Nishkam karma, desireless action

"You are qualified simply with regard to action, never with regard to its results. You must be neither motivated by the results of action nor attached to inaction."

Bhagavad Gita II, 47

Arjuna and Krishna, his charioteer

Among the problems of Hindu philosophical thought that the rejection of the world and the tendency to inaction is very attractive.

We know that the world we live in is nothing but maya, illusion. Indeed, it is the manifestation of Brahman, the Supreme Being, and that conceals the Brahman.

The nine doors of man are all facing outwards, to this false reality and the senses and the passions of the man turn away from true reality, which is Brahman, which can only be achieved by 'looking' within us and not outside.

It would therefore seem coherent with this view favor inaction over action, asceticism compared to living in the real world.

It is the same dilemma of Arjuna, the Pandava hero of the Mahabharata, when he must begin to fight, but he sees the opposing side cousins, uncles, friends, teachers and tried to retreat, not to act in fact.

Krishna explains to the hero because the action is preferable to inaction.

It is the Bhagavad Gita - text of mediation and synthesis of the various Hindu schools of thought - who theorizes the concept of nishkam karma or naishkarmykarma, detached action, action which is not based on the desire, the fulfillment of duty for duty, the action done without thought of recompense, the action free from any individual impulse.

Live in the world but not be of the world, act, but in a spirit of inner renunciation of the world.