If you go on wanting, how will you ever stop doing? — Raman Maharishi

Somebody asks Raman Maharishi, “It is an established rule that so long as there is the least idea of ‘I am the doer’, self-knowledge cannot be attained. But is it possible for an aspirant who is a householder, to discharge his duties properly without this sense?”

Sri Raman Maharishi says:

“As there is no rule that action should depend upon a sense of being the doer, it is unnecessary to doubt whether any action will take place without a doer, or an act of doing.”

“Although the officer of a government treasury may appear, in the eyes of others, to be doing his duty attentively and responsibly all day long, he will be discharging his duties without attachment, thinking ‘I have no real connection with all this money’, and without a sense of involvement in his mind. In the same manner a wise householder may also discharge without attachment the various household duties which fall to his lot according to his past karma, like a tool in the hands of another.”

“Action and knowledge are not obstacles to each other.”

Following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Questioner: Given that I am still struggling with attachments, how can I be a non-doer or practice being one. What should I do when I see myself getting perturbed as a householder, as an employee? A person who has to make decisions every moment, how do I practice being a non-doer and the method of self-enquiry, while taking those decisions?”