You associate karma with your activity, something that you do with your senses, body, mind and emotions; and therefore, if you do not use your body or your senses, you feel you are inactive. No. It is the detachment from the effect or the result of the karmas that is ‘seeing the inaction in action’. Sweeping is not a karma, sweeping is an act. Drinking is an act, sleeping is an act – they are not classified as karmas. Karma is the association of the mind with what is happening, and this association gives birth to the expectation that a certain outcome will result. You go to work in the office with the expectation that at the end of the month you will receive your pay cheque. If you knew that you were not going to get
28the pay cheque, you would not go to the office. There is an expectation that your karma will result in a certain outcome. The following is an example of action and inaction. A farmer ploughs the field, prepares the soil, plants the seeds, looks after them and goes through all the necessary effort; however, after this there comes a time when the farmer has to sit back and allow nature to do its work. It is not solely the effort of the farmer that makes the produce. He prepares the ground; he gets the seeds and plants them, yet after a certain point his job is finished and nature has to take over. What will happen if there is a drought? Nothing grows; everything will be destroyed and he will have to start again. What will happen when there is a good crop, and he sells it to the market and gets money for it? Again, he has to start the same process.

 

 

The difference is that when he does not receive anything he feels that his efforts have been wasted. It is not due to him; rather, it is due to the situation, nature. Conversely, if he gets a good result and earns money, he feels that his efforts have been justified. When you feel that all your effort has gone to waste and you have to start again, a form of depression sets in, and when you earn a lot, a form of elation sets in. That is only due to your association. If you do not allow depression to set in, or elation to set in, and you continue to do your work with the understanding of ‘Let Thy will be done’, then that will be action by you and at the same time inaction by you as you are not attaching yourself to the result. Then you are free from the effect of either depression or elation. Therefore, ‘one who sees action in inaction and inaction in action is a yogi’ means that the one who is able to separate himself from the results of the action finds peace.

Volume 8 : On the Wings of the Swan, Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati

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Expectation causes karma

You associate karma with your activity, something that you do with your senses, body, mind and emotions; and therefore, if you do not use your body or your senses, you feel you are inactive. No. It is the detachment from the effect or the result of the karmas that is ‘seeing the inaction in action’. Sweeping is not a karma, sweeping is an act. Drinking is an act, sleeping is an act – they are not classified as karmas. Karma is the association of the mind with what is happening, and this association gives birth to the expectation that a certain outcome will result. You go to work in the office with the expectation that at the end of the month you will receive your pay cheque. If you knew that you were not going to get
28the pay cheque, you would not go to the office. There is an expectation that your karma will result in a certain outcome. The following is an example of action and inaction. A farmer ploughs the field, prepares the soil, plants the seeds, looks after them and goes through all the necessary effort; however, after this there comes a time when the farmer has to sit back and allow nature to do its work. It is not solely the effort of the farmer that makes the produce. He prepares the ground; he gets the seeds and plants them, yet after a certain point his job is finished and nature has to take over. What will happen if there is a drought? Nothing grows; everything will be destroyed and he will have to start again. What will happen when there is a good crop, and he sells it to the market and gets money for it? Again, he has to start the same process.

 

 

The difference is that when he does not receive anything he feels that his efforts have been wasted. It is not due to him; rather, it is due to the situation, nature. Conversely, if he gets a good result and earns money, he feels that his efforts have been justified. When you feel that all your effort has gone to waste and you have to start again, a form of depression sets in, and when you earn a lot, a form of elation sets in. That is only due to your association. If you do not allow depression to set in, or elation to set in, and you continue to do your work with the understanding of ‘Let Thy will be done’, then that will be action by you and at the same time inaction by you as you are not attaching yourself to the result. Then you are free from the effect of either depression or elation. Therefore, ‘one who sees action in inaction and inaction in action is a yogi’ means that the one who is able to separate himself from the results of the action finds peace.

Volume 8 : On the Wings of the Swan, Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati