174. Nimitta-maatra is not Inaction.

Arjun sees that all the warriors are getting crushed by the teeth of Krishna's Vishwaroopam. Krishna says that warriors are killed by ME and you are merely nimitta-maatra (an instrument) (11.33) and hence fight without feeling distressed (11.34). 

Incidentally, Krishna didn't ask Arjun to leave battle even though Arjun's enemies are already killed by HIM. Instead, HE tells him to fight without stress. The clear indication is that nimitta-maatra doesn't mean inaction. Inaction is another suppression that builds internal stress. Even if Arjun leaves the battle physically, the war wouldn't have stopped and instead, he would have carried the burden of war mentally wherever he went. On the other hand, Krishna indicates to drop the burden mentally and perform the karma (action) in hand as an instrument of Paramatma. This active acceptance is the best way to reduce our never ending stresses of day to day life.

For example, an electric wire conducts electricity to energise a bulb which gives light. The wire has two ways of thinking. One is that it gets filled with ahankaar as it is energising the bulb. Secondly, it can also think that it's just a nimitta-maatra where electricity is generated by a turbine and the bulb is the one which is giving light. It is a fact that when there is a voltage difference, the wire doesn't have any option except to let electricity flow. Similarly, gunas, like voltage difference, are responsible for our actions, and the recognition that gunas are real kartha (doer) is being nimitta-maatra. 

Instead of realising our status as nimitta-maatra, our usual tendency is to make Paramatma a nimitta-maatra or an instrument that works for us to fulfill our desires. The key is to trust that we are one of the billions of instruments of this mighty existence.

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