Sage's Actions - Non-Binding

Sri Tandavaraya Swami

Disciple: 

Lord, hear me! Can the wise also say like the ignorant, 'I did, I saw, I ate and I went'? You say that they are free from wrong knowledge. Can realization of Brahman, which is real, admit of such expression? Please enlighten me on this point.

Master: 

A person who wakes up from a dream speaks of his experiences in the dream. In the same way, the Self-realized sage though using the language of the ignorant is not bound as the go. A man who commits himself to the flames on the eve of his becoming an immortal god is spoken of only as a man, until his body is reduced to ashes. So also, the ego-free sage appears to function like others until he is disembodied.

Disciple: 

If so, O Master! though the objects are unreal, would not the transactions cause misery? Can they bestow the bliss of knowledge? It can be felt only in their absence. Is it not necessary to be one pointed? And if the person practices it, can he be said to have finished his task?

Master: 

Self-realized son! Activities end when prarabdha ends. Is not practice of samadhi or worldly work an activity of the mind? Being one with the transcendent Self, can he do anything different from It? Should he be practicing samadhi he cannot be said to be established in the Self.

Disciple: 

Master Supreme! How is it then that some of theose who are established in the Self, and have nothing more to do, practise mind-restraining meditations?

Master: 

I have already told you that the sages, liberated while alive, appear to be active in many ways according to their prarabdha. The activities of the sage are solely for the uplift of the world. He does not stand to lose or gain anything. The Almighty who is only the store of grace for the world, is not affected by the merit or demerit of the creation etc.

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From Srimad Bhagavad Gita (Karma Yoga)

In all the three worlds there is nothing, O son of Prtha, that is binding on Me as duty. Neither is there anything that I have to gain, nor anything that I cannot gain. Still I am always engaged in work. 

Just as ignorant men do action out of attachment, so let enlightened ones perform the same unattached, with the good of the world in view.