AVG 12.6

Chapter 12 (The Seekers Understanding of Abiding in Awareness): Verse 6
कर्माऽनुष्ठानमज्ञानाद्यथैवोपरमस्तथा ।
बुध्वा सम्यगिदं तत्त्वमेवमेवाहमास्थितः ॥ १२-६॥

PURPORT:
Restraining and desisting oneself from
action comes as much from misconception
as the performance of those specific actions
directed to seeking objects of ones desire.
Performance or non-performance of
actions notwithstanding, this principle
of truth is fully recognized and thus truly,
do I abide in still tranquility.

TRANSLITERATION:
कर्माऽनुष्ठानम् अज्ञानात् यथा एव उपरमः तथा ।
karmā'nuṣṭhānam ajñānāt yathā eva uparamaḥ tathā ।
बुध्वा सम्यक् इदम् तत्त्वम् एवम् एव अहम् आस्थितः ॥ १२-६॥
budhvā samyak idam tattvam evam eva aham āsthitaḥ ॥ 12-6॥

MEANING:
karmā'nuṣṭhānam (कर्माऽनुष्ठानम्) = performance of action (compound of karmā (कर्मा) meaning 'action/duty' and anuṣṭhānam (अनुष्ठानम्) meaning 'performance/execution/undertaking'). This meaning taken to be as follows: performance of such actions as those directed to accrue sense objects of ones desire.
ajñānāt (अज्ञानात्) = from ignorance/from misconception
yathā (यथा) = even
eva (एव) = as
uparamaḥ (उपरमः) = desisting/ceasing/cessation/restraining
tathā (तथा) = so also ।
budhvā (बुध्वा) = having known this/knowing this
samyak (सम्यक्) = fully/correctly/exactly/accurately
idam (इदम्) = this
tattvam (तत्त्वम्) = principle/truth
evam (एवम्) = thus
eva (एव) = indeed
aham (अहम्) = I
āsthitaḥ (आस्थितः) = abide/exist ॥ 12-6॥

COMMENT:
One of the reasons behind the manifestation of suffering, sorrow and pain is the continuous conflict between the fixity that we assign based upon conditioning to concepts, ideas and structures that have become part of our identity during our formative years amidst the fundamentally ephemeral nature of worldly phenomena. The transitoriness that manifests itself based upon the arising, enduring and cessation of conditions always results in the morphing of ideas, concepts and structures every second. While some of the changes and the effects thereof are immediate and quickly apparent, other changes take time to evolve and manifest itself - the underlying truth being that the change is always a present and a clear factor within the phenomenal world.

The ego looks to maintain fixity within our consciousness spanning time and space and this results in humans tending to want to hold onto concepts, ideas and structures so that the fixity desired by the ego is satisfied and fulfilled. We start to become unhappy and experience suffering whenever there is the lack of resonance between the vibrations offered by the phenomenal world that is steeped in change and the inner vibrations from the intricate fabrications of our intrinsic worlds that resists change. As we start to grow older and our lives in general get more serious around the process of living, the suffering and the resultant misery only increases (as the concepts, ideas and structures morph even more over time and our egos are mired within the original conceptions). We keep struggling to hold onto those concepts that our ego finds acceptable resulting in an increase in the mismatched resonances over time.

In this sense, Janaka here mentions that either performance of actions (directed towards holding onto concepts, ideas and structures) or the cessation of the same (calculated to dispel any concepts, ideas or structures) presuppose the ego acting primarily in response to forces (from an external perspective or from an internal standpoint) that impel such action or suppress such action. Therefore, wantonly restraining oneself from action or willingly performing the action are both, in a larger sense, premeditated behavior whose origins are attributed to the ego.

'Do not be driven by the ego to act or not-act' is the liberating principle that Janaka beautifully exemplifies within this fascinating verse.