seeing others happy. So, each of these action has a moral merit and I yield the fruit of this moral merit. Now, what in contrast could be a Nishkama Karma that is actions which have transgressed the law of karma which are no more following the theory of karma because they have been liberated of attachment Nishkama that is without karma. Karma meaning in this sense attachment or passion. So, without passion and without attachment the action done becomes Nishkama Karma and that does not accumulate moral merit or immoral moral merit either way. So, this is what is known as Nishkama Karma. So, let us look at some of the features of Nishkama Karma. Now, the first thing we were talking about that is it go less is Nishkama Karma meant by random actions because the first quality that we need to observe and perhaps find is that what do we mean by without any conscious intention or without any attachment. So, if we do not have an intention having no intention does it make the action random or go less well the answer of course is no it does not make the action random or go less. Look at it this way that when we are acting of course there is no go less action possible the very whole notion of action and agency denote goal driven behavior. However, when we talk about any sense of action or human agency goal oriented behavior action or human agency they both determine goal oriented behavior. Now, in the terms of Bhagavad Gita the actions which are done without actions without Raga or Dvesha or without attachment are what is called as the called as Nishkama Karma. There is simply it is nowhere claiming that there is no goal that there are goals or there is action and that there is a goal to human action, but that goal there is no attachment towards that goal. So, that is fundamental about Nishkama Karma that we do have a goal it is not random behavior, but there is a goal and that goal is however not the source of attachment. So, when we are not attached to the fruits of action and we still perform action that would be called as a Nishkama Karma that does not have a moral merit that is transcended beyond moral merit. Because it is no more concerned whether with what is what result whether it is able to yield the intended result or not. Now, let us say now this is a point where perhaps most of us would be a little or quite a bit skeptical that well what do you mean? You mean that well I have a goal and I act towards the goal and I do not or do attain the goal and I am indifferent to the goal wait this does not seem to be working I why would I do something if I am not attached towards the consequence or the goal attained by that action. Now, let us look at it this way first because many of us would perhaps find it psychologically impossible to act towards a goal about which we are not attached I mean if I am running a race and I do not I am not attached with winning why would I be running a race well. Let us try to get rid of the dominant world view today of action that every action has to be towards the goal and towards the consequences about which the agent is passionately attached and that itself serves as the motivation for action. There can be very simple various examples say you are given you are a salesperson and you are given a target to sale that you have to sell so many units in a month and if you sell so many units you get a reward and if you do not get if you are not able to sell the minimum number of units expected then you are given a certain disincentive. Now, that seems fair enough that seems how the world works that well I am curious I am interested in what comes about and I am trying hard so that if I attain what I wish to attain I get the rewards I get the commission I get the if running race prize where is this possibility that I am acting without any attachment to the results of the action. So, why should I act after all if I am not anyway concerned with what is the result of the action it is here that we need to take a step to the side stretch our imaginations and imagine of a time when this theory of Nishkama Karma was conceived that this was a time with a different world order and this world order can is still being practiced or can still be motivations for large many number of people around the world now, but it is not the dominant world order now, but look at it this way now if you are taking a walk if you are running without a concern whether you win or lose you are detached with the result first how is this possible how would you know that an action is an action originating out of Nishkama Karma first you would know that when someone acts or when an agent acts without getting the without being worried about what result the action leads to whether it is attained or not attained it does not matter that is a typical example of Nishkama Karma that the attainment or the failure of the intended goal does not affect does not affect the passions or does not affect the agent now yes that does seem little the triumph of winning and the sorrow of defeat are taken away and what else remains well according to this theory of doctrine of Nishkama Karma of course a lot of it remains and a lot of what remains is that that level of human behavior and action which is beyond this carrot and stick policy that is something you would do because it is your duty to do so in the Kantian perspective it is called duty ethics that well when doing something only for the sake of doing it that is not giving it a poor effort but not tying the effort with the consequence or not tying your passions with the action that you would do something and unless until the results yielded it does not matter so this is basically what Nishkama Karma is trying to say that if you look at the screen now it says renounce the fruit of the action well when we renounce the fruit of the action obvious question would come why and I would like to answer it by saying that well well renounce it is not about me answering it of course sorry but it is how the Nishkama Karma theory would say because well the fruit of action is beyond the agents control so this is very significant term or significant claim that well why are we talking about to renounce the fruit of action now let us look at it this way when we talk about renouncing the fruit of action what is our motivation why should one renounce the fruit of action well that again brings upon the metaphysical claims that are tied up with the ethical theory of Nishkama Karma is that well who is the one who does Nishkama Karma the one who has risen beyond the law of Karma over the one who no more is attached to the action or the result of yielded by the action and why that person would then act well that person acts as a sense of duty and acts from a sense of duty and why does one renounce the fruit of action here is where the metaphysical influence of the Bhagavad Gita in general can be understood when we talk about that well it is the gap or that between the fruit and the action which is hinted at that the fruit of the action does not necessarily follow from the action itself and that is what is meant by that is what is the reason why there is seems to be a gap between the action and the fruit of the action. So, as long as we understand or we take into note that the fruit of the action does not follow from our action then what does it follow from well of course definitely it follows from the in the karmic influence it all follows from the existence of God or the cosmic world order from which the fruits follow into fruits follow from the action. So, there is a gap between the fruits and the action and this requires a further goes ahead to hint a surrender to the notion of God. So, Nishkama Karma says asks us to renounce our interest in the fruit because it finds a gap between the fruit and the action and that gap is influenced by cosmic world order or God or cosmos and therefore, it asks us to surrender that we are only a part of the consequence that occurs we can do our action and not claim the results coming from this action. So, this in brief puts up what we mean by Nishkama Karma and why it says that the fruit of action is beyond the agents control.