Even such a perfect one is found to live, not sitting like a stone-statue, but acting diligently, like any one else in the world. A list of these common and natural activities is indicated in these two stanzas: “SEEING, HEARING, TOUCHING, SMELLING, EATING, GOING, SLEEPING, BREATHING, SPEAKING, DROPPING, HOLDING, WINKING,” etc. In all these unavoidable activities of life, it is explained here, a Sage or a prophet, living in the world, will not have any egoistic vanity.
In deep-sleep we breathe, but we are not conscious of it at all, since at that time, the ego in us is not functioning. Similarly, when the ego has ended, all these activities take place instinctively. Even while carrying on these activities, the Seer has a constant awareness that “I DO NOTHING AT ALL.” This does not mean that a Perfect Master is an irredeemable sleep-walker! The essential difference between the two is, that the sleep-walker is unconscious, while a Sage is ever conscious of the Consciousness.
That this attitude of total surrender of the sense of agency can come only to a Perfect Master is very clearly indicated here by the two terms “centered” or “steadfast,” Yuktah meaning, “centered in the Self.” This Self-centered-ness can be in two grades of intensity: one, indicating the self-centeredness of a seeker who, through study, reflection and meditation, tries to remain intellectually centered in the Self; and another, the self-absorption of one who, after the final realisation of the Self in himself, comes to live vitally, at every moment, the experience of the Self (Atmavit).
In order that we may come to withdraw ourselves from the wrong conceptions of our own agency, we must have a substitute ‘Knowledge-bit’ in ourselves, which will help us in living the new experience. When I am ignorant of my waking state-personality, I become victimised by my own dream identity and this dream-identification ends only when I re discover my real waking-state-personality and come to live in the unbroken awareness of “I am the waker.” Similarly, in order to maintain in myself the attitude “I am not the actor,” it is necessary that I must have another positive assumption to replace this negative false belief. This is indicated in the last line of the stanza that a man of perfection, living in unison with the Truth, is ever an observer of the varieties of his own actions that are executed by the various layers of matter in him among the world-of-objects.
Just as the ocean, were it conscious, could watch and observe its own waves rising and setting upon its own surface, declaring its own glory, so too, from the infinite depths of his own personality, the Master watches the actions performed by the various layers of matter in him. As I am typing these lines, I can watch my own fingers typing and the more detached I grow, the more entertaining becomes the play of the fingers on the keyboard. Similarly, a Sage can, once having entered the innermost sanctum of his Self, ever afterwards watch the inert matter entities in him getting thrilled with activity in a thousand channels of independent pre-occupations. He is unconcerned; he is unperturbed; from the bottomless depths of his own Being he watches on, in perfect detachment born of his realised knowledge, and he is ever confident that “I DO NOTHING AT ALL.”
BUT, WHAT SHOULD BE THE ATTITUDE OF A MAN WHO IS NOT A TRUTH-KNOWER AND IS ENGAGED IN ACTION?
