The duties prescribed can be of three orders: routine duties, emergency duties and desired occupations.
Routine duties will be performed according to the norms of the Vedas, the original scriptures and without attachment for the fruits that flow from them. Because these are imposed duties, fulfilling them is a virtue.
The action done with a view to its fruits on the contrary engenders enslavement, and must therefore be regarded as very harmful.
Everyone has the right to fulfill his duty, but no one should ever act for the results. Fulfilling one’s obligations in a spirit of detachment is a sure step towards spiritual liberation.
The Lord therefore advises us to act out of duty, without clinging to the fruits of action. Not wanting to take action or not wanting to act is also another form of attachment. Good or bad, material attachments are always cause of bondage and can in no way help us to free ourselves from the material condition.
Inaction, on the other hand, is wrong. Therefore, the only way to salvation is to act as our duty requires. We are all eternal servants of Krishna, God, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is why our original, natural and eternal duty is to serve him with love and devotion. We must stick to it.
Wanting to enjoy the fruits of our actions also forces us to accept the consequences that result.
The Lord says: “You have the right to fulfil your duties, but not to enjoy the fruit of your deeds. Never do I think I am the cause of the consequences of the action, and at no time does I try to escape your duty”.
Each must lend himself to the work corresponding to his own nature.
For example, one may be attracted to the duty of a wise scholar, which is a virtue, but if one is not by nature governed by virtue, one must not imitate the wise scholar in his activities, because we risk misleading many people.
We must act only for the purpose of satisfying Krishna, God, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Every act aimed at personal satisfaction is linked to the matter. This is why each of us must engage in the acts corresponding to the attribute and mode of influence of the material nature; the virtue, passion or ignorance, specific that marks his existence and decide to act only to serve the supreme cause, the cause of Lord Krishna.