I really like it. Thanks. I will like to hear more on 'action in inaction' and vice versa from you.
Namaste,
Action in inaction and inaction in action is also explained in Astavakra Gita. I am not much reading shastras these days, so just quoting from memories.
The goal is life decides our direction and also the type and direction of sadhana. Moksha is the first thing that is needed. Later this bhAva gets strong.
niSkAma karma and akarma.
niSkama karma means that you are doing karma without any fruits or with SAkxI bhAva. Rutuine kamras like eating, sleeping, bath, etc do not hinder in meditation. What matters is our own initiation, bonds with objects and persons, which is called as jIva sruShTi. ISvara sruShTi is pruthvI, tArA, naxatra, graha, parvata, nadI (river), etc. These things and acts necessary for survival of body do not disturb. Hence we should not compare them with karma that we do to fulfill our desire like earning more and more money and keep satisfying demands, desires, etc. Earning for survival is ok and should not be taken as hindrance. What matters is our planning and if things do not work according to our plan, then we get upset and analysis starts. So repition of any karma (due to rAga) and critizing nad staying away, failure analysis (due to dveSa) gives rise to kAma, krodha, moha, etc. In all this our ego swells like balloon. It is intention or motive behind any karma that is important and not the karma itself, as karma is (comparatively) jaDa (w.r.t mind).
In short anything that strengthens jIva bhAva is to be avoided as much as possible. ISvara srushTi helps us. So we move from sakAma karma to niSkAma karma.
But still there is an observer. In akarma sthiti, you clearly know that 'I am not the doer AND ISvara is the doer'. In niSkAma karma there is still avaraNa of aGYAna. akarma does not generate any fruits.
Hence a GYAnI's actions are inactions (akarma), while aGYAnI, who's mind is not calm, keeps thinking and hence his maun is just vAcika maun, inside him, there is too much turbulence, while GYAnI's mind even while working (acting) is calm. GYAnI acts on intuitions or say, someone is controlling his acts.
It is the mental calmness that is important. vairAGYa means absence of bhOgya padArtha (in mind). maun is vacika then mAnasika and later on it is said that the true maun is the maun of vAsanA-s. When there is no desire, then there is actual maun, in Atma-sthiti.
So in meditation, while meditating on OM, initially one may chant verbally in low tone, but later it shifts to mental chanting. Here chanting is done in mind.
Where is mind?
Mind (and hence thoughts) are connected to sahasrahAra chakra, but emotions are connected to anAhata. So when one is hurt, we feel hurt in chest and not head, while too many thoughts move with great speed, it influences head.
From another angle, a way to find mind is to be aware from where thoughts are coming, exactly in that place you becomes aware and starts chanting OM and thoughts fade away.
From effort to effortless
But this is just initial state. Here there is an effort to chant. Later on, OM continues by itself, and then one becomes observer. Now, one can be aware of beginning, termination and intonation, pitch, spandan (gap between two OMs), so as to make meditation continuous (AjyadhArayA says Sri Ramana Maharshi, another word is saral chintanam)
Now, chanting shifts from mind to heart, not physical heart, but source. Some also experience it in center of chest (anAhata chakra), but it is not necessary ot have this experience.
So, from verbal to mental to auto chanting (ajapA japa) is the path.
Since, you, as an observer, do not make efforts, hence there is no fatigue and bordom, there is no stress and hence no saturation point. AS this period of effortless chanting increases, both quantity and quality of meditation increases.
Here too, by being aware of udbhava sthAna of OM (tUrIyA), OM will autometically rest in it's source. One moves beyond space and time. Time is also a concept of mind. Only you are present.
So, in meditation, we move from effort to effortless. With such practice, meditation continuous even when one is working in day time, fully concentrating in work allotted to s/he and his/her action becomes inaction. I am not able ot explain it properly, but it happens. Life is a happening, and one begins to forget (vismriti / vismruti) of day-2-day life and does not remember what he had done yesterday. He now finds it hard to think, as if I will have to make efforts to think. Until one is in this phase, life just flows, life is a happening. With repeated practice, and with the habit of being aware (acquired in meditation by the grace of gurU and ISvara), one can become sAxI.
Our journey from doer to sAxI to Atma sthiti is sakAma --> niSkAma --> akarma --> nirvikalp samAdhi --> moxa (sva-svarUpa sthiti becomes sahaj sthiti ==> jIvanamukti).
Just a personal opinion.
Another 2 cents.
Hari OM
