Chapter 4 - Verse 22

He who is satisfied with whatever he may obtain by chance, without his effort or request, who his not affected in mind by the attack of such pairs of opposite (dvandva) as heat and cold, who cherishes no feelings of envy and jealousy, who is calm whether he obtains or not such things as might come to him without effort,—such a devotee, feeling no pleasure or pain whether he obtains or not food and other things required for the maintenance of the body, seeing action in inaction and vice versa, ever steady in his knowledge of the true nature of the Self, always disowning agency—“I do nothing at all, energies act upon energies,”—in all acts of the body, etc., while begging or doing anything else for the bare existence of the body,—thus realizing the non-agency of the Self, he really does no act at all, not even the act of begging. But as he appears to act like the generality of mankind, agency is imputed to him by people, and so far he is the agent in the act of begging and the like. From his own point of view, however, as based on the teaching of the scriptures which are the source of right knowledge, he is no agent at all. Thus, though he performs the act of begging and the like required for the bare existence of the body, and though with reference to these acts agency is imputed to him by others, he is not bound, since action and its cause, which are the source of bondage, have been burnt in the fire of wisdom. This is only a reiteration of what has been already said (iv. 19, 21).

The sage’s worldly action does not bind him.

It has been shown in iv. 20 that that man does no action who, having started in life with action, has since realized the actionless Self as one with Brahman and has seen the non-existence of the agent, action and results, but who, though competent to renounce action, yet, on account of something preventing him from doing so, has continued in action as before. Of him who, as thus shown, does no action, the Lord says :