April 6th, 2009 
Aman NA HI KASCHIT KSHANAMAPI JAATU TISHTHATYAKARMAKRIT;
KAARYATE HYAVASAH KARMA SARVAH PRAKRITIJAIR GUNIAH.
(no one can stay without action even for a single moment.
The Gunas born of Prakriti impel a person to be constantly engaged knowing or without.)
How can life be without karma (action and its ensuing fruits)? An easy breath and a moment of respite can’t come without hard work and sweat. All are compelled to perform karma by the gunas generated, and thus rest in prakriti.
The Gita’s central philosophy resonates at many places with the samkhya, which in its initial stages was very assertive about the fundamental dichotomy between purusha consciousness, which is pure, undaunted and supra personal and the immovable matter called prakriti.
All the three Gunas-satwa, tamas and rajas are present in prakriti only, purusha is the pure observer. This is the reason why Sri Krishna explains that he is beyond the three gunas. Somewhere else he points out that all movements within maya-the cosmic veil of ignorance-are the interplay between these gunas. When an individual is laying sloth or in procrastination, he befools himself by thinking that he is in inaction because even breathing is an action. Not doing anything is also doing something.
According to Bhagavad Gita, action is of three kinds-karma, akarma and vikarma. Karma is the right action, which gradually gets us riddance of the bondage of the three gunas. Akarma is apparent inaction-we think that we are not doing anything but in reality we fall short of doing that what is required. The case is similar to that of Arjuna’s when he is contemplating whether to fight or not.
Vikarma is the opposite-action done against what is required. In the immediate preceding s/oka Sri Krishna says inaction (not even wrong action) leads us nowhere. It does not ensure our liberation from the effects of our karma and the tyranny of the gunas. The gunas are bigger than our individual ego; therefore, they make us dance on their tunes and get us enmeshed even more. But if we resolve to take the right steps following our conscience and the path of duty then, they yield our inner worlds to us, fathoming which we come to the shores of pure consciousness and reach our true nature where we can see the gunas work from outside-playing and dancing.
Man means to discern- to take a course. And when there is a course, there is a path: a sequence and finally a vehicle. Mantra means thought, the Anahat sabda. The one that invokes a positive state of ind in the other. And when it is adjoined with the suffice Ach, it becomes mantrah, the vehicle which takes sound ( undivided sound that is ) to higher and deeper realms where matter is yet to settle down in a manifested form and where energy is a sheer possibility, where it has not restricted itself to fall into any warp created by gravity, time and space.
According to Shastras, there are four levels of communication: Vaikhari, Madhyama, Pashyati, Para and their corresponding state of consciousness. One simple interpretation can be that when concentration is in these stages, our perception and interactions also vary accordingly. So when we are in Vaikhar, we depend upon the sound generated in our vocal chord and observed by the ear to receive or convey information.
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