Doing our duties without excitement about results can be achieved only by gaining certain qualities in ourselves. Gita calls it as controlling of the mind by controlling the five senses namely what we see, what we hear, what smell, what we touch and what we taste. These five senses give feedbacks to brain upon seeing, hearing, smelling, touching or tasting a thing. That feedbacks will create emotions in our brain which Gita says should be controlled. To control emotions, we need to control our senses. We must learn to see, hear, smell, touch and taste things indifferently.

This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t feel pleasure in anything. This actually means that we should feel only pleasure in everything. A certain kind of pleasure which should be experienced irrespective of in the good and the bad that happen. That pleasure is attainable when we are detached from everything we love. One must be unbound to anything to enjoy happiness.

To achieve that state of mind, Krishna elaborates. “He who relinquishes all his desires and is happy in self; he who doesn’t feel sad in sorrows and ecstasy in wellness; he who is void of fear and anger; he who doesn’t feel pride or despair; like a tortoise withdrawing head into its body, who withdraws his senses from the objects of pleasure and sorrows into himself; his mind becomes still. Into that person will come feedbacks from these five senses as rivers flowing into the sea. The sea accepts all the rivers but it’s level doesn’t increase by a milli meter.”

“But this is not easy since when we practice this, the senses sometimes shakes our mind like a tornado shakes a tree.  Only that person’s mind is stable whose senses are under his control. It’s not an easy task.

After saying that, instead of saying about controlling our senses, Krishna says about the result of not controlling our senses. He explains about how a person is ruined if he doesn’t have any control over his senses. He explains it step by step.

First when we see a thing, we have had a contact with it. This we can’t help. But from here onwards happens certain other things which can be and shall be helped. From this contact, we develop a desire to acquire it. When we fail to acquire it, we feel angry. When we feel angry, we lost our minds. When we lose our minds, we became unable to judge what’s right and what’s wrong. We completely forget who we are and what we are about to do. In the next stage our mind gets completely lost and we do something severely wrong which can’t be undone. That will end our lives too.

As an example, let’s think of a man who sees a woman. Here he gets his first contact. That much is fair. But in the next stage he feels love for her. He wishes to marry her. When she says no, he becomes angry.  Out of anger he loses control of his mind. For sometime he is unable to judge what is right and what is wrong. He is totally out of his mind. In that time, he rapes her or assaults her. Afterwards he too ends up in jail.

Here also, we must clearly differentiate  a desire and a duty. As seen in the about example, can we say marrying that woman was the duty of that man? If it was, he would have tried it with a calm mind not worrying about the result of his attempts! He could have attempted any number of times accepting the result calmly each time.

In short we can say our mind must be under our own custody. If we are not so, we will never feel an ever lasting happiness. We may feel temporarily happy if a good thing happen to us but very quickly we will lose that state of mind. Such a man if plays football, he will feel happy only when he scores a goal. Out of ninety minutes his joy will last for one or two minutes and the rest eighty eight minutes will be sorrow. During that time owing unhappiness, he will be fouling the opposite team.  The pleasure in playing he never get. He gets only pleasure in scoring. Only a small bad thing that needs to throw him in to the valleys of despair. He will shout and cry on the ground. Hence he must make his mind like a calm ocean which doesn’t shake when any number of rivers joins it. His mind must stay calm when he sees and hears infinite number of things.

When he becomes such a man who doesn’t long for anything, doesn’t cry for anything, who is a humble knowledgable man, we can say he is always united to God. Even when he is playing the game!

In short, happiness is enjoyable only when given for free. If we work for it and earn it, it doesn’t taste sweet. Instead if we did something worth receiving it but didn’t wait for it, one day in case it knocks at your door, you will feel better kind of joy.

According to Gita these pleasurable happenings are only catalysts of a reaction. Even if the catalyst is not obtained, the reaction must take place. Like that when it was progressing, if tablespoon of catalyst was offered by your good luck, you need not say no to it. That’s all.

For a much simple example, when you climb a mountain as part of trekking, do it only for the joy in doing it. Do not even aim to reach the top. You may reach top and at that time, if you happen to see a rainbow, you need not close your eyes thinking you don’t deserve that. You can very well enjoy it. Gita puts no bar to enjoying life.