Our belief that we are doing things is so compelling that it's hard to think, as the wise are said to do: "I do nothing at all." So here are some musing around the idea of non-doership to shake the grip of this confining notion.

1. We need to start with understanding the relationship between the Supreme Reality and the creation: for this the metaphor of water/wave is useful. Water in its natural state is still. The question then is: where does the wave come from? Does water form the wave? No. Water stays as water and never changes its nature to become a wave. So where does the wave come from? Its source is the stillness of water which, when disturbed, rises to form waves. Waves resolve back into stillness. Stillness can be said to be the unmanifest form of wave. Wave is the differentiated and manifest form of stillness. Both, stillness and wave are totally dependent on water as the basis of its existence. Water is Brahman, the Supreme Reality, that is never disturbed or changed. Stillness is Brahman's unmanifest and undifferentiated potential for manifestation, called mAyA. And waves are the manifest and differentiated world of names and forms, the universe of objects available for sense and thought perception.

2. This universal triad – Brahman, mAya, cosmos – is the macrocosm which is paralleled at the microcosmic level of the individual as the triad of Atman, causal world, and mind-body sense complex. So the individual's mind-body-sense complex is the 'wave' that has arisen out of the causal world and is as good as non-existent without existence-consciousness Atman, the name given to Reality at the individual level.

3. With this understood, it becomes easy to see that the very truth of the individual, the pure-existence-consciousness Atman, never gets involved in activity because if it did it would change, but the ultimate truth never changes. Also, all activity is triggered by desire or need, and Atman, being limitlessness itself, is without desires or needs. Desire, need, sense of limitation resides in the body-mind-sense complex and, thus, this is where the notion of doership is located. So as long as the identity is limited to the mithyA mind-body-sense complex, one believes one is the doer. But when the truth of the self is known, all sense of doership vanishes.

4. So what gives us the sense of doership? It is the active principle, called rajas, of three qualities of nature called the gunas. All activity is the interplay of the gunas backed by pure existence-consciousness, and all the material cosmos is also made up of a mix of these very same gunas. When the wise person says, "I do nothing at all", the 'I' referred to is Atman. But when one says: "I am not the doer", this is NOT strictly accurate as the 'I' in this statement is Atman 'together with' the body-mind-sense complex. So by saying, "I am not the doer" one is throwing out the baby (Atman) with the bathwater (body-mind-sense complex).

These are the building blocks upon which to build an explanation that clears up any misunderstanding about doership. 

One of the least understood concepts in Vedanta is karma yoga, the very cornerstones of the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita. It is the first important direction given by Krishna to the warrior prince Arjuna. It is the way of taking any ordinary activity and raising it to the status of the sacred. Even one’s day-to-day work, the work one does to pay the mortgage or keep the home, can become a yoga. Before seeing how, we need to remove any misunderstanding about what Vedanta means by karma yoga.

Karma is action, activity. It can be at any one of three levels: mental, oral or physical.  Mental activity includes anything that goes on in mind without the involvement of speech or limbs. Oral activity is all activity that involves the tongue, and physical activity is everything else we do involving hands, feet, and the organs of excretion and generation. Every type of activity thus falls under three categories: thought, word and deed.

The term yoga, from the Sanskrit root yuj ‘to join’, covers a wide range of meanings, one of which means ‘to prepare’. In Vedanta, yoga gets a special meaning: anything that makes the mind fit to receive and retain knowledge of the truth is yoga.  Any activity, if performed with a certain mindset, can be converted into a yoga. Without this mindset it stays ordinary karma.

Karma yoga thus means any thought, word or deed that ‘prepares the mind’. Before launching into what sort of action this involves, we should be clear about what is meant by a ‘prepared mind’.  And what is the mind being prepared for?

Vedanta reduces the whole spectrum of psychological drivers of action to two: attraction and aversion. We do things because we are attracted to the outcomes we expect from doing them and we avoid those whose outcomes are likely to make us unhappy. Nothing wrong with this as long as there isn’t a conflict between what needs to be done in a particular situation and our feeling about the required action. If, for example, the urgent requirement to file our tax returns clashes with our loathing for the task, it is unlikely that we would do the needful in a timely manner.

A mind ruled by love and loathing is a mind at war with itself: knowing what’s needed and yet following something else. Such a mind is not a fertile ground in which to plant the seed of knowledge. The Gita underlines the effect of such a mind by placing its sacred teaching on a literal battlefield. The noble warrior Arjuna, when faced with the choice of doing his bounden duty to protect the kingdom was prepared to give it all up out of attachment to family and friends. Krishna acknowledges that this is fine and noble, but then advises him to prepare his mind through karma yoga to see the truth of the situation, to see the biggest picture – this message keeps resurfacing throughout the Gita.

