Not Indulging In Inaction

Hi, there folks, how are y’all holding up today? I know it’s Monday and perhaps all of us are just going to be gloomy, but with today passing there are just four days left to go for the week to end, isn’t that great news?

So, for today’s blog I have selected a topic that I am sure most of us could relate to, yes, we are talking about inaction. In the second chapter of the Bhagavad Gita when Arjuna is depressed and pleads before Bhagwan Shri Krishna to relieve him of his duties, and says that it is far better to live the life of a beggar than kill his own kins, Bhagwan says that as a warrior it is his duty to fight in the battlefield, and ensure that justice is meted out to his family. 

We must consider here that it’s not that Bhagwan Krishna is being indulgent in violence here, in fact, what he is doing is just reminding Arjuna of his duties, and since he is a warrior, it is his duty to fight. Sure, bloodshed has been condemned in all religions and the Gita doesn’t encourage it too, but here Bhagwan highlights that a person must do his duty no matter what, and not expect too much from it.

That is to say that mostly we perform a job, we think about the results, and Bhagwan says that we must not do so, instead what we must do is, perform our duties, make sure we don’t take them lightly, and at the same time not think of the results, nor be attached to any kind of inactions. 

Is that a paradox, right there? Actually, no. A lot of times we put in a lot of effort behind a particular task, and if it doesn’t get fulfilled then we either get disappointed or blame it on someone else. Bhagwan says that we must do neither, and act in a way that is not influenced by any of the ways mentioned above. At the same time, when things don’t go our way, we must not indulge in inaction too. 

Talking from my personal viewpoint, I have to say there have been countless such occasions in my life when I have shied away from taking up responsibilities, simply because my efforts didn’t work in the past. It took me a long time to realise what a mistake I was making because I saw that if I try, there could be two results - positive and negative, and if I do not, then there would be nothing left at all!

How pathetic would that be! This process went on for a long time, but ultimately I realised that you could not just let your past dictate the present, or as Swami Vivekananda would often say let the dead past bury itself, and if we did any mistakes, we must let it go, and focus on the present, and things could only get better when we get up, take charge of our lives and march forward. 

Under no circumstances can we let us weaken ourselves, we must get up and act as if everything is our responsibility, and under no circumstances should we indulge in inaction, if possible never.

Image via Pexels by Vlad Chetan