In the light of Gita 2.47, how can we understand the Gita’s call to see action in inaction and action in inaction?
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so in the light of 2.47 how do we understand the chapter verse of seeing action in action and inaction in action so actually this verse is karmanya akarmaya pasyed akarmaniche karmaya sabuddhiman manusheshu sayuktah krsna karma krut this is 4.18 in the Bhagavad Gita so karmanya akarmaya pasyed one who sees action in inaction if you look at it literally akarmanya akarmaya pasyed akarmaniche karmaya one who sees inaction in action so before we understand what this verse means the earlier verse before that is so what is action and what is inaction even the wise people are bewildered about this and that I will explain to you 4.16 and 4.17 it says so now if you look at the verse literally that what is action and what is inaction even the wise are bewildered about this so now if you say actually if somebody is sitting at one place or that person is walking here and there now you don’t need a wise person to understand that difference even a child can understand so when wise krsna is saying even the wise are bewildered about what is karma and what is akarma so here krsna is not talking in terms of the literal meanings of the words of action and inaction action and inaction as referring simply to physical activity and physical inactivity that is not the meaning of the word over here the meaning is primarily in terms of the karmic consequences of actions so if I consider say karma and akarma so one meaning of karma is action and the opposite of that will be inaction means activity rather than activity and inactivity but another meaning of the word karma is action that is karmically culpable, action that will bring a reaction and in that context akarma will mean action that will bring no reaction so to give a say a military example say if there is a war going on at one particular place the soldiers are active, they are fighting may be at another part of the border they are inactive that may be a part of the military strategy or whatever so here they are active, here they are inactive now this is the literal meaning of the word action action and inaction but in another context say that same military person when that army officer he or she fights on the war field and they kill someone over there, they are doing it in service of the nation so they will actually be not held accountable for having killed someone in fact if they fight heroically they may get rewards for that but if that same person comes back to their local village or local town and gets angry with someone and takes out a gun and shoots them there they are going to be punished because they are doing it on their own behalf so the activity of shooting is the same but when it is done on behalf of the nation there is no reaction no negative reaction but when it is done on one’s own impulse there is reaction so when Krishna is telling over here he is using the word karma and akarma so the word karma and akarma can mean literally physical activity or physical inactivity or the karma and akarma can also mean action which is going to produce a reaction and action which is not going to produce a reaction so there are these four meanings these four broad or two sets of meanings possible so what this verse means is so when Arjuna you fight, you do karma but you are not doing it on your own behalf you are doing it in the mood of service you have been told to do this and that’s why you are doing it so that is soldier who is shooting but that soldier because they are not shooting on their own behalf they are shooting for the sake of the country so they will not get any they will not be legally culpable for that so if the enemy is attacking and the soldiers do nothing to defend their own boundary and then the enemy overruns and captures the territory they say we did not do anything by not doing anything you did a big blunder you are soldiers you are meant to defend over there by inaction you become culpable so what Krishna is telling over here is if we connect this with then then last line is do not be attached to not doing your work so that means you can correlate with so do not be attached to not doing anything Arjuna because if you don’t do anything you will be culpable you are like a soldier who doesn’t do anything when the enemy is attacking and on the other hand कर्मन्य वाधिकारस्ते माः पनेशु कदाचेन if you are working without attachment to the work that means you are not working on your own behalf for your own aggrandizement then कर्मन्य अकर्मह्यः पक्षेर you will be doing action but you will not get bound so the message of 2.47 and 4.18 are in that sense they are consistent work but don’t work on your own selfish accord or work in a mood of service does it answer the question