CH 4, Verse 18

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Chapter 4

Verse 18

 

KarmaNy akarma yaH pashyed akarmaNi cha karma yaH /

sa buddhimaan manushhu sa yuktaH kRitsna-karma-kRit //

 

He who sees inaction in action and action in inaction

is the wise among men.

 

LESSONS FROM BHAGAVAD GITA – 35

As taught by Parama Pujya Sri Swamiji

Compiled by: Swami Dattananda

Bhakti Mala, October 1995

 

“He who sees inaction in action and action in inaction

is the wise among men.”

 

Is it possible to see activity where there is no

activity and to see inactivity where there is

activity? This question appears to be puzzling, but

it is not so at all.

 

A man may be sitting quiet without doing any work.

But his mind may be working. He may be daydreaming or

building castles in the air. His mind does not stop

work, even in sleep, as he is seeing dreams. Mental

work is also a bodily work, carried out in a subtle

form. Thought means activity. It is a Karma.

Therefore, action means not only actions done by the

body, but also the actions done by the mind, senses

and intellect. Thus, although a man may be sitting

quietly, if his mind is always working, he remains

active. Thus you can see activity in inactivity.

 

Sri Krishna also says that you have to see inaction

where there is action. In inaction there is no

activity of any kind, either physical or mental.

This state is the true and the absolute nature of the

Soul. All ideas and thoughts are the nature of the

ego or the lower self. All these thoughts are

constantly changing, one after another. But

changelessness is the nature of the soul. It is

constant. Thoughts, one after another, may rise and

go away but the knower of these thoughts is constant

and he is the Soul. The Soul remains only as a

witness to all our thoughts and actions done by the

body, mind, and the senses.

 

He who has realized the soul knows that it does not

move at all in the midst of all the activities of his

body, mind and the senses. All his sufferings and

miseries belong to his body-mind equipment called ego

and not to his Soul.

 

Clouds appear and disappear in the sky. But the sky

is not affected by the appearance or disappearance of

the clouds. It remains the same. In the same way,

the cloud of thoughts and ideas appear and disappear

in the sky of the true Soul or Atman. But the Soul

remains unaffected like the sky. You are that Soul.

When you identify yourself with the cloud and get

attached to it, you feel worried and lost when the

cloud passes away. On the other hand, when you

identify yourself with the sky, that is, your soul,

then you realize eternal peace. Clouds of miseries or

sufferings may come and go, but you will not feel

disturbed. You may then perform tremendous actions by

your body and mind, but as you know that you are the

Soul, which is above all activity, you are not

affected by your actions. Thus you can see inaction

in action.

 

The idea is, that he who is not tainted by his action

done without any selfish desire, remains pure after

doing such action, like one who has not done any.

Though physically performing many actions, he remains

in his inner self just a non-doer. He is a great

yogi, a follower of the path of disinterested action.

 

Such a wise man or yogi experiences action in

inaction. He, while performing actions with his body,

considers himself like a man sitting in a vehicle,

experiencing his steadiness, yet moving.

 

In the same way, the traveler who has attained the

self-realized state works for the welfare of the world

occupying the vehicle of his moving body, yet

experiencing himself the state of being non-doer.

 

In short, a really wise man never identifies himself

with his body, which is ever active and subject to

decay and death. He has realized that he is the soul,

who is the uninvolved witness in the midst of the

non-stop activities of the body-mind-equipment. So

also when an idle man gives up work and sits quiet at

home, the wise man knows that the idle man is not at

peace, as his mind is restless. The idle man has no

awareness or realization of the Soul. A man who is a

realized soul and an illumined one may be engaged in

all kinds of action, but he is ever in yoga or a state

of unruffled non-attachment.

 

 

 

 

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