[Advaita-l] Are actions essentially meaningless?

[Rajaram Venkataramani]

> The Lord in the Bh.Gita 3rd chapter says: not a single moment does man
> remain without acting.  His nature compels him to engage in action.
>
> The shAstra points out the goal as 'naishkarmyam', the nature of
> 'no-action'.  With a view to realize that nature of ourselves the method
> the shAstra prescribes is 'right action'.  Just like a thorn is removed by
> another so too action is sublimated by action.  It is only when the 'I am
> the doer' bhAva goes that we are in naishkarmyam.  When this bhAva is
> accomplished, any amount of action will not bind the person.
>

RV: Every action is preceded by a desire and decision, implicit or
explicit. The desire comes out of past karma vasana due to a memory of what
is desirable and not. But the decision is made based on what sastras (or
conscience) say even when we over-ride the injunction impelled by the power
of desire. I, the person who decides, can have an intellectual
understanding that it is only the prakrti that acts. But this sankalpa - I
shall do this and I shall not do this - is inevitable. How can I possibly
think that I am not the doer when I decide to do or not? Even a jivan mukta
does not feel the pain and plesures (prarabda) of some other body and even
he has to decide between different courses of action possible in any
situation.