From expectations to the road to happiness

When I was very young, I firmly believed its okay to keep expectations from others. Specially from the ones who are the closest to you, since you had been there for them too so what's the big deal if they reciprocate. 

But the problems begin the moment this expectations monster creeps into your life. Its said that "expectations are premeditated resentments". Because the equilibrium of give and take is rare to achieve, that leads to great many frustrations and disgruntled emotions. I would usually go out of my way to help others and when I didn't see it being turned back to me, it surely didn't go well with me. That was expectations working. It shifts your focus not on the action and the pure bliss you achieve just doing the thing, but on the results and on the reward you think you deserve from the action you performed. I wasn't happy just doing my duty, I wanted something more. Some praise, some appreciation and definitely the credit for doing it. I was unhappy. Both personally and professionally. 

I looked around and noticed how the bees, the birds, the trees, the sun and the moon, all are so untouched by this trap. This didn't seem to be the law of nature. Nature and its elements never tire of performing their duties. Sun doesn't expect anything in return for giving sunlight, trees do not ask anything in return for their fruits and shade, vine doesn't look for anything after it has borne its own fruit. The wheel of nature works relentlessly day and night, expecting nothing in return. It is really unconscious to the goodness of its actions. Yet, when we humans do some kindness to others, we quietly and secretly chalk up the return due to us, believing it to be its natural response.  

Bhagavad Gita says "Do your duty, but do not concern yourself with the results. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, nor be attached to inaction."

This knowledge showed a new road to me, the one which I never knew existed. The action itself could be satisfying and it brought a sense of gratitude. Simple actions of others brought gratefulness. It was almost magical. A cool breeze, the ray of Sun, the humming of the bees, chirping of the birds, every action of the nature is so selfless. They are simply doing what they are meant to do and experiencing happiness. Pure bliss from the act of doing their duties. If they don't, the order of the universe will get broken. The wheel of nature will go haywire. Certainly, there is a lesson we can learn from this. 

In the words of Marcus Aurelius - "when you are reluctant to get up this morning, think that I'm getting up for a man's work. Do I still then resent it, if I'm going out to do what I was born for, the purpose for which I was brought into the world?" Our worries should not be on action, but on inaction. If we get too used to inaction (which also happens when we keep expectations and choose not to do your job since it didn't result as expected), we are interfering in the free flow of energy, in the happiness that we can experience in simply doing our job. The results of our action are not entirely our own, there are many factors outside our control which determine what happens once we have done our part. So, wouldn't it be better to focus on the job at hand and move on? To honestly and diligently give our 100% in everything we do and let the divine hands of nature take care of the rest? I think we can 😀