Acharya Prashant: In ‘Karma’, in normal action you feel you have a choice. In ‘Akarma’ you feel you have no choice at all rather you are feeling that you are acting out of compulsion, obligation. You have convinced yourself that this is something that I have no control over. So, you do not even attempt to navigate your roller properly when it comes to these actions. You have just surrendered yourself to something called fate. You have said, “But this is something that necessarily happens, what do I do about it?” That is Akarma. Are you getting it?
Now even this Akarma can be of two kinds. Be very clear. First is Akarm of the physical kind, purely physical kind. Actions like breathing digestion, blinking, growth of body, discharge of bodily fluid, movements of internal organs, these are things that you really cannot have much control over. You can play tricks with your heart and alter your heart rate. You can probably go out and run and you will find that your heart rate has increased. So that much you can do but you cannot really order your heart to stop beating. Same with perspiration; you can probably control the rate of perspiration, but at no point can you reduce it to zero. Some amount of perspiration is always happening. For how long can you control the blinking of your eyes? How much control can you have over your digestive juices? So, this is Akarm of the physical kind about which not much attention, to which rather, not much attention should be paid. These things happen though occasionally it may be required to pay attention even to these things.
Then there is the more severe kind of Akarm that pertains to actions in which actually, a mental choice is available but we have convinced ourselves of our helplessness. We say, “Oh! but I have no choice, I am option less.” It is fake and artificial helplessness. Do you see the examples given here? Somebody has convinced you that such and such religious rituals are very necessary and you go on performing these rituals all your lives telling yourself that these rituals are almost like a heartbeat. These rituals are almost like lunch and breakfast. Just as one eats daily, similarly one has to do all these things daily. Are you getting it? You have convinced yourself and thereby you have given up your choice.
