HARMONY BY ACTION - SWAMI TATWANANDA

[Guest guest]

Suppression of Organs of Action is Wrongful Action

 

 

Movement is the quality of prakriti. In that movement there is creation,

sustenance, destruction and renewal. The body, senses and mind being products of

prakriti are caught in the fast motion of energy. It is a constant changing

process for the created. Impelled by the modes of prakriti, all living creatures

are active. Therefore, the attempt to impose inaction upon the organs of action

by the "will of mind" as a spiritual practice is a wrong action. Whether one has

a purpose or not, the organs of action will continue with their activity. In

fact, the maintenance and continuance of the physical body cannot be carried out

if one were to desist from actions.

 

Unguided by scriptural teachings about the source and nature of Reality

(Truth/Real) and of the "not-real" (creation), we seek fulfillment from the

world in a lifestyle guided by our impulses. As observed in our lives, we seek

wealth (artha) to secure our desired ends (kama). We attempt to lead a lifestyle

based on moral codes (dharma), which are agreements between desiring human

beings to remain harmless to one another for the security of our established

desires. Thus, life keeps us ever active.

 

There comes a time, however, in an individual's life, when the impermanence of

these pursuits is understood and the very doer questions the temporal schemes.

Reassessing the relative values of the pleasures, security and moral codes, one

tends to drop these activities in the quest for "moksa." However, to dislike and

disown the ever-changing world and attempt to suppress the organs of action

through a wrong understanding about the nature and source of "moksa" and of the

world is a wrongful action.

 

Ignorant of the svarupa of Self and of the three gunas of prakriti, which

bewilders the functions of the mind, man foolishly seeks to control the organs

of action hoping to gain freedom from karma. It is not only the physical

movements and actions at the physical level that mean karma but the activities

of the mental realms also mean karma. In fact, the mental activity is of greater

significance, being the subjective cause that determines the actions at the

physical level.

 

Presently the "ignorant mind" is only a storehouse of earlier mental impressions

(vasanas) and of the many schemes to achieve fulfillment of these impressions.

When the sense organs subtly inform the impression-ridden mind of the subtle

aspects of the world of five elements, the mind becomes desirous for

experience-oriented fulfillment. Urged by memories of the past, the restless

mind seeks satisfaction through the organs of action. Thus while the mind

continues to dwell upon the objects of the senses, attempting to avoid the

application of the organs of action is not spiritual discipline but

self-delusion.

 

(Excerpted from Swamiji's talks on Karma Yoga-published as Harmony by

Action.1989)