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SWAMI SATCHIDANANDA
L.M.: Not at all.
S. SATCH: So if you are an instrument, you are not responsible for anything. You are made to do that; you are doing it, that's all. This feeling of "doership,” of being the doer, is also not there.
L.M.: At that stage one doesn't think: I did it. Yet don't I want to be applauded for my good deed?
S. SATCH: When you think that you are doing it, then you are responsible. It's your work then, and you have to face the consequences.
L.M.: The karmic consequences?
S. SATCH: Yes, the karmic.
L.M.: If we don't want to be bound by that karmic law, we have to—the ego has to surrender?
S. SATCH: Surrender to God, just like Arjuna said: Lord, I don't know anything, you tell me what to do, I do it. In the beginning, he argued with Krishna about not having, not wanting, to fight. But ultimately he realized his foolishness and said: I surrender to you, you make me do anything you want.
L.M.: Arjuna had to take the warrior's path, the path of action.
S. SATCH: Krishna could have won the war without Arjuna, without any army. With a single finger, he could have done everything. But he was using them. The heart of karma yoga is depicted in the Bhagavad Gita. The very title Gita itself tells you: gi-ta, or ta-gi. Tagi means to renounce or dedicate; so Gita becomes tagi.
L.M.: So renounce and one has everything?
S. SATCH: Renounce even the feeling that you are doing things. I am not the doer, I am not the enjoyer, I am just an instrument.
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