Gita 4.18

Sadhak: "This sounds like a riddle. How can there be inaction in action? Either you're doing something or you're not."

Guru: "From the body's perspective, yes—either moving or still. But you are not the body. Ask yourself: when your hand moves, do 'you' move? Or does movement happen while something in you remains utterly still? That stillness within motion is what Krishna points to. The Self never moves; only its reflections appear to move, like the sun reflected on rippling water seems to dance while the sun itself remains motionless."

Sadhak: "But I feel like I'm doing things. The sense of doership is very strong."

Guru: "Feelings can be investigated. When you 'feel' like the doer, look closely: where is this doer located? You'll find a thought that says 'I am doing,' feelings of effort, intentions arising—but no actual entity called 'doer.' The sense of doership is constructed from these elements; it's not a fundamental reality. Seeing this is seeing akarma in karma—action happening, but no actor at the center making it happen."

Sadhak: "And what about karma in akarma? I understand conceptually that sitting still can have mental activity, but is there more to it?"

Guru: "Much more. Consider the renunciate who proudly does 'nothing.' Is that true inaction? The very maintenance of the identity 'I am one who doesn't act' is itself an activity. The sense of being a non-doer is another form of doership. Even subtler: the witnessing of stillness is itself a movement of awareness. Complete akarma isn't found by stopping activity but by recognizing that what you truly are never started acting. Everything else—including apparent inaction—is part of nature's activity."

Sadhak: "So neither action nor inaction, as ordinarily understood, leads to freedom?"

Guru: "Exactly. Freedom isn't in what you do or don't do—it's in seeing correctly what's actually happening. The active person bound by doership and the inactive person bound by non-doership are equally bound. Only the one who sees through both is free. This seeing doesn't require changing your activity level—you can be intensely active or quietly still. What changes is not behavior but understanding."

Sadhak: "The verse calls this person 'kṛtsna-karma-kṛt'—accomplisher of all actions. How does seeing accomplish anything?"

Guru: "Because the purpose of all action is to work out karma and reach liberation. One who sees that there never was a doer has—in that instant—completed what all action was working toward. It's like searching everywhere for your glasses and then discovering they were on your head all along. The search is complete not because you found them somewhere but because you recognized they were never lost. Similarly, all karma is completed when you recognize the doer was never real—nothing remains to be worked out for someone who never existed."

Sadhak: "This feels very abstract. Can you make it practical?"

Guru: "Right now, as I speak and you listen, notice: words are arising, ears are hearing, understanding is forming—but where are 'you' in this? Can you find a central 'listener' who is doing the listening? Or is there simply listening happening? If you attend carefully, you'll find experience but no experiencer at the center. This is the beginning of seeing akarma in karma—the action of hearing without a hearer doing it. Practice catching these glimpses throughout the day. Each glimpse weakens the illusion of doership."

Sadhak: "What about responsibility? If there's no doer, am I not responsible for my actions?"

Guru: "This is where understanding must be complete, not partial. At the level of relative reality—the practical world of cause and effect—responsibility remains. The teaching isn't permission to act irresponsibly while claiming 'there is no doer.' That would be using partial understanding to justify wrong action—which is vikarma. True seeing doesn't diminish moral sensitivity; it enhances it. When ego drops, you respond more appropriately to situations, not less. You stop harming not because of rules but because harming feels impossible when you don't see separate selves to harm."

Sadhak: "How does someone like this—who sees no doer—engage with the world?"

Guru: "More fully than anyone. Without personal agenda, they respond completely to what the moment requires. Without fear of failure or craving success, they act with total commitment. Without illusion of doership, they don't claim credit or suffer guilt. They're like a perfectly tuned instrument that life plays—there's music, but the flute doesn't think 'I am making beautiful sounds.' The jñāni (wise one) engages life completely while knowing that engagement itself is prakṛti's play, not personal doing."

Sadhak: "Is this state something to achieve, or is it already the case?"

Guru: "It is already the case—the Self has never acted. But ignorance veils this truth, creating the experience of bondage. So 'achieving' this state is really recognizing what was always true. You don't become something new; you stop believing something false. The spiritual path isn't construction but excavation—removing the rubble of wrong identification until what was always present shines forth. This seeing that Krishna describes isn't an accomplishment; it's a recognition. And in that recognition, all seeming accomplishments find their completion."