The Gita’s Guide to Detachment in a World Obsessed with Validation
Manika | May 19, 2025, 11:15 IST
( Image credit : Freepik )
I used to be addicted—to approval. A heart emoji on my story would lift my mood. A delayed reply from a friend? I’d spiral into self-doubt. Even my happiest moments felt incomplete until someone else acknowledged them.And somewhere between posting, performing, and people-pleasing, I lost myself.Until one evening, I stumbled upon a verse from the Bhagavad Gita that quietly but firmly changed everything:“Do your duty, but do not concern yourself with the results.”It wasn’t just a line—it was a lifeline. In a world that constantly screams “be seen, be liked, be validated”, the Gita whispered: “just be.”This article is for anyone who’s ever felt invisible without applause or empty after chasing validation. It offers five deeply relatable, real-life lessons from the Gita—told not through sermons, but through the messy, emotional truths of modern life.Because sometimes, the most radical kind of love isn’t found in likes—it’s found in letting go.
1. "Karmanye Vadhikaraste, Ma Phaleshou Kadachana": Focus on the Doing, Not the Outcome
We’re taught to chase results: marks, followers, promotions, compliments. We attach our identity to the outcomes. When they don’t come, we crumble. When they do, we crave more.
The Gita’s Wisdom:
Krishna gently reminds Arjuna (and all of us): Do your karma—your action—with sincerity, but detach from the results. Because when your sense of worth is tied to success or applause, you become a puppet to the world.
Real Life Parallel:
Remember when you gave your all to a project, and your boss barely noticed? Or when you cooked with love and someone nitpicked the salt? The Gita asks: Can you still find joy in the doing—even when no one claps? Because that’s when you’re free.
2. "Aatma-Samyama Yoga": Your True Self Is Not What They Think
In a world of reels and retweets, we’ve become hyper-aware of how we’re perceived. We curate, edit, polish. And in that process, we lose our raw, real self.
The Gita’s Wisdom:
Krishna says the Atman—your soul—is untouched by praise or blame. It is beyond ego, beyond labels. What others think of you doesn’t touch your truth.
Real Life Parallel:
You’re not the job title. Not the likes. Not the failed relationship. You’re you, as you are—whole, worthy, and enough, even in silence.
3. “Samatvam Yoga Uchyate”: Balance Is the Real Power
We soar with compliments and sink with criticism. Our mood swings with the world’s opinion. We feel powerful only when we’re admired.
The Gita’s Wisdom:
Equanimity. That’s what Krishna teaches. The real yogi is someone who stays steady in both success and failure, in applause and absence. Because peace doesn’t come from being liked. It comes from not needing to be.
Real Life Parallel:
Your post got 3 likes? You got ghosted? Or you got a promotion? In all of it, can you stay centered? That’s not detachment from feeling—it’s freedom from emotional slavery.
4. "Moha" Is Attachment, and It Creates Suffering
We get attached to how things should be. How someone should behave. What should happen. We write scripts for the universe—and suffer when it doesn’t obey.
The Gita’s Wisdom:
Detachment is not indifference. It’s the art of loving fully without clinging. Acting with heart, without the obsession of control.
Real Life Parallel:
You texted them with love, and they left you on seen. You worked hard, and someone else got the credit. Detachment says: Do it anyway. Love anyway. Give anyway. But don’t lose yourself if it doesn’t come back the way you imagined.
5. "Nistraigunyo Bhava Arjuna": Rise Above the Noise
Modern life thrives on comparison and competition. We’re told we must win, outperform, be noticed—constantly. Validation becomes currency.
The Gita’s Wisdom:
Krishna urges Arjuna to rise above the three gunas—modes of nature (sattva, rajas, tamas)—and find stillness in the soul. To act, not react. To live in the world, but not be consumed by it.
Real Life Parallel:
Your peace is precious. Don’t give it away to every rejection, every scroll, every judgmental relative. Validation isn’t wrong—it’s just not your source.
So, What Does Detachment Actually Look Like Today?
It’s doing your best in a job interview—and being okay if it doesn’t work out.
It’s loving someone deeply—but knowing they don’t define your worth.
It’s standing for something—even if it’s not trendy.
It’s trusting that your truth doesn’t need everyone’s approval.
Detachment Is the Highest Form of Love—For Self and Others
The Gita doesn’t ask you to renounce the world. It asks you to live in it, but not of it. To find your center, your calm, your clarity—no matter how loud the world gets.
Because when you stop needing constant validation, you start living in quiet power. And that power? It can’t be taken away.
Remember what he said
( Image credit : Freepik )
We all want to be seen, appreciated, acknowledged. It’s human. But when our sense of self becomes dependent on it, we lose something sacred.
So today, take a deep breath. And ask yourself:
Can I do what’s right, even if no one notices?
Can I walk away from applause, and still feel whole?
Can I, just for once, be, instead of prove?
The Gita believes you can. And maybe, just maybe, it’s been waiting for you to believe that too.
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