Just as we take good care to keep our stomach filled, the karma-yogi is watchful lest even the moment should slip past without action. If he too eats, it is out of necessity. Because there is no help for it, he puts food into his stomach. The worldly man finds joy in eating; the yogi finds it a hardship. So he does not enjoy as he tastes it. He eats with self-restraint. The night of the one is the day of the other; and the day of the one is the night of the other. In other words, in what one finds joy, the other finds pain and vice-versa. 

Though the actions of the worldly man and the karma-yogi look alike, the karma-yogi's distinction is that he has given up attachment to the fruit of his action, and finds joy in the action itself. The yogi, like the worldly man, eats, drinks, sleeps. But his bhavana, his attitude to these actions, is different. That is why, though there are sixteen chapters of the Gita left, still, at the very beginning, the figure of the steadfast seer, the sthitaprajna, the embodiment of self-control is placed before us. 

The similarity and the difference between the action of the worldly man and those of the karma-yogi are immediately apparent. Suppose the karma-yogi is engaged in the care of cows. With what outlook does he do it? His bhavana (attitude) is that, by his service to the cows, society will get its fill of milk; and that, through the cow, he will forge for himself a link of love with the lower orders of creation. He does not do it for his wages, the wages come to him all right; but the real joy and pleasure are in this pure bhavana, this spiritual outlook.

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