Sanatana Dharma

The lord in the celestial song (Bhagavad Gita) said "Your only right is action, never in their fruits. Let not fruits be the aim of your actions and don't associate with inaction".

This is a very famous, often quoted verse of the Gita (कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन|
मा कर्म फलहेतुर्भूः मा ते सङ्गोस्त्वकर्मणि||) from the second chapter.

This was familiar to me from school days and for a long time, I always thought it was a lofty ideal to follow. Now with going past five decades, I realized that this is not an ideal or the lord is trying to preach us anything. It is a hard fact of life and he is pointing the same thing out (except may be only the last part asking not to get associated with inaction).

Take a number of examples of life. You put in your best foot forward and try to get tickets for some premium show only to learn that the last ticket was sold to the guy just ahead of you. Your right was only for the effort not for the ticket.

Many more non-trivial examples can be given in life, work, sports, entertainment, school etc. But the message you get is always the same. You have only control over the action and not the fruits.

So, the intent of verse is to change your attitude to meet the reality. It is not a lofty ideal which can be considered as "nice to have"!