What is action for the yogi?

Krishna said before, in chapter 4, he said the yogis, after renouncing attachment, the yogis perform actions with the body, the mind, the intellect, and even with the senses, only for the purpose of purification of the self, only for the purpose of purification of the mind.

So when Krishna is talking about purification or action, these are purificatory actions. It’s not actions for the sake of attainment, achievement, it’s just for the sake of removing the different impurities.

Action is said to be the means. What is action for the yogi?

Krishna said before, in chapter 4, he said the yogis, after renouncing attachment, the yogis perform actions with the body, the mind, the intellect, and even with the senses, only for the purpose of purification of the self, only for the purpose of purification of the mind.

So when Krishna is talking about purification or action, these are purificatory actions. It’s not actions for the sake of attainment, achievement, it’s just for the sake of removing the different impurities.

But for the yogi who has attained this realization, there is no other actions that should be done. So what does he do?

Outwardly, it doesn’t matter what he does. The only thing is that he abides in the true reality. And abiding in the true reality is the highest kind of sacrifice, is the highest kind of offering, is the highest kind of state of being.

So this is what Krishna said in verse 3, no, verse 4. When a man is not attached to the sense objects or to actions, having renounced all thoughts, then he is said to have attained to yoga.

So people say, so what is happening in this state? So Krishna describes what happens in this state.

First of all, there is no attachment. Non-attachment is not aversion. It’s not that the yogi is afraid to engage. It’s not that the yogi has an aversion to engage with other people or with objects or with the world.

For him, the world, the body, others are all manifestation of the one absolute divine reality.

So in everything, he sees the one absolute.

That’s what Swami Sivananda is asking for all of us in the universal prayer: let us behold in all these forms, let us serve in all these forms.

Every day the yogi is interacting. He is interacting with the realization that everything, everywhere, everyone is a manifestation of that Absolute Divine, and he tries to serve it, to honor it, to respect it.

But this is done without attachment.

What is the attachment? The attachment is that our twisted vision, because of ignorance, because of impurities, makes us see in every object a source of my pleasure.

And I try to engage with the object in a way that will allow me to extract pleasure.

This kind of attachment to objects, to situations, to places, to status, for the sake of extracting pleasure — this is relinquished.

So no attachment to sense objects or to actions.

Some actions seem to be more rewarding. Like if I will be leading the Gita Parayana and if I will be teaching, people will respect me more.

So all these kinds of cunningness in the mind of thinking, “How can I get more from this?” — all this is gone.

Everything becomes only for the purpose of serving the Divine.

Now let’s see what Swami Sivananda says.

First of all, Swami Sivananda is taking one word here in the verse which is called Yoga Rudha — he who is enthroned or established in yoga.

When a yogi, by keeping the mind quite steady, by withdrawing it from the objects of the senses, has attachment neither for sense objects such as sound, nor for actions, knowing that they are of no use for him, when he has renounced all thoughts, which generate various sorts of desires for the objects of the world and of the next, then he is said to have become a Yoga Rudha.

So in chapter two also, Krishna is explaining about the yogi who has steady wisdom and is established in the state of samadhi.

When Arjuna asked him how such a person acts, performs, speaks, or sits, Krishna explained the process of falling.

He said it starts with a thought. When a man entertains thoughts in his mind, attachment to the thoughts arises.

From entertaining thoughts come fantasies — about a smoothie, about going to the Bahamas, about going shopping.

From that, attachment arises because there is an expectation to enjoy. There is a pleasure of expectation. The brain releases something — there is a taste, a pleasure.

From that pleasure, attachment builds up.

Then from attachment comes desire: “I must have it.”

And from desire comes anger.

Up to this point it was all pleasure — thought, fantasy, attachment, desire. But then it flips.

When there is obstruction, agitation begins — frustration, anger, hatred.

One can hate the weather, other people, God, or oneself. And from that, it becomes a downward spiral until destruction.

So the yogi knows this.

Even at the level of a small fantasy, he knows where it leads.

So when a thought arises, the yogi dissolves it and turns his attention back to the source — to the intelligence, to the consciousness from which the thought arises.

Do not think of sense objects. The desire will die by themselves.

Swami Sivananda says that in the beginning, thoughts will try to attack you. They will try to demand your attention: “Give me your attention.”

But your attention is their food.

If you do not feed them, they will die.

In the beginning they will attack you, but if you remain steady, they will disappear. The desire will die by itself.

How can you free yourself from thinking of objects? Think of God or the Self.

Renunciation of thoughts implies that all desires and all actions should be renounced, because all desires are born of thoughts.

So first comes thought, then attachment, then desire.

For a worldly person, he invites thoughts, fantasies, desires, passions as something that enlivens him.

But for the yogi, the fuel changes.

His fuel is not desire. His fuel is devotion. His fuel is mantra. His fuel is becoming a channel for the Divine.

For him, desire becomes an obstruction.

Swami Sivananda gives a prayer from the Mahabharata:

“All desires, I know where thy root lies. Thou art born from thought. I will not think of thee and thou shalt cease to exist along with thy root.”

So everything begins with thought.

The yogi is like a gardener. He waters only the plants he wants to grow — the flowers of bhakti, of virtues, of higher tendencies.

All lower desires are uprooted like weeds.

And then the yogi lives in a beautiful garden.

Others live in a jungle of desires.