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Non-attachment is the complete self abnegation: Chapter excerpts from Karma Yoga – from the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Vol 1. Excerpts reproduced below:
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He who in good action sees that there is something evil in it, and in the midst of evil sees that there is something good in it somewhere, has known the secret of work.
A perfect life is a contradiction in terms. Life itself is a state of continuous struggle between ourselves and everything outside.
Although a man has not studied a single system of philosophy, although he does not believe in any God, and never has believed, although he has not prayed even once in his whole life, if the simple power of good actions has brought him to that state where he is ready to give up his life and all else for others, he has arrived at the same point to which the religious man will come through his prayers and the philosopher through his knowledge; and so you may find that the philosopher, the worker, and the devotee, all meet at one point, that one point being self- abnegation.
Know that you are separated entirely from the world, though you are in the world, and that whatever you may be doing in it, you are not doing that for your own sake.
“Do not give up the world; live in the world, imbibe its influences as much as you can; but if it be for your own enjoyment’s sake, work not at all.”
To work properly, therefore, you have first to give up the idea of attachment. Secondly, do not mix in the fray, hold yourself as a witness and go on working.
When you give something to a man and expect nothing– do not even expect the man to be grateful– his ingratitude will not tell upon you, because you never expected anything, never thought you had any right to anything in the way of a return.
Nothing has power over the Self of man, until the Self becomes a fool and loses independence. So, by non- attachment, you overcome and deny the power of anything to act upon you. It is very easy to say that nothing has the right to act upon you until you allow it to do so; but what is the true sign of the man who really does not allow anything to work upon him, who is neither happy nor unhappy when acted upon by the external world? The sign is that good or ill fortune causes no change in his mind: in all conditions he continues to remain the same.
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