One who has wet his feet and sandals on a sandy beach most likely remembers the exasperating experience of trying to rid them of sand. The less experienced are easily fooled into attempting to wash their feet against the next wave, only to find that the wave replaces any sand it removes with a fresh lot and that there’s a limit to how clean you can get through this process. Those who know, know that a much better strategy is to dry your feet in the sun, and once all the water is dried up, let the sand fall off on its own. If you try to remove the sand without first removing the water, you will continue to collect more sand as you walk on the beach. On the other hand, if your feet (and the sand) are not wet, you can walk freely without the risk of having the sand stick to them.

This example, with its gross elements, is pretty easy to understand and appreciate. However, a more subtle scenario that is similar and in fact omnipresent, is easily overlooked. Troubles, suffering, and deficiencies in our life are a result of our actions. To cleanse ourselves of these worldly impurities and attain happiness and contentment through further action is as foolish an attempt as to cleanse our feet against waves in the previous example. No matter how purifying certain actions may seem, they only replace within us, some tendencies and propensities with others. They cannot completely cleanse us of impurities as long as we are wet with attachment. If we bask in the sun of knowledge and “dry out” this attachment, not only do impurities accrued through interested actions in the past fall off, further actions will also not affect us.

If actions are the cause of suffering, are we expected to desist from actions altogether? This is neither possible, nor required. As Sri Krishna notes in the Bhagavad Gita:

नियतं कुरु कर्म त्वम् कर्मज्यायोह्यकर्मण:

शरीरयात्रापि च ते न प्रसिध्येदकर्मण:

Walking back to the car parked on the road requires walking on the sand, which cannot be completely avoided. The problem, as we observed, is not the sand, but the wetness which causes it to stick to our feet. Once the wetness is removed, the sand ceases to be a problem. Similarly, when attachment to action (and its fruits) is removed through knowledge, performing right (prescribed) action is conducive to our ultimate good. This is what the Lord further instructs:

तस्मादसक्त: सततं कार्यं कर्म समाचर

असक्तोह्याचरन् कर्म परमाप्नोति पुरुष:

This analogy can further be extended to help better understand the role of action in our development, especially in the early stages. Let’s assume our feet is covered with mud or dirt (and not sand). If we just let it dry, the dirt will still be on our feet. Now, if we expose our feet to the waves on the beach, with each wave some dirt gets replaced with sand, until no more dirt remains. Then, if we dry our feet, the sand will fall off and our feet will be clean. So the purpose of action, is to replace more persistent impurities with less persistent ones – or with those that are easier to get rid of. The more Sattvic our actions are, the weaker our Rajasic and Tamasic tendencies become. In the end, we have to get rid of Sattvic tendencies as well, and become beyond all Gunas. However, even if we cease action at a time when our Rajasic and Tamasic tendencies are strong, they might lie dormant for a while, but will sprout and take control whenever conditions are favorable to them. True knowledge, of course, destroy all seeds of latent tendencies and frees instantly; but such knowledge is rare for those who are predominantly Tamasic or Rajasic by nature. So by consistently pursuing the path of right action, we can reach the state where action may be shunned. This is explained by Bhagavan in the Gita chapter on Abhyasa Yoga:

The purpose of all action is only to bring us to such an action-less state. Those who do not realize this lose themselves in the endless cycle of Karma. On the other hand, those who renounce action without attaining the required maturity will find the hard way that their latent tendencies will eventually drag them down and chain them to the field of Karma. Knowing both these pitfalls, the wise spiritual aspirant constantly engages, without attachment or desire, in spiritual activity that purifies him and prepares him for receiving the ultimate knowledge that will eventually free him from the tangles of action.