Riding On Action – In Gita Verse 12.10 If you cannot practice the regulations of bhakti-yoga, then just try to work for Me, because by working for Me you will come to the perfect stage.
Krishna gives Arjuna various choices to go inward or become Empty. If not Bhakti Yoga suits you then you can start your journey with Karma Yoga.
In my Bhagavad Gita Verse 8.7, blog I wrote – Human life can be divided into four circles.
The first circle is of action, the world of doing. It is the outermost. Moving within a little we come to the world of thought. Move a little further in, we come to the world of feeling, devotion, love. Moving still further within we reach the center – the world of the witness.
What Krishna says – There are three types of people in the world. Some people cannot live without doing. Their whole life flow is in working. If they try to sit quietly, they cannot; they have to do something or other. There is energy, flowing energy. There is no harm in this. But the master says try swallowing the medicine of meditation with activity. You can’t stop doing but you can add meditation to doing. Today’s world we say, “I can’t sit a single moment without doing something. I just can’t. Sitting is not within my power, it’s not my nature.”
Psychologists call them extroverts: they are always occupied; they need to do something or other. Until they fall down exhausted and sleep it is not natural for them to stop working. Activity is their nature.
The master says, “Good. Do it riding on action. Make this your horse. Mix your medicine with this and swallow it. The real question is the medicine. Start working meditatively. Whatever you do, don’t do it unconsciously, do it with awareness. Stay awake while doing it.”
Then there are some who say doing has no attraction for them, but thoughts come rushing in waves. They are thinkers-they have no juice for doing. They have no interest in the outer, but great waves arise within, a great tempest. And they cannot be inside for a single moment without thoughts. They say, “If we sit silently more thoughts come. When we sit silently more thoughts than usual come. Just mention worship, prayer, meditation, and a great deluge of thoughts – armies – come in wave after wave and drown us. What should we do?”
The master says, “Drink medicine mixed in with your thoughts. Don’t stop your thoughts, but when thoughts come observe them. Don’t get lost in them; stand a little apart, at a distance. Calmly watching your thoughts, you will gradually attain witnessing. Add meditation to your thoughts.”
Then there are some who say, “We have no trouble with thoughts, no trouble with doing. We have an excess of feeling. Tears flow, the heart is overwhelmed, drowning – in love, in affection, in trust, in devotion.”
The master says, “Make this your medicine, add meditation to this. Let tears flow – flow filled with meditation. Let the thrill be there, but filled with meditation. The essence is meditation.”
These differences between bhakti, karma and gyan are not differences in medicine. The medicine is one.
Krishna is answering our question – In what way are mental blocks and ego dissolved by them? – Through this verse – Mind and ego are not dissolved by witnessing: in witnessing you find out that they never existed. They can be dissolved only if they exist.
Tags: Riding On Action
