Renouncing Activities

Sri Ramana Maharshi

All the activities that the body is to go through are determined when it first comes into existence. It does not rest with you to accept or reject them. The only freedom you have is to turn your mind inward and renounce activities there. Nobody can say why that freedom alone and no other freedom is left to man. That is the Divine scheme.

Giving up activities means giving up attachment to activities or the fruits thereof, giving up the notion 'I am the doer'. The activities which this body is destined to perform will have to be gone through. There is no question of giving up such activities, whether one likes it or not.

If one remains fixed in the Self, the activities will still go on and their success will not be affected. One should not have the idea that one is the doer. The activities will still go on. That force, by whatever name you call it, which brought the body into existence will see to it that the activities which this body is meant to go through are brought about.