Why is it that we should act? And why is it that we should not expect
the fruits of action?
This will be clear to us if we
analyse the reason behind our action, and the reason why the fruits will not
accrue as we desire. Our actions are obligatory on our part on account of our
involvement in this psychophysical organism which is controlled by the movement
of the gunas of prakriti; therefore,
as long as prakriti moves, as
long as the gunas rotate and
revolve in this cosmical process of creation and evolution, for that long we also
will be involved in that action. So our activity is a why is it that we do not
get the result that we expect? The answer to this question is not in the Second
Chapter. The answer is in a verse which is in the Eighteenth Chapter:
adhisthanam
tatha karta karanam ca prithag-vidham,
vividhas
ca prithak cesta daivam caivatra pancamam (18.14).
When we do something, we have a
very narrow notion of what result will follow from our action. The narrow
notion arises on account of our limitation to body and social conditions, and
our completely ignoring our cosmical relation. The fruit accrues according to
the sanction of the
involvement of ourselves in the
cosmic structure, notwithstanding the fact that we have individually, so-called, initiated the action.
The action that we perform is not a stereotyped movement in a very simple
manner, as we think. All action is very complicated. It involves many factors. When
we take a morsel of food, how many organs in our body act? It is not just that
we throw something and it goes into the pit. The entire organism rises up into
action. Even if it is only one raisin that we are putting into our mouth, the
entire mechanism starts acting. Similarly, any action that we perform sets
intomotion the whole rotation of prakriti, and it will
act and react according to its laws.
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