Doer Bind – In Gita Verse 10.3 He who knows Me as the unborn, as the beginningless, as the Supreme Lord of all the worlds – he only, undeluded among men, is freed from all sins.
Krishna can see that Arjuna is also worried. One worries because of the feeling that one is the doer, not because of what he does. Regardless of how much one is involved in action, the act in itself does not cause anxiety. But the moment one sees oneself as the doer, the anxiety, the worrying begins.
Anxiety is the shadow, the by-product of the doer. Arjuna is in deep anxiety. His whole concern is about the fact that; he thinks he will be the killer; if he decides not to kill, those on the battlefield will not die. If he decides not to fight, there would be no war; peace will prevail. He thinks he is the decision maker. The fact is, no person is the decision maker. Existence decides; destiny decides. Hence, Krishna tells Arjuna to drop the idea of being the doer and let the action continue.
Man is completely sinless only the day he becomes totally a non-doer.
Actions don’t bind, the doer binds. Actions are not to be dropped, once the doer is no more, one becomes free.
That is the message of all the great ones, the really great ones. The greatest realisation on this earth has been this: that we are unnecessarily creating too much fuss. That which is to happen is going to happen if we wait. In the right season, the harvest; in the right season, the fruition. In the right season everything happens. If a man can learn only one thing – how to wait prayerfully – nothing else is needed. Ecstasy is a PRASAD, a gift of god.
You just try. Practise what Buddha says. At least for one hour you become a non-doer. At least for one hour, deep in the night, sit alone. Don’t do anything – not even chanting a mantra, not even transcendental meditation. Don’t do anything. Just sit, lie down, look at the stars. That too should not be hard. Look very softly. Don’t focus; remain unfocussed like an unfocussed photograph – hazy, blurred, not knowing where the boundaries are. Just remain silent in the darkness.
If thoughts come, let them come. Don’t fight with them either. They will come and they will go – you just be a watcher. It is none of your business whether they come or they go. Who are you? They come without invitation, they go without pushing. They come and go, it is constant traffic. You just sit by the side of the road and watch.
When I say watch, don’t misinterpret me. Don’t make watching an effort. Otherwise people become very stiff and they start watching in a very stiff and tense way. Again they have started doing. What I am saying, or what Buddha is saying is – be in an attitude of not doing, be lazy.
Just be lazy, and see what happens. You will be amazed. Some day – just sitting, just sitting, not doing anything – some day, from some unknown source, a lightning, a benediction. Some day, in some moment, suddenly you are transfigured. Suddenly you see a quiet descending upon you. It is almost physical.
If a real meditator, a person who can relax, sits silently and allows, even somebody who is not a meditator will feel the presence – that something is happening. You may not be able to figure out what it is; you may feel strange or a little scared, but if you sit by the side of a meditator….
Now, it is difficult to use the right word, because the word, ‘meditator’ again gives the impression as if he is doing something – doing meditation. Remember again and again – language has been developed by non-meditators, so the whole language is, in a subtle way, wrong. It cannot be expressed.
When somebody is sitting there, just sitting there, like a tree, like a rock, not doing anything, it happens: something from the above descends, penetrates his very core of being. A subtle light surrounds him… a glow, a blessing can be felt around him – even by those people who don’t know what meditation is. Even passing by the side, they will also feel the impact of it. This benediction has been called god.
God is not a person, it is a deep experience when you are not doing anything and existence simply flows in you… the immensity of it, the beatitude of it, the grace of it.
You are not doing anything, you are not even expecting anything, you are not waiting for anything. You have no motive. You are just there like a tree standing in the winds, or like a rock just silently sitting by the side of a river. Or like a cloud perched on the hilltop – just there, no movement of your own.
In that moment you are not a self, in that moment you are a no-self. In that moment you are not a mind, you are a no-mind. At that moment you don’t have a centre. In that moment you are immense… vastness with no boundaries – suddenly the contact. Suddenly it is there! Suddenly you are fulfilled, suddenly you are surrounded by some unknown presence. It is tremendous.
In this unknown presence you will know – Me as the unborn, as the beginningless, as the Supreme Lord of all the worlds – he only, undeluded among men, is freed from all sins.
Krishna understands Arjuna’s difficulty as a doer. So he guided him to be a non-doer. For us we don’t wait for the Mahabharat War to become non-doer. Practice in your routine life whatever act you act, act as non-doer, as a watcher.
Tags: Doer Bind
