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PRACTICE OF KARMA YOGA
4. ACTION AND INACTION
Lord Krishna says: “What is action, what is inaction? Even the wise are herein perplexed I will declare to thee the action by knowing which thou shalt be freed from evil. It is needful to discriminate unlawful action, to discriminate inaction, the path of action is mysterious He who seeth inaction in action and action in inaction, he is wise among men, he is harmonious, even while performing all action.” Gita: Ch. III-16, 17.
People generally think that action means movement of the body, and inaction means the absence of it, to sit quiet. Sri Sankara writes. "He who sees inaction in action, i e, he who has the right knowledge that action, which is commonly supposed by all to pertain to the Self, does not really belong to the Self, just as motion does not really pertain to the trees (on the shore of the river) which appear (to a man on board the ship) to move in the opposite direction, and who sees action in inaction, ie, he who knows that even inaction is action--for, inaction is but a cessation of bodily and mental activities, and like action it is falsely attributed to the Self and causes the feeling of egoism as expressed in the words 'quiet and doing nothing, I sit happy”— he who can realize the nature of action and inaction as now explained is wise among men he is a devout Yogin, he is the performer of actions, he is released
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