The Vedas have teachings for all the different types of people. So, for those people who simply want worldly enjoyments and are not at such a place mentally or spiritually where they can even think about attaining something higher, like attaining God, they just want to enjoy the world, for them, the Vedas explain,
“Okay, enjoy the world, but do it according to these rules.”
Otherwise, if you try to enjoy the world only through selfish actions or even by causing harm to others you’ll be punished. You won’t get peace of mind in this life, and in your next life you’ll be punished.
So seek worldly happiness, but by following these injunctions of the Vedas. And if you really follow them carefully, you could even go to swarg (the celestial realm) and enjoy an elevated style of happiness over there which is still mayic (related to the material energy) but better than the pleasures that we have here on Earth. So the Vedas give that option, because not everybody is ready to listen about God realization. So Raya Ramanand Ji started at this level.
But Mahaprabhu Ji said,
“No, that’s not the ultimate thing. Tell me something more.”
So then he said,
यत्करोषि यदश्नासि यज्जुहोषि ददासि यत् |
यत्तपस्यसि कौन्तेय तत्कुरुष्व मदर्पणम् ||Yat karoṣhi yad aśhnāsi yaj-juhoṣhi dadāsi yat.
Yat tapasyasi kaunteya tat kuruṣhva mad-arpaṇam.- Gita 9.27
Quoting from the Gita, he said, “Everything you do, offer it to Shree Krishna. So perform your dharm (righteous duty), however, while performing that dharm, remember Shree Krishna. Offer everything you do to Him.”
Mahaprabhu Ji said, “Yes, you’ve come up one level. Because previously, what you described would still cause binding karm (the consequences of actions) on a soul.”
Even sattvic karm (actions influenced by goodness) is binding. Because anything that keeps you in maya, keeps you bound. Anything that requires you to receive the results in this world, being reborn in the cycle of birth and death in 8.4 million species under maya, is binding. So even sattvic karm, even good karm, is binding. Although it’s better than bad karm, it’s still a type of bondage.
So this next shlok he quoted would free a person from the bondage of those actions he’s performing. In other words, the good actions you perform with your mind on Shree Krishna will not bind you. Those are good actions, but they’re not going to have the same binding consequences that normal good actions do, because you did them while remembering Shree Krishna.
The binding quality of an action is caused by our mental attachment, not by the physical performance of that action. So if our mind is attached to the world while we’re performing an action, if our mind is attached to our family, or our mind is attached to the reward we’re going to get for that dharm that we’re performing, then it’s going to be binding. But if we perform the very same action, just remembering Krishna, then there’s no binding effect of that action.
