It’s time for a pilgrimage, O seeker,
Arise!
Not to go to places afar,
but where the true Self lies.
This pilgrimage within, where awareness makes you realise,
I am not the body, the mind, nor the ties.
I act, yet the doer begins to grow thin,
And service flows freely when silence flows in.
When anger or longing arise deep within,
I know - this appears in me,
but I’m way more than what is felt and seen.
From bondage to witness, from ego to space,
The inner pilgrimage changing the outer ways,
O seeker, arise
To be where your true self lies.
— Inspired from Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 5, Verses 25 and 26 (Karma Sanyasa Yoga)
The Morning Spark
Starting the day with the Bhagavad Gita feels like a feat in itself.
The mind, so used to rushing outward, resists the inward gaze. It would rather scroll, plan, analyze, or replay yesterday. Sitting quietly with the verses demands a different muscle altogether - the muscle of attention – of being present.
As I attend the daily sessions and sit with the verses, something stirs.
A spark rekindles itself - quiet, insistent, alive.
This spark brings me the inkling, an instant warmth of the fire within. It feels like remembering something I always knew but had forgotten in the noise of living.
And I know - this spark, if honored daily, will lead me somewhere deeper than understanding. It will lead me to purpose. It will lead me back home - the inner space that has been calling silently, patiently, without complaint.
What Stayed With Me Today
As I was ruminating on today’s verses (5.25 and 5.26), one truth stayed with me and refused to leave:
We are far more than what we feel and far more than what we appear to be.
This is not an intellectual statement. It is a deep knowing within; with this realisation or even a brief glimpse of this truth, makes you feel like a weight has been lifted off the back. Suddenly there is breathing space.
Wow. I am not everything I think.
I am not my thoughts.
My thoughts are tools - powerful ones - that shape my experiences, but they are not me.
A thought that stirs me - no, shakes me to the core - is this: we have around 60,000 to 70,000 thoughts in a single day.
What if we truly learned to use these thoughts consciously?
Thoughts are not the enemy.
Unconscious identification with them is.
If the mind is a river, most of us are either drowning in it or being carried away without choice, mistaking movement for direction.
But Krishna’s words awakened something dormant within me.
What if thoughts could be harnessed, the way a dam harnesses a raging river?
The same flow that once destroyed banks and flooded villages can illuminate cities, power homes, and bring life - if awareness stands at the center.
When Thoughts Become Identity
Most often, our thoughts decide our emotional weather.
A thought arises - happiness blooms.
Another thought arises - sadness descends.
And slowly, without realizing it, we stop saying:
“I am having a thought.”
We begin to say - silently, unconsciously:
“This thought is me.”
This is where bondage begins.
Krishna does not ask us to kill thoughts, suppress emotions, or deny human experience. He does not preach numbness. He does not advocate escape.
He asks us to see.
You are not the body.
You are not the mind.
You are not even the intellect that so cleverly rationalizes everything.
What relief this brings.
When this truth is felt - not merely understood - something softens inside. The grip loosens.
We no longer feel guilty for every negative thought.
Nor do we become ecstatic or inflated for every positive one.
Thoughts arise.
Thoughts pass.
And I remain.
This awareness - this watching without interference - is the true alchemy.
Awareness: The Silent Power
Verses 5.25 and 5.26 speak of those who are:
inwardly purified
self-aware
free from anger and desire
established in the Self
Such beings, Krishna says, attain liberation here itself.
Not after death.
Not in some other realm.
Not as a future reward.
Jeevan-mukt - free while living.
Free from the identification that binds.
But how?
By recognizing that anger and lust are not personal failures. They are not moral defects. They are energies that arise when the Self is forgotten.
The moment I can say, honestly and without resistance:
“This arises in me, but this is not me,”
their grip weakens.
They lose authority.
Awareness does not fight darkness.
It does not argue with it.
It dissolves it - quietly, effortlessly.
The Subtle Trap: Doership
And yet - there is a catch.
The moment the word “I” enters action,
the sense of doership quietly walks in.
“I did this.”
“I achieved that.”
“I failed.”
“I must fix everything.”
This single assumption is enough to topple the most beautifully built inner castle.
Krishna’s wisdom here is precise and compassionate:
Action is not bondage.
The idea that ‘I am the doer’ is.
When doership thins, something miraculous happens.
Service flows.
Not as obligation.
Not as sacrifice.
Not as moral superiority.
But as a natural expression - like fragrance from a flower that does not announce itself, yet fills the air.
Karma Sanyasa: What Is Truly Renounced?
Karma Sanyasa is often misunderstood as withdrawal, detachment from life, or inaction.
One does not renounce action.
One renounces ownership of action.
I act -
but I do not claim authorship.
I move -
but I know the force moving through me is greater than my personality, greater than my limited sense of self.
This is not passivity.
This is deep alignment.
Action then becomes clean.
Effort remains.
Anxiety dissolves.
Work continues, but the weight is gone.
The Relief of Surrender
Letting go of doership brings immense relief.
Life no longer feels like a personal burden to be carried alone on tired shoulders. There is a quiet trust that something larger is orchestrating even what I cannot comprehend.
This does not make one careless.
It makes one available.
Available to act without fear.
Available to serve without exhaustion.
Available to surrender outcomes without collapse.
The more I reflect on these verses, the more I feel called to deepen this surrender—not as a concept, not as philosophy, but as a lived reality.
Perhaps this is the real pilgrimage that Krishna wants us to take.
Not one that takes us away from life,
but one that allows life to flow through us -
making us become one of Krishna’s presence within.