By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

Wisdom without action is delusion. Wisdom is the combination of experience and understanding together, so there must be action to acquire wisdom. 

You cannot have experience without engaging in action. Yet action does not end with merely acquiring a large number of experiences. One who becomes truly wise continues to perform actions, but with different motivations. Then all actions (and all of life itself) become a living yoga practice that leads to wisdom. You get there by examining your motivations. 

There are three primary motivations underlying most people’s actions: protection, relationship, and recognition. Each is actually an attempt to construct a sense of personal identity. But any sense of personal identity that you are able to construct will not last, because it is constructed rather than being inherent. 

The practices of yoga help you discover the underlying sense of self that has always been there. It currently supports you (behind your mind). It will never cease to exist. Your discovery of this deeper dimension of your own being is the most satisfying experience of your life. However, the constructed identity is a superficial sense of self and is dependent on your own effort to create and maintain it.

Excerpt from Yoga in Every Moment, pages 107‒108