All work binds except work performed to satisfy the Supreme Lord through the spiritual master's guidance.Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca
Bhagavad-gītā 3.9 — November 3, 1973, Delhi 731103BG-DELHI [20:49 Minutes] Bg-03.9_731103BG-DELHI Prabhupāda: ...which produces some result which binds us in karma. This verse is explained in another place. The verse is, yajñārthe karmaṇo 'nyatra loko 'yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ [Bg. 3.9]. Yajñārthe.
Yajña means God. Yajña-pati, one name. God has got various names. One name is Yajña-pati.
So you have to act for yajña. That is nice. The example, as I gave you the other day, that a soldier is fighting and killing many enemies or killing many persons, but he is not responsible for killing. The same man, when he is not fighting for the country or for the government, if he kills one man, he is hanged. He is to be hanged.
Try to understand. So because he is fighting or killing on the order of higher authority, the government, he is not responsible for all those killings. Rather, sometimes he is recognized by giving some medal: "Oh, you have killed so many enemies. Very good." And similarly, if he kills outside the war field, at home... That is also enemy.
Nobody kills nobody unless the other is his enemy. But he will be hanged. If he argues in the court that "In the battlefield I killed so many enemies. I was given recognition.
But at home I have killed only one enemy, and for which I am going to be hanged. What is this law?" this argument will not stay. So for higher authority's order, if you do something, you are not responsible. Just like Arjuna. Arjuna was in the beginning not willing to fight.
That was his personal satisfaction. He was considering in terms of his personal satisfaction. But later on, the same Arjuna, he wanted to satisfy Kṛṣṇa, and he fought and he became a great devotee. This is the secret of all activities.