174. Nimitta-maatra is not Inaction.
A rjuna sees that all the warriors are getting crushed by the teeth of Krishna’s Vishwaroop . Krishna says that warriors have been 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 Arjuna to leave the battle even though Arjuna’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 Arjuna 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 mental burden and perform the karma (action) in hand as an instrument of Paramatma . This active acceptance is the best way to reduce our ahankaar and never-ending stresses of day-to-day life. For example, an electric wire conducts...