कर्मण्यकर्म य: पश्येदकर्मणि च कर्म य: | स बुद्धिमान्मनुष्येषु स युक्त: कृत्स्नकर्मकृत् || 18 || |
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“He who beholds inaction in action and action in inaction is a yogi among men. He has attained the goal of all actions”
Commentary:
The yogi sees his body and its paraphernalia with attachment while working for society and detachment when he is inactive and withdrawn in deep meditation. For the one who is in Samādhi, these two feelings happen at the same time. When you watch a movie in a theater, you support the hero with great enthusiasm, cry for a dying character and yet you are detached because you know it is only a movie. This is the exact mindset of a yogi but it is not mere intellectual understanding but an actual experience. A dog is trained to perform according to the owner’s will but the owner does not get too attached to the paraphernalia of the dog – its friends, family, toys, food, kennel where the dog lives and so on. Similarly the realized soul trains the body to strive and perform according to God’s will. The soul can be said to be inactive because it does not have any desire for sense experience. It only beholds the body and all its functions in action. Feeling the body active, the soul beholds itself inactive. Feeling itself inactive, it sees the body active.
A regular battery is an electrochemical piece that is active on demand. Where is the electricity when it’s not in use? It remains inactive inside and when charge is applied, the electrons become active and produce electricity. The body is similar to a battery. The human Will charges the body during the day to action and retires to inaction in the night. A yogi can be again said to be inactive in this context because his own small egoistic will is replaced totally by God’s will. His body is active and moving, guided not by personal desires but by the direction of God.
The yogi achieves the goal of all actions – actively inactive and inactively active. This state is deemed by the wise as the most joyful experience that one can have – to know one’s true nature as calm, blissful, eternal, ever-new joy and at the same time feel the temporary body and make it walk, talk, move, smile and work.