Between
action and inaction there is akarma or non-action, which means a special kind
of action. Inaction is ego-less action and action is egoistic action, so the
non- action is a special kind of action. What does Krishna means by non-action?
Where there is neither a doer nor a doing, yet things happen there is
non-action-vikarma. For example we
breathe, which we are not required to do by our own effort. Similarly, the
blood circulates throughout our body, the food is digested and the heart beats.
How can we categorize these acts? They come in the category of non-action,
which means actions happening without a doer and without a sense of volitional
doing. An ordinary person lives in action- karma, a sanyasin lives in inaction-
akarma, and God is in non-action- vikarma. As for as God’s action is concerned
there is neither the doer nor any doing of any kind we know. There things just
happens; it is just happening. Should we think it is we who breathe? Then we
are mistaken. If we were the master of this action known as breathing, then we
should never die. Then we can continue to breathe even when death knocks at our
door. Many things of life are like breathing, and they just happen.
If we
understand rightly what non-action is, and we come to know its mystery, we will
soon enter into a state of inaction which is acting without a center, an ego.
Then we know that every significant thing in life happens on its own and it is
utterly stupid to be a doer. And then we are wise and then alone we are a sage.
We live in action. But if we understand what non-action is we will begin to
live in inaction. Then inaction will be at the center of our being and action
at its periphery. Inaction is the
foundational to Krishna’s devotion or upasana or whatever we wish to call it.
We don’t have to do a thing, and we have only to allow that which is happening.
We have to die to our doer, to our ego. And the moment doer disappears,
remembering happens. This doer is the steel wall that separates us from our
authentic being and makes us forget it. As long as this wall remains we cannot
know who we are. Chanting God’s name or repeating the mantra “I am God” will
not help, because it is the doer in us who chants and repeats the name, the mantra.
As long as we exist as ego, we can do what we will, nothing will happen. So let
the doer go, let the ego disappear. Now the biggest question arises, that is,
how will the doer go? Just let us try to understand what non-action is. Let us
continue to act, but try to understand what non-action is. Continue to do what
we do, and try to understand life. The very understanding of life and its ways
will tell us nothing significant in life is in our hands neither we decide to
be born nor do we decide to die. Neither we breathe of our own volition, nor do
we have a hand in the circulation of our blood. We are not consulted before our
birth nor will we be consulted when our time arrives to depart from this world.
Do we have a say in when we grow from childhood to youth to old age? Then why
carry the burden of ego all our life?
Wishing you all good health and happiness,
Dr. Dwarakanath, Director,
MITRAN foundation- the stress management people
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