Detachment in Action

Ashtavakra: "The ignorant man tries to still the mind and thinks this is liberation. What of you?"

Janaka: "I have no need to still the mind. It stills itself or moves—what concern is it of mine? I am not the mind, so I neither fight it nor follow it. I simply remain as I am."

Ashtavakra: "And action—do you now avoid all activity?"

Janaka: "Why would I? Action arises naturally. The hands move, the tongue speaks, decisions are made. But there is no doer claiming the action, no one collecting merit or fearing sin."

Ashtavakra: "Is this not indifference?"

Janaka: "Indifference would be a stance, a position held by someone. This is simply clarity. When you know the rope is not a snake, you do not become indifferent to ropes—you simply stop fearing them."

Ashtavakra: "So you act in the world, yet..."

Janaka: "Yet nothing sticks. Like a lotus leaf in water—the water touches it but does not make it wet. Actions are performed, results come and go, but the Self is never touched."

Ashtavakra: "What guides your actions then?"

Janaka: "The situation itself. There is no separate 'me' calculating outcomes, protecting interests, seeking advantage. Response arises naturally, appropriately, like the reflection of trees appearing in still water."

Ashtavakra: "(nodding) This is true detachment—not renunciation of action but freedom from the actor."