मिथ्याचार

Mithyācāra literally means false conduct: conduct that does not match what is within. In verse 3.6 the word is used for a particular condition: one who restrains the organs of action and sits, but goes on remembering the objects of the senses in the mind. Such a person is called there a mithyācāra.

The verse gives one more description, vimūḍhātmā, self-deluded. This is worth noting. The Gita does not say that he is playing a trick on others. It says that he is himself in delusion. He feels that by stopping he has become free of action, while inside action is going on just as before.

So the word is useful not as an accusation but as an inner test: do the condition of the body and the condition of the mind match?

Common misreading: applying mithyācāra to every seeker, renunciate or meditator, or taking it as deliberate hypocrisy.

Better sense: outward stopping with inward running, which the person does not recognise in themselves.

To read further, see the topic Can We Simply Stop Acting?.