Action in Desirelessness Being the Highest Form of Action for Liberation

Nishkama Karma: Non-Action in Desirelessness to be Attained Through Action

Upon reading the title, many may be left wondering about the central idea as to what kind of action can proceed from non-desire? Without any incentive or motive, the very idea of work is rendered meaningless. But the deeper meaning is to be unearthed and understood. What is this work without expectation of reward?

Any work done from the depths of the heart is unattached with the feeling of the ego, where even the perception of time is lost. It is such an inspired and absorbed act! For example, when you are deep in love, you tend to forget the self; returns are not sought, only the giving exists - unconditional giving. Another form of unconditional giving is our duty towards our children. Though obligatory in nature, we want to provide them with the best that we can. It is a non-profit engagement – duty all right, but without a motive. In all such works alone do we find joy that is blissful. It follows therefore that if all works were to be transformed in this manner, we would be blissful forever. If this is so, then how to attain this ideal in every kind of work that we do, and the consequent self-effacing benefits accruing thereof in one’s spiritual upliftment, is the object of Nishkama Karma (Desireless Work).

Without the performance of obligatory actions, no one can attain the stage of non-desire (Naishkarmya), in which the Yogi rejoices. It is absolute stupidity to expect any one to reach this end by neglecting his obligations. No one discards a boat, if he has to cross the river. If one must appease hunger, he must have his food cooked either by himself or by others. So long as there is no freedom from desire, there is action, but when contentment arises all desires spontaneously disappear. Those who aim at final liberation should not turn from their duties. It is not possible for one to perform actions or to abandon them at will. To talk of relinquishing actions is to talk nonsense, because, however much one may wish, he cannot abandon them. So long as there are natural conditions (Prakriti), actions are being done, because all actions are invariably subject to the three qualities (Gunas) and are being done involuntarily. In other words, not to do actions is not within our voluntary control. Nature is making us act, and we are hepless to do anything against our nature - that is, action in accordance with the temperamental tendencies or leanings (gunas) of nature we are born with.

Mere wish to abandon obligatory actions is not going to alter the tendencies of the senses. If you said you would do nothing, will your ears cease to hear, or the eyes fail to see, will the nose loose its function, will breathing be stopped, or will the mind become free from all ideas? Will hunger and thirst disappear? Will the cycle of sleeping and waking stop? Will feet refuse to move and above all, will you be free from the chain of life and death? If all this cannot stop, then what is it that you would have abandoned? It is futile to believe that one can take up or throw away actions.

A man sitting in a carriage moves because he is in the carriage, though he may himself be motionless. A dry and insentient leaf moves in the sky because it is wafted by the wind. Even a disinterested person (sage) performs actions by the force of nature and by the tendencies of the organs of action (Karméndriyās). So long as one is linked with nature (Prakriti), his abandonment of actions is impossible. To talk otherwise is to show futile obstinacy.

Some men seek to restrict by checking the senses. But in reality, they cannot do so, as in the mind the desire for action always exists, though externally they may show the reverse. They are doubtless holding on to the objects of senses. That they are deceiving others is not so much of consequence as they are deceiving themselves. Or, conversely, they are fooled into believing what they are doing is worthy, but it is plain repression and nothing else. It is of utmost importance to understand the tricks the mind can play.

As against such a man who has bewildered himself with false notions of self-discipline “the one, who, controlling the senses by the mind, engages with the organs of action (Karméndriyās) without attachment, he excels” (Bhagavad-Gita, Ch 3: 7). Obviously, work proceeding from this higher placement of the self will be qualitatively different. An inner and not the outer, renunciation is being stressed here as being the essence of a sage, sannyasi.

The theory of Karma is very scientific: it says that nothing can exist without a cause, and seeks to explore the cause behind the effect. Now, to trace an effect to its original cause is a very tough job and thus mysterious. So, to understand causality let us refer to Bhagavad Gita (Ch6: 3). “For a neophyte, who is ascending the hill of Yoga (meaning union with the Supreme), action is the cause; for the same ‘sage’ when he has got to the top of Yoga, cessation of works is the cause.” A very strange and confusing statement of “cause” indeed! Let us try to understand.

Works are to be done, but with what purpose and in what order? Works are the cause, but of what? The answer is: the cause of self-perfection, of liberation, of Nirvana in the Brahman; for by doing works with a steady practice of the inner renunciation, this liberation, this conquest of the desire-mind and the ego-self - the lower nature - is easily accomplished. But when one has got to the top? Then works are no longer the cause; the calm of self-mastery and self-possession gained by works becomes the cause. Again, the cause of what? Of fixity in the self in the Brahman consciousness and of the perfect equality in which the divine works of the liberated man are done.

The Sanskrit word for freedom from action, the goal of Karma-Yoga, is Naishkarmya, which literally translates as nonaction. Since there is no equivalent for it in English, it can be misleading, because ‘inaction in action’ is intended here. Just meditate on these words, and the meaning will come crystal clear.

Two more concepts that assume prime importance in the traversing of this path: One; works that are to be eschewed is called Vishaya karma; second; those that are desirable and to be done, is Shreya karma, also Sreyo karma. By the word Visha is meant poison, and Vishaya, the object of desire, denotes poison-like. The objects, in themselves are neither good nor bad, but desire is. Thus Vishaya karmas, or those actions that take us away and outwards from our self, defeating the objective of self-realization, are to be considered poisonous in nature and therefore shunned. Shreya, derived from its root Shree, means opulence, giving richness to our spiritual experience as we go along, are to be adhered to. Since initially they may not be known to one for lack of discretion, guidance to such works may be sought from the Shastras, or scriptures, these being running encyclopedias, a collection of the experiences of the enlightened.

Before I conclude, a word on inaction: Having attained to freedom, does he then not work? Yes, he does, but now the quality of work is totally changed. Unattached with the sense of the ego, the work now being impersonal, automatically acquires a quality for the good of others. With the transcendence of the egoic motivations, without the illusion of the ego as acting subject, spontaneity of action appears as a smooth flow. Hence the truly enlightened beings have an economy and elegance of movement about them that is generally absent in unenlightened individuals. Behind the action of the enlightened being there is no author, except the all-pervading universal spirit.

An attraction, called loka-sangraha, meaning “pulling people together” becomes its quality. What it refers to is this: Our own personal wholeness, founded in self-surrender, actively transforms our social environment, contributing to its wholeness. The attraction is of the wholeness because, ‘How can the man of discrimination, who sees the same one Self in the friend, in the enemy and in his own body, feel anger, any more than he could do so against the limbs of his own body?’ Everything that he then sees is from a Pantheistic vision. The doctrine of Pantheism is more than a mere theory. It has tremendous practical and ethical implications. The word is derived from the Greek pan meaning the whole, and Theos, God.

According to this doctrine, God is the universe. The stars, the planets, the trees, the flowers, the oceans, the mountains, the clouds – are the body of God. The spirit that gives them shape and colour and motion and beauty is the mind of God. Every human body is part of God’s body, and every human mind is part of God’s mind. The implications being that if all humanity is one body and one soul, it follows that no individual can hurt without hurting himself. To do an injury to your neighbour is to cut off your own finger or to pluck out your own eye, for the human race, like every human being, is a united living organism. We are more than brothers of a single human family under the fatherhood of God.

It is in the light of this vision that action becomes non-action, and Naishkarmya is the result. You become one with existence, you become existential - ever free. The wholeness descends; it is not that the drop has become the ocean, the ocean itself becomes the drop. This is the meaning of Liberation, the ultimate goal of humanity - utter freedom and bliss.

Be Blissful