Gita series 36. Bhagavad Gita - Chapter III. 5-6:

None can remain even for a moment, without working. This is because; everyone is induced to act by gunas arising out of prakriti. The ignorant, who forcibly controls his sensory organs but whose mind dwells on the sense objects is a dissembler and known as an imposter” says Krishna. It is the lineament of the soul in combination with prakriti that makes everyone to act, depending on the karmas embedded in the soul. The three gunas are fuelling the prakriti to act. In the creation of God, none has complete authority to function. For example, soul has to depend upon prakriti to manifest. Prakriti has to depend upon the gunas for its function. Even the Brahman has to depend upon Shakthi to act; as otherwise, he cannot create, sustain and dissolve. There are a number of such checks and counter checks in the process of creation. How gunas affect prakriti? The three gunas are sattva, rajas and tamas. Sattva guna or principle is a positive quality. Rajo guna is a neutral quality and tamo guna is a negative quality.

Originally, the three gunas dwell in equal proportion and when this proportion undergoes change, the soul manifests in association with prakriti and a new physical body is born. Every living being has to consistently perform an action and cannot reach the stage of stillness. The consistency is decided by the effect of gunas. When prakriti is influenced by the three gunas, soul is influenced by the internal tool called anthakkaranam. The internal tool in combination with the three gunas brand the character of a person and further karmas are created based upon how good or how bad this combination is. Secondly, the absence of mind and body activity makes a person incapable of forming his own free will. A question may arise here whether free will can independently function without the influence of karma. Surely, there will be influence of karma on the free will, but mind can certainly make necessary protection to the free will. This can be compared to a situation on a hot sunny day. But the heat of the sun can be avoided by using an umbrella. Umbrella only protects the concerned person from the heat of the sun and cannot prevent the heat of the sun itself. When there is a coordinated action between mind and body, free will arises. In the earlier verses, Krishna said that only practice alone makes a perfect man. By nature, none remain dormant. However, by persistent practice of quality meditation a person can make his mind inactive. Even in the inactive stage of the mind, mind continues to function. But it functions with a specified goal of realizing the Brahman and ultimately merging with Him.

A yogi is able to dissociate his mind from the body, so that he can transform the mind into the higher level of consciousness. A yogi keeps his body and mind active without himself involving (not involving his consciousness) and an ignorant man also keeps his body and mind active, but identifying himself with the actions (involving his consciousness with the action). The difference is due to the operating levels of anthakkaranam. Krishna condemns hypocrisy. He calls them as dissemblers and imposters. Such a situation arises only if a person could not control his senses by using his mind. He does not advocate external sense control. For example, you like apples. If you keep apples away from your sight, still your thoughts are associated with apples the situation is called controlling the senses externally. You should learn to disassociate apples from your mind for good in spite of apples being placed before you. If you are able to do that, it means you have controlled your senses internally. Externally controlling the senses is a useless procedure. The holy Bible underscores this point. “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and predication” (1 Timothy 6:9). Therefore, controlling of senses should be with the solitary aim of realizing the Supreme and should never be a publicity stunt. A yogi is not recognized by his attire, but by his qualities. At the same time, we should not forget that only by outwardly actions, internal control can be qualified.