Gita 3.18

Sadhak: "This sounds like extreme self-sufficiency. Is Krishna promoting isolation?"

Guru: "Not isolation but independence. Isolation is avoidance born from inability to relate; independence is fullness that doesn't require relationships for completion. An isolated person is lonely; this person is complete. Paradoxically, such independence often produces better relationships—you engage others from overflow rather than need, offering genuine presence rather than seeking validation. The best relationships happen between two complete people choosing to share, not two incomplete people desperately clinging."

Sadhak: "'Nothing gained by action'—then why would such a person ever do anything?"

Guru: "Why does a river flow? Not to gain anything but because flowing is its nature. Action continues for the Self-realized—the body still moves, words still emerge, engagement happens—but without the inner commentary of 'I'm doing this to get that.' It's action without the actor's agenda. Like breathing: you don't breathe to accomplish something; breathing simply happens. Their actions are like that—natural, spontaneous, without the heaviness of purpose-seeking."

Sadhak: "'Nothing lost by inaction'—doesn't that conflict with Krishna's earlier teaching that everyone must act?"

Guru: "For most people, inaction causes loss—duties undone, relationships neglected, bodies deteriorating, karmic consequences accumulating. But for the Self-established, these consequences don't bind. They've transcended karma; they don't need relationships for completion; even bodily deterioration doesn't touch their essential nature. This verse describes an exceptional state, not general advice. Krishna isn't saying inaction is fine for everyone—he's describing what becomes true when Self-realization is complete. Different rules apply at different levels."

Sadhak: "How can someone be completely independent of all beings? We literally need food, shelter, air."

Guru: "The independence is psychological and spiritual, not physical. The body still depends on material conditions—even enlightened beings eat and breathe. But their sense of self, their completeness, their wellbeing doesn't depend on these. If food comes, fine. If not, also fine—at the deepest level, they're unaffected. This is why some sages can fast for extended periods or remain content in extreme conditions. Physical dependence continues; psychological dependence ends."

Sadhak: "This seems to describe an inhuman state. Are we supposed to become emotionless?"

Guru: "Not emotionless but emotion-free—meaning emotions arise without binding. Such a person might feel joy, compassion, even apparent sadness, but these feelings move through awareness like clouds through sky, not creating identification or suffering. The sky remains untouched. Being fully human while transcending human limitations isn't inhuman; it's superhuman—or perhaps simply the human potential fully realized. Emotions continue; suffering ends. Relationships continue; dependence ends."

Sadhak: "What about love? Can such a person love if they don't need anyone?"

Guru: "Their love becomes purer, not absent. Most human love is mixed with need: I love you because you fulfill me, validate me, complete me. Remove the need, and what remains? Pure appreciation, unconditional caring, wishing the other's flourishing without agenda. This is love without grasping, intimacy without clinging. It might look less dramatic—no desperate longing, no jealous possessiveness—but it's more genuine. Need-based love is really about oneself; needless love is truly about the other."

Sadhak: "The word 'artha'—purpose—appears twice. What exactly does 'no purpose' mean?"

Guru: "'Artha' includes material gain, objective, aim, meaning. Normally everything we do has artha: I work for money, I exercise for health, I meditate for peace. For the Self-realized, these purposes dissolve—not because they reject goals but because the goal of all goals is already attained. They sought happiness and found it; they sought security and found it; they sought meaning and found it. What purpose could action serve when its purpose is already fulfilled? They're like someone who kept working to earn money after becoming infinitely wealthy. Why bother?"

Sadhak: "Is this state achievable or just philosophical idealization?"

Guru: "It's achievable because it's your nature. You're not trying to create this state but to recognize what's already true beneath layers of misconception. The Self is already complete, already independent, already purposeless in the deepest sense. But identification with body-mind creates the illusion of lack, dependence, and need for purpose. As identification dissolves—through practice, through grace, through understanding—natural independence reveals itself. It's not manufacturing something new but uncovering something eternal."

Sadhak: "If I don't depend on any being, what about God? Don't we always depend on the Divine?"

Guru: "At this level, the distinction between self and God dissolves. You don't depend on God because you're not separate from God. The wave doesn't 'depend' on the ocean—it is the ocean. Dependence implies two separate entities, one needing the other. In complete Self-realization, that duality collapses. You don't need God because you are not other than God. This isn't blasphemous independence but ultimate union. The appearance of dependence belongs to the level of appearance; the reality is non-dual identity."