Day 160 | Geeta, decoded: Even Those Who Sought Liberation Continued to Act
We sometimes imagine that spiritual growth requires us to gradually withdraw from the world. That becoming wiser means becoming less involved, that seeking liberation means stepping away from responsibilities, ambitions and the demands of everyday life.
But the Geeta presents a more complicated relationship between spiritual freedom and action.
In the previous verse, Krishna explained that His actions do not bind Him because He has no longing for their fruits. Now, in verse 4.15, He turns to the example of those who sought liberation in ancient times.
They too performed action.
And Krishna asks Arjuna to do the same.
The Verse
एवं ज्ञात्वा कृतं कर्म
पूर्वैरपि मुमुक्षुभिः ।
कुरु कर्मैव तस्मात्त्वं
पूर्वैः पूर्वतरं कृतम् ॥
Simple translation:
“Knowing this, even those who sought liberation in ancient times performed action. Therefore, you too should perform action, following the example of those who came before.”
The Core Idea: Liberation Does Not Necessarily Require Withdrawal
The word mुमुक्षुभिः (mumukṣubhiḥ) is particularly important here. It refers to those who seek liberation, those who desire freedom from the cycle of birth and death.
Krishna is not describing people who are merely pursuing worldly success or fulfilling everyday obligations without reflection. He is referring to people whose aim was liberation itself.
And yet, they performed action.
The phrase evaṃ jñātvā means “having understood this” or “knowing thus”. It connects this verse directly to the previous one, where Krishna explained that He is not bound by action because He has no desire for its fruits.
The implication is that these earlier seekers understood something about the relationship between action, desire and bondage, and continued to act with that knowledge.
This challenges the assumption that spiritual progress must always involve withdrawing from activity.
The question is not simply whether we act or refrain from acting. It is whether our understanding of action has changed.
Why Does Krishna Refer to Those Who Came Before?
Krishna invokes the example of earlier seekers to strengthen His instruction to Arjuna.
Arjuna is struggling with whether he should participate in the war. His emotional response is pulling him toward withdrawal from the battlefield. Krishna, however, is asking him to understand his responsibility through the larger framework of Dharma and Karma Yoga.
The earlier seekers offer a precedent: pursuing liberation and performing one’s prescribed duties are not necessarily contradictory.
But there is an important distinction here. Krishna is not asking Arjuna to imitate everything that people in the past happened to do, simply because it is old or traditional.
The emphasis is on the understanding with which those seekers acted.
Their example matters because they performed action while pursuing liberation, not because age or tradition automatically makes an action right.
What Do the Traditional Commentaries Say?
This verse has some interesting interpretive nuances across Vedanta traditions.
Shankaracharya’s Advaita interpretation
Shankaracharya explains that even ancient seekers of liberation performed action after understanding that the Self is not the ultimate agent and has no desire for the fruits of action.
He further distinguishes between two situations.
For someone who has not yet attained Self-knowledge, action can serve as a means of purifying the mind.
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For someone who has attained Self-knowledge, action may continue for loka-saṅgraha, the welfare and maintenance of the world, helping prevent others from going astray.
This is an important point: even the person established in knowledge need not withdraw from all activity.
Ramanujacharya’s Vishishtadvaita interpretation
Ramanujacharya reads the verse through the understanding of Krishna’s divine nature established in the preceding verses.
He explains that earlier seekers, including figures such as Vivasvan and Manu, performed the kind of action Krishna had taught them. Having been purified through knowledge of Him, they continued to perform their duties.
For Ramanuja, this is part of the path of Karma Yoga. Action performed with the right understanding and orientation toward God becomes part of spiritual discipline rather than something that necessarily produces further bondage.
The two interpretations have different philosophical foundations, but both resist the assumption that the pursuit of liberation automatically requires abandoning action.
A Contemporary Reflection
We often create a false division between being spiritual and being actively engaged in life.
We imagine that one must choose between inner growth and professional ambition, between pursuing meaning and fulfilling responsibilities, or between seeking peace and participating in the world.
But perhaps the more useful question is not how much of the world we can withdraw from. It is how we participate in it.
Can we work without making professional recognition the foundation of our self-worth?
Can we take responsibility without becoming consumed by the need to control every outcome?
Can we contribute to something larger than ourselves without expecting every action to bring us personal reward?
These are contemporary applications of the verse, not its literal subject. Krishna is specifically referring to earlier seekers of liberation who continued to perform action after understanding His nature.
Yet the broader reflection remains valuable: spiritual understanding need not be measured solely by how far we distance ourselves from ordinary responsibilities.
Sometimes, the real test is how differently we approach the responsibilities that remain.
A Practice for Today
Think about one responsibility you have been tempted to avoid because it feels difficult, demanding or emotionally uncomfortable.
Ask yourself:
- Am I stepping away because this action is genuinely wrong, or because I find its consequences uncomfortable?
- Am I confusing detachment with withdrawal?
- Can I fulfil this responsibility without allowing personal expectations to dictate my entire experience of it?
Remember, this does not mean every obligation must be accepted or every conflict must be pursued. Discernment about what is right to do remains essential.
The invitation is to examine whether avoidance is being mistaken for spiritual freedom.
The Lesson for Today
Krishna reminds Arjuna that even those who sought liberation in ancient times continued to perform action, having understood the nature of divine action and freedom from attachment.
He does not present spiritual growth as a simple escape from the world. Instead, He points toward a way of engaging with action that does not make its fruits the centre of one’s existence.
One-line takeaway: Spiritual growth is not always about doing less; sometimes it is about understanding why and how you act.
Day 160 of reading the Bhagavad Geeta slowly, one verse at a time.
Tomorrow: Krishna introduces one of the most intriguing questions in the entire Geeta: What is action, what is inaction, and why are even the wise sometimes confused about the difference?
