Ashtavakra Gita 18.25 -

Spiritual knowledge is not to obstruct or deter activity or active life. Any extent of restatement in this behalf will not be excess. Our body is an outcome of food. Of the five sheaths the human personality has, body is the anna-maya-kosha – the sheath made of food. As long as one takes food, it is bound to nourish the body and, in turn, produce energy, to be utilized for activities. This is a cycle which nature preserves for the sustenance of all life forms. Under any circumstances, you cannot disregard or flout it.

As long as the Knower is embodied, he has to conform to this cycle, as Krishna emphasizes in Gita (3.16 ). Hence, he will be doing some kind of activity or another; but it cannot reach and involve the Self, which is pure Consciousness. While he is active like others, he carries the realization that at his core level, no action or movement ever occurs. Spiritual wisdom is actually to live and move in the world without any load, tension or binding. It is no means for idleness or escaping from activity.

Imagine how Arjuna wanted to retreat from the war after having come to the battlefield with full readiness. Krishna by enlightening him ensured that he acted as he had resolved. Throughout Bhagavad Gita, Krishna emphasizes that spiritual wisdom is always to enrich and empower man to act with purity and renunciation. Such activities will not in any way hurt, taint or bind the performer (Gita 4.19-23 ). This is in fact the true goal of spiritual wisdom and pursuit.

When the 16-year-old Sri Rama of Ikshvaku dynasty sat totally dejected after his pilgrimage in the sub-continent, indifferent to all kinds of activity and involvement, Sage Vasishtha instructed him about the impersonal, imperishable Self. His exhortation was to enlighten Sri Rama and enable him to sit on the throne and rule the kingdom. What is to be renounced and sublimated is the feeling of doership with regard to any and all acts alike.

Actions and interactions are an inevitable part of life. To let them be so, and at the same time, realize the inmost unaffectedness is the sole essence of spiritual wisdom, Self-realization. Sage Vasishtha repeatedly emphasizes how Self-knowledge runs parallel to activity. One famous statement of Vasishthadeva (4.56.34 ) is: Sarvastho’ham-akarteti dṛḍha-bhāvanayā-anayā pravāha-patitaṃ karma kurvann-api na lipyate. Meaning: Have the firm understanding that ‘I am not the doer’, be like a log placed in the river. Do whatever comes to be done from time to time.

In this way, one will not be affected or overpowered by whatever his body, mind, intelligence or ego do. As are these instruments active, so the Self transcending them is totally non-active.

The question is of understanding the presence and state transcending the ego. Truly, knowledge is the process and also the ultimate fulfilment.