Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 14. ACTION, INACTION AND NON-ACTION
understand what non-action is we will begin to live in inaction. Then inaction will be at the center sf
our being and action at its periphery.
Inaction is foundational to Krishna’s devotion or upasana or whatever you wish to call it. You don’t
have to do a thing; you have only to allow that which is happening. You have to die to your doer, to
your ego.
And the moment the doer disappears, remembering happens. This doer is the steel wall that
separates you from your authentic being and makes you forget it. As long as this wall remains
you cannot know who you are. Chanting Rama’s name or repeating the mantra ”I am God” will
not help, because it is the doer in you who chants and repeats the name, the mantra. As long as
you exist as an ego, you can do what you will, nothing will happen. So let the doer go, let the ego
disappear. But how will the doer go?
Just try to understand what non-action is. Continue to act, but try to understand what non action is.
Continue to do what you do, and try to understand life. The very understanding of life and its ways
will tell you nothing is in your hands. Neither you decide to be born nor do you decide to die. Neither
you breathe of your own volition, nor you have a hand in the circulation of your blood through the
body. You were not consulted before your birth nor will you be consulted when your time arrives to
depart from this world. Do you have a say in when you grow from childhood to youth to old age?
Existence was very much here when you were not, and it will continue to be here after you will be
gone. You will make no difference whatsoever so far as existence is concerned. Stars will continue
to shine as brightly as ever. Flowers will bloom as they have always bloomed. Streams will continue
to flow and birds continue to sing. We are like lines drawn on the surface of the water: no sooner
they are drawn than they disappear. Then why carry this utterly unnecessary burden of ”I” on our
heads and suffer endlessly? If the whole of existence can go without me, why cannot I go without
me?
To understand the deeper meaning of non action is wisdom. To understand non-action is to
understand everything. And then every action be comes inaction, then you do without being a doer,
then you act through inaction. Non-action is the gate to wisdom; it is alchemical. Passing through
ordinary action, if one encounters non-action with understanding, he will soon come upon inaction,
which in its turn leads to remembering. Remembering happens only in inaction. Remembering
that comes with effort is false; it is another form of action. Remembering that comes on its own,
effortlessly, is real; it comes straight from the cosmos. That is why we say that the Vedas are divine
revelations. Whenever something comes from the beyond – whoever may be its medium – it is divine
revelation. The Bible is as much divine knowledge as the Vedas are. That is why Jesus says again
and again that his father in heaven speaks through him. And Krishna says, ”I am not, only God is; I
am God. And it is I who am making the Mahabharat happen; it is all my play.”
Krishna says to Arjuna, ”You need not be afraid of killing, because all those you are going to kill have
already been killed by me. They are already dead, you have only to give them the news of it through
your arrows. And what I am saying is not my words, they are coming straight from the cosmos, from
the beyond. From the depths of the beyond comes this information that what you see as life before
you is only an appearance, it has already become extinct, it is no more alive. It is just a matter of
moments when those standing across the battle lines will be dead. You are only an instrument in
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 265 Osho