Acting Without Acting

Krsna points out, "No one can refrain from doing something, not even for a moment." (Bg. 3.5) One has to act because the living force is by nature active. But, for an embodied being, each and every action produces a reaction, good or bad, that binds him to the material world. This is called karma. Yet how can we stop acting? If we want to eat we have to act, and eating is one of the necessities of life; if we stopped eating we would die. However, when we eat food prepared to satisfy our hunger, with each mouthful our involvement in the complexities of material nature deepens. The karma is there.

This is the dilemma of all embodied souls-how to act without entanglement. This is the same dilemma that perplexed Arjuna on the Battlefield of Kuruksetra. There was no question of Arjuna's not fighting in the battle, but Krsna instructed him how to fight. The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: "O son of Kunti, all that you do, all that you eat, all that you offer and give away, as well as all austerities that you may perform, should be done as an offering unto Me. Thus You will be freed of all reactions to good and evil deeds, and by this principle of renunciation you will be liberated and come to Me." (Bg. 9.27-28)

This is the solution offered by the Supreme Lord to the dilemma of all embodied souls. When our actions are all done for Krsna, and not for ourselves, such actions produce no karma. Neither desiring nor hating the fruits of activities, one should simply do everything for the satisfaction of Krsna, and thus his consciousness will remain steadily fixed on the Supreme, though his actions appear to be ordinary.