Art of Being - Naishkarmya Siddhi

Stages of Karma Yoga

Following are three stages of Karma Yoga.

- Doing good actions - earning good merits.
- Doing actions without expecting returns - Nishkama Karma.
- Doing actions in a state of witness consciousness - Sakshi Bhava - Naishkarmya Siddhi.

With respect to any activity there are 2 possibilities.
- Action - Doing
- Non Action - Non Doing

Doing
I plant a seed in fertile land with abundant water. This is action.

Non Doing
Beyond that point it is non action. Come what may. I will never be able to make the tree grow faster. I can just watch . This is non action. Many times action taken when non action is required can be dangerous and harmful. For example, catterpillar becoming butterfly. By breaking the cocoon early to help caterpillar, caterpillar will get killed.

Actions in Sakshi Bhava - Witness Consciousness
One can be sakshi while doing action or while doing or non doing. Such an attitude will ensure that he is not affected by the result, nor emotionaly disturbed. This is called Naishkarmya siddhi.

The cycle of action reaction is difficult to break. Every action leaves psychological imprint called karma phala. This leads to chain of births and deaths. But for a non doer in witness consciousness state, there is no accumulation of karma phala. There is no birth no death. He is in state of being. Being is existance itself. For such a yogi, fear of death will disappear. This is the state of abhaya - fearlessness. For him doing is just a happening since he is the witness of action of his body- mind complex. This is Naishkarmya sidhhi. It is equivalent to Samadhi in Karmayoga.