We all know, however, how multitudinous and strong attachments and desires can be, and how difficult it can be to rise above them. So what backs these mental states? What really does drive behaviours? This understanding is a vital key and will help free us from the grip of emotional entanglements and allow our actions to become sacred.

On the surface, it appears as though the desire for security and pleasure is what drives our actions. We want the security that comes from good jobs, nice homes, loyal friends, healthy bank accounts, sharp minds, peer respect, strong families, healthy bodies, name, fame, reputation. We also want to eat delicious food, listen to uplifting music, enjoy exotic holidays, indulge in sexual adventures, go to the movies, enjoy the company of friends, read uplifting books, have esoteric experiences, watch beautiful sunsets, in short we delight in sensual, intellectual and aesthetic pleasures…

Some might insist that they are not blindly driven by these, but that their activities are also governed by a code of values. Scratch below the surface, however, and we might find that they too derive their security or pleasure from the belief that they are righteous or from their reputation for goodness. Or, if religious, a place in heaven.

Yet, underpinning the search for security, pleasure and righteousness, is our desire to be free from the feeling of smallness and unhappiness centred on ‘I’. We want to be free from the sense that something is missing. The Sanskrit word for this freedom is moksha, the desire for happiness without limit, everywhere, with everyone, at all times. This is the choiceless aim behind every human endeavour and our restlessness won’t end until it is satisfied.

Once our understanding of this true goal is unshakably clear we can start to examine the life to assess which of our activities can deliver the desired level of happiness. The answer is: None! We question the very nature of our insecurity: Are we really small, unhappy people by nature? No, is the answer of Vedanta, we mistakenly think so because, by taking ourselves to be just the limited body-mind complex we miss our true nature. There’s more to us: we’ve all had fleeting glimpses of freedom from the sense of smallness. Everything is perfect in that glimpses of freedom. I cease being a wanting, driven person, Everything is good and fine. I am good, fine, innocent, natural. I want for nothing. I am who I really am: limitlessness itself.

This is a taste of moksha, limitless happiness everywhere, with everyone, at all times.

This understanding is the first key to unlocking the sacred in action: without it we continue to be driven by security and pleasures and thus have minds distracted by attachment and desire. A person is ready to embrace a karma yoga lifestyle once they become unshakable in their aim of re-discovering their true and substantial identity.

The karma yoga lifestyle has three aspects: first, it does not compromise on universal values (do unto others as you would have them do unto you); secondly, every activity is offered up to the Lord; and thirdly, the results of action – pleasant or otherwise – are accepted as god given.

We become instruments of the Lord – not the white-bearded man in the sky, but the Lord as the totality of universal law and order. Nothing is outside the law, nothing is outside the Lord. Acknowledging this, one naturally acts appropriately. What now drives action is meeting the need in front, without losing sight of the fact that our ultimate aim is self-knowledge.

An intelligent doer recognise that in addition to reliance on worldly things for happiness and peace, there is the unknown factor, the Lord. To invoke the grace of the Lord, activity is preceded by prayer: “O Lord, you have blessed me with will-power and a knowledge of values, but I am still anxious about the fruit of action. Please free me from anxiety. Bless me with the strength of will to do only the right and avoid the wrong.” In this way actions become governed by dharma, lawfulness, duty, righteousness, values.

In the Gita, Krishna advises Arjuna to perform his own duty without being obsessed with the results. He points out a fact that can be easily observed by everyone: we only have control over how we act and never over the results. Results may be more than we anticipated, less than we anticipated or very different from what we anticipated. Very rarely do we get exactly what we aim for. By acknowledging this we develop an attitude of equanimity that transforms the way we act.

An intelligent enjoyer also prays: “O Lord, my future is not only determined by my own actions: I have no say over my future. In keeping with my own contribution, the results of actions are determined by you in your aspect of natural universal law and order. Bless me with the strength to remain equanimous in all situations.”

We offer each activity to the Supreme, give attention to the work and accept with equanimity whatever results. This makes action sacred.

Religious worship may well deliver heaven, but will not bring about a pure mind. Good works may gain us some merit and grace, but not a prepared mind. Yoga practices might deliver bodily fitness and mental steadiness, but will not necessarily free us from the pulls of desire and attachment. But, by never losing sight of self-knowledge as our ultimate aim, we can convert all of these into yoga, making them sacred, thus preparing the mind for enlightenment.

Evenness of mind and discretion in action are the outcome of living a karma yoga lifestyle, the master key to transforming mundane activity. From doing the washing up, to delivering a speech, from being a home-maker to being a factory worker, every single action can become focused, measured and dharmic, if performed in order to discover one’s own highest self. This is when the spiritual journey begins.