Inaction in action

Q: This division of consciousness into two, one feeling fundamentally free and the other imperfect or impure is a very common experience.

It is not only common, it is the ordinary experience and in order that one may be able to act without ambition one should be able to take action lightly. That is to say, one should not be perturbed if it is done or not done. It is something like the Gita’s “inaction in action” and yet one must act, as the Gita says.

The test is that even if the work taken away or destroyed it must make no difference to the condition of consciousness.

– Sri Aurobindo