PHRASES IN THE GITA - 32

ॐ

PHRASES IN THE GITA - 32

किं कर्म किमकर्म ... (अध्याय ४  - श्लोक  १७)

கிம்  கர்ம  கிம் அகர்ம ...  (அத்யாயம் 4 - ஶ்லோகம் 17)

Kim Karma Kim Akarma  ... (Chapter 4 - Shlokam 17)

MEANING :  What is Action?  What is Inaction ?

Those are great questions.  And the answers... Shri Krishna says, "Even the best intellectuals are confused in knowing the answers to these questions".  (कवयोsप्यत्र  मोहिताः |)

The answers are subjective.  Each of us has to strive to find his own answers.  If he finds his answers, well, he is the blessed one.  And if can lead his life on the basis on the basis of his answers, his life is a fulfilled one.

What is action ?  What is inaction ?  Why these questions. ?  Action is inevitable in a human life.  Procuring materials, making arrangements for preparation of food, serving the food, eating the food served, purchasing clothes, various types of those, mending, stitching those to suit one's own needs, wearing, washing, cleaning the exterior and the interior of body, providing medical attention whenever the need arises, etc. etc. are some of the actions to protect and nourish body.  Attending a job or pursuing a profession or a business, getting appropriate education and training, making arrangement for travelling, arranging a rented accommodation or arrange funds, find right type of professionals and constructing a house, protection of the house, things and humans inside, against onslaughts of Nature, thieves, insects and other intruders, etc. etc. are various actions for the family.. Fulfilling social and governmental obligations, contributing  monetarily or otherwise, towards social functions and celebrations, etc. are some of the actions in society.  And there are n - number of actions, daily and regular, occassional, rare, and some provoked by emergencies.  These are actions attached with Kartaa Bhaavam (कर्ता भाव) or a feeling that, 'I am the doer'..

There are actions happening around, on and within us, but we never feel, "I am the doer".  We eat food.  There is a hectic activity inside the body to digest the food, assimilate nutrients and push out wastes.  Breathing activity, production, circulation and cleaning of blood, metabolism, generation of energy for various bodily actions, etc. are some the innumerable actions within the body.  We mate and perform physical union.  But, who creates Life, develops body parts of the baby inside womb ?  Who is the 'doer' in these actions ?  We think, these happen 'naturally' and never feel, 'I do'.

And daily Sun-rise, wind, rains, flow of water in rivers, evaporation and cloud formations, floods, earthquakes, tsunami, cyclones, hail-storms, locust-swarm, rotation and movement of earth and other astral bodies,  We feel, (most of us are sure) that  these are actions, performed by Nature, and are beyond our control.

These are all actions, cognizable, physical.  There are also actions at subtler levels, viz. speech and thought. 

And 'inaction' (अकर्म) ?  What not to do, when not to speak, which not to think about,  ???  Is inaction possible ?  Action at more obvious plane may be curtailed, the exterior cut-off, instruments of action immobilized.  But, what about the actions at subtler, mind level ?  Can there be inaction at that level ?  That is a big challenge.  Are we aware of the actions and inaction ?

We are attached with only those actions which we feel being the 'doer'.  We are disturbed, excited or depressed, only by those actions which we 'do' and never by those which 'happen'.  So, sense of 'doer' (कर्ता भाव) is the culprit.  If Kartaa Bhaava (कर्ता भाव) could be eliminated ??   We are used to a state, wherein there is inaction at obvious and visible plane and hectic action at subtler, thought level.   Without Kartaa Bhaava or sense of being the 'doer'  there would be hectic action at physical and cognizable level and quietness, peace and inaction at mind level.  That is hence Shri Krishna says, "Ahankaara Vimoodhaatmaa Kartaaham iti manyate"  (अहङ्कार विमूढात्मा कर्ताहम् इति मन्यते ), or in other words, "Only the ignorant, the 'egoist' feels that, 'I am the doer'"..