It must be remembered, that the entire Geeta is addressed to Prince Arjuna standing confused at the immensity of his duty. He wants to run away into the jungle and live in a spirit of what he understands as ‘renunciation.’ Lord Krishna’s thesis in the entire Geeta is that a MERE running away from life and its duties is not Samnyasa nor is it renunciation. Here, in the stanza, the Lord is defining the State-of-Actionlessness (Naishkarmya-Siddhi). This state is reached when we do not identify ourselves with the equipments-of-matter which are the instruments-of-perception, the three instruments of false interpretation of Truth (Body, Mind and Intellect). To regain our life in Pure Consciousness is the Supreme State.
When we forget our spiritual dignity, the misconception of the ego arises; we lose our real personality and come to believe that we are merely the limited ego. Such self-forgetfulness can be observed in any drunken reveller. He forgets his individual personality and status in life and assumes to himself a false identity and continues to be in it as long as he is in a state of intoxication. In his false concept of himself the drunken fool acts, disgracing his education and station in life.
The ego arises when we are ignorant and forgetful of our spiritual nature. When this ‘ignorance’is ended, there is the experience of the Infinite Bliss of the All-Full-Consciousness. Naturally, there is no want felt, and therefore, no desire can arise. When desires are absent, the thought-breedings end. When thoughts are dried up, actions, which are the parade of thoughts, marching out through the archway of the body, are no more. This state is called “ACTIONLESSNESS” — Naishkarmya Siddhi. The Supreme State described so elaborately in the Upanishadic literature and indicated here by the technical term ‘Naishkarmya-Siddhi,’ is that ‘WISE’ state-of-being wherein there is no ‘ignorance.’ DESIRES are the children of ‘ignorance’; THOUGHTS arise from desires; ACTIONS are thoughts expressed in the outer world. In the spirituo-psychology of Vedanta we may thus say that ‘ignorance’is the great-grandfather of action! With the ‘knowledge’ of the Spirit, ‘ignorance’ends, and in that State, thoughts and actions cannot be. This is the State of Full Awakening, and with reference to its previous condition as expressed and manifested through the body, this condition is indicated as “ACTIONLESS-NESS” or “THOUGHTLESS-NESS” or “DESIRELESS-NESS.”
The Geetaacharya, in this stanza, declares that this State of Perfection, defined as the State of Actionlessness, cannot be gained by a cheap and ignominious escape from the fields of life’s activities. Making use of the fields, we must gain in purity by getting rid of the existing vasanas, through selfless activities. Making use of the fields, we must gain in purity by getting rid of the existing vasanas, through selfless activities which are prescribed to each one of us according to the type to which we naturally belong. Arjuna being a “Kshatriya”, his duty is to fight; and by fighting alone will he exhaust his vasanas. By the exhaustion of the vasanas alone can one hope to reach the Supreme State of Pure Awareness.
AN UNDERSTANDING UNATTACHED EVERYWHERE (Asakta-Buddhih Sarvatra) — An intellect that is attached to sensuous things of the world outside knows no peace within itself. It gets agitated and the frail body gets shattered as the fuming mind escapes through it in its hunt for satisfaction among the sense-objects. A ‘clean-shaven intellect,’ devoid of all the cobwebs of attachments with the equipments of perceptions, feeling and thinking, and their respective objects perceived, felt or thought of, is the vehicle that stands dissolved, revealing THAT which pulsates through them all. This is the true State-of-Actionlessness and a man who has earlier disciplined his intellect alone can attain it.
In the case of Arjuna, his tall talks of detachment and renunciation were false urges of escapism paraded as an angelic urge. His Samnyasa arose out of his “attachment” to his kith and kin, while true Samnyasa must arise out of “detachment.”
ONE WHO HAS SUBDUED HIS EGO (Jitaatmaa) — An intellect of complete detachment is an impossible dream. The seeker subdues his heart which ever seeks its flickering joys in sense-gratifications. This self-mastery of the mind is impossible as long as there are even the minutest traces of desire in him. One from whom all desires have fled (Vigata-sprihah) alone can subdue the mind, and such a seeker alone can accomplish the state of complete detachment of his intellect from the world of sense-objects.
Mind is the seat of all vanities of agency, like “I am the doer” sense (Kartritwa-bhaavanaa). The intellect is the seat of all false arrogations that “I-am-the-enjoyer” (Bhoktritwa-bhavanaa). These two together make up the ego, and it is fed, nurtured and nourished by its clinging attachments (spriha) to the joy that is in the objects of the world outside. By correct analysis and investigations, when the “spriha” is dried up, both the senses of enjoyership and doership will get steadily sublimated, leaving behind the Infinite experience of the Self. The Geeta is never tired of repeating that self-restraint and freedom from desire are the unavoidable pre-requisites for spiritual growth. Herein, we have a beautiful example of explaining the Supreme Goal, not in achieving any Higher State, but as the state of complete detachment from the lower urges.
FREEDOM FROM ACTION IS A CONDITION IN WHICH ALONE THE EXPERIENCES OF THE SUPREME BEING CAN RUSH IN. HOW? LEARN THIS FROM ME IN BRIEF:
