I’ve been listening to a recording of the Bhagavad Gita, specifically receiving Chapters 2-4, about the Yoga of Action. What I’m understanding is that it’s an illusion to think you can stop acting in the world:
There is no one who can remain without action even for a moment.
Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 3, Verse 5
Which is a big disappointment to me.
As I’m sensitizing to the separation between myself and the divine,
I don’t want to work a western job anymore,
Instead, “I just want to vibe with the universe”.
That sentiment echos another phrase resonating in me:
“You are human beings, not human doings.”
Likewise, in Betty Martens’ map The Circle of Consent
I have been in the Doing section for too long,
I yearn to inhabit the Being section.
Hearing that I have to pursue actions
Is dissonant with that whole theme.
Fine, let me try to stay open-minded.
So what is this Yoga of Action?
Do I need to walk a thousand miles barefoot?
Really not feeling that.
Seek refuge in divine knowledge and insight and discard reward-seeking actions…
Miserly are those who seek to enjoy the fruits of their works
Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 2, Verse 49
Mmm this is resonating. Discarding actions feels so right.
4.18: Those who see action in inaction and inaction in action are truly wise amongst humans.
4.22 Content with whatever gain comes of its own accord, and free from envy, they are beyond the dualities of life. Being equipoised in success and failure, they are not bound by their actions, even while performing all kinds of activities.
4.23 They are released from the bondage of material attachments and their intellect is established in divine knowledge. Since they perform all actions as a sacrifice to God, they are freed from all karmic reactions.
And so the transmission comes through:
The one action you need to take:
Is to be in contemplation of God — the divinity in all things
And as I biked to work
And all the lights turned green for me
As I cruised up 6th avenue.
I felt the shard of divinity
In the echo of the Manhattan-style
Synchronized lights and shining towers
A transmission of the Shivan linearity of DesCartes
And ordered X \ Y axes.
If my spiritual work
Matters more than any other work I do
Then contemplating God
Matters more than any other action I take.
And could be the true action
Underlying the activities I appear to perform.
Beyond Mountains, More Mountains 