Bhagavat Gita - 18

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Bhagavat Gita - 18

 

The true meaning of actionlessness (Chapter 4 verses 17-35)

 

Nonaction or Nishkamya karma, which is the characteristic of the Soul, does

not mean inactivity. It means being established in pure awareness without

involvement in any kind of change. Among embodied beings, he who has attained

to that spirit-consciousness by virtue of which he is ever established in this

uninvolved Atman-awareness and is free from any egotistic impulse even while

his body and mind are carrying out all their characteristic movements, he is

the really wise man, not the one who by the effort of his will, keeps aloof

from external action, but inwardly remains subject to attachments and

egotistic motivation. The former is an enlightened man while the latter is

a mere idler.

 

This state of actionlessness in the sense of non-attachment is attained

only through long and steadily practiced discipline of dedicated action,

combined with the discriminative understanding of one's being basically

the 'non-attached Self'. Such knowledge based yajna is the highest form

of yagna in the Vedic tradition. Yagna can take various forms. It may be

with material ingredients, or it may take the form of austerity, or of

practice of concentration, or of control of the senses, or of control of

Prana, or of scriptural study, or of practice of discrimination. The peak

of yagna discipline is reached when an aspirant sees the acts, the means

of actions, the things acted upon and the process of action as but

different manifestations of Brahman. This is called attainment of Samadhi

in action. All action has Jnana or wisdom as its end - the wisdom that

enables one to experience everything as resting in Me who form the innermost

soul. This knowledge has to be sought by serving wise teachers.

 

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Based on " Srimad Bhagavat Gita - The Scripture of Mankind "

a translation by Rev Swami Tapasyanandaji, published by

Sri Ramakrishna Math - Chennai. http://www.sriramakrishnamath.org/

 

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