Something New

That which conduces an action to its completion, that which gives rise to an action is called a “kārak”  (Doership).  In “Doerships” (kārakas), the “Doer”  (kartā), the nominative is important; because all actions depend on the doer (kartā).  Acts of doing (kārakas) are only aids (supporters) in the accomplishment of actions, but the “Doer” is independent.  In the “Doer” the consciousness is reflected (perceived), but in fact, that  consciousness is not the “Doer”.  Therefore wherever in the Gītā, Bhagwān (Lord) has mentioned the five factors –  the original base of action (body), Kartāh (Doer, Agent), senses (Instrument,  karan),  chesthā (effort) and daiva (impressions)  which are contributors to the accomplishment of all actions.  Here He has condemned those who believe the pure Self (soul, atmā) to be the “doer” – 

tatraivaṁ sati kartāram, ātmānaṁ kevalaṁ tu yaḥ |
paśyaty akṛta-buddhitvān, na sa paśyati durmatiḥ ||
(Gītā 18:16) 

“Similarly, on the subject of action, though having these five factors,  he who looks upon the pure Self (atmā,  soul) as the doer, that man of perverse understanding does not see right; because his intellect is not pure.  Because he has not attached importance to “vivek” discrimination.”

In the Gītā,  Bhagwān (God) has mentioned Nature (prakṛti) or the modes of nature – qualities and attributes (guṇās) or the senses as the doer.  The modes (guṇās) are the evolutes of Nature (prakṛti) and the senses are the evolutes of modes.  Therefore in fact, doership is there in nature alone.  In the sentient Self there is no doership.  Bhagwān declares –  

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ |
ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate ||
(Gītā 3:27) 

“All actions are performed, in all cases by the modes of nature (prakṛti).  He whose mind is deluded by egoism thinks,  “I am the doer.”

tattva-vit tu mahā-bāho guṇa-karma-vibhāgayoḥ  |
(Gītā 3:28) 

guṇā guṇeṣu vartanta iti matvā na sajjate   || 

“Having true knowledge of the respective spheres of modes (guṇās) and actions, the enlightened soul does not get attached to them by realizing that it is an interplay of the modes.”   

nānyaṁ guṇebhyaḥ kartāraṁ, yadā draṣṭānupaśyati  | 
guṇebhyaś ca paraṁ vetti, mad-bhāvaṁ so ’dhigacchati  ||
(Gītā 14/19)  

When the discriminative striver beholds no doer other than the modes, and know the self beyond the modes, he attains to My Being. 

indriyāṇīndriyārtheṣu, vartanta iti dhārayan ||  
(Gītā 5/9)  

“He holds that the sense are acting on the sense-objects.”

prakṛtyaiva ca karmāṇi, kriyamāṇāni sarvaśaḥ  |
yaḥ paśyati tathātmānam, akartāraṁ sa paśyati  || (Gītā 13/30)  

“He who sees that all actions are performed only by Nature (prakṛti) and that the self is not the doer, he verily sees reality.”

The Lord also declares that He also has neither the sense of doership, nor craving for the fruit of actions (Gītā  4/13-14)  

cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ, guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ |

tasya kartāram api māṁ, viddhy akartāram avyayam  ||

na māṁ karmāṇi limpanti, na me karma-phale spṛhā  |

iti māṁ yo ’bhijānāti, karmabhir na sa badhyate   ||

“The fourfold order was created by Me according to the modes of their nature and action.  Though I am the creator, know Me, the immortal Lord, to be a non-doer.  Since I have no craving for the fruit of actions, these don’t taint Me.  He who knows Me thus (in reality), is not affected by actions.”  

na ca māṁ tāni karmāṇi, nibadhnanti dhanañ-jaya  | 

udāsīna-vad āsīnam, asaktaṁ teṣu karmasu || (Gītā  9/9)  

“O’ Dhananjaya (Arjun), these actions however, don’t bind Me,  Who remains like one unconcerned with and unattached to such actions.”  

It means that the Lord, in spite of performing all actions such as creation, sustenance and destruction etc.,  of the entire universe, does not get tainted with these actions i.e.  He has neither the sense of doership, nor enjoyership.  The soul, being a part of God,  also neither acts, nor is tainted.

anāditvān nirguṇatvāt, paramātmāyam avyayaḥ  |

śarīra-stho ’pi kaunteya, na karoti na lipyate ||  (Gītā  13/31) 

“O’  Kaunteya, the self without beginning and without attributes, is imperishable Supreme soul, though dwelling in the body, it neither acts nor is tainted.” 

There are two divisions – insentient and sentient.  The insentient division is perishable, while the sentient division is imperishable.  In the Gītā the Lord has called the insentient division by such names as“prakṛti” (nature),  “Kshetra”  (body or field) and perishable etc., and the sentient division by such names as “Purusha” (self), Kshetrajna(knower), imperishable etc.  These two divisions like dark and light are totally unrelated with each other.  The insentient division is unreal which has no existence while the sentient is real which exists  – 

nāsato vidyate bhāvo, nābhāvo vidyate sataḥ(Gītā 2/16).  

All actions are performed in the insentient division. 

In the sentient division there is never any action in the least.  The gross body and the actions performed with it, the subtle body and reflection done with it and the causal body and steadiness or trance experienced with it  – all these are in the insentient division.  All evils such as desire, the sense of mine and egoism etc., are also in the insentient division.  Dependence on the alien (non-self) and labour  – these two are in the insentient division while dependence on God and repose (to do nothing for one’s own self)  – these two are in the sentient division.  To know these two divisions different from each other is wisdom –  

kṣetraṁ kṣetrī tathā kṛtsnaṁ, prakāśayati bhārata (Gītā 13/34). 

By this fire of wisdom all actions are totally destroyed  – 

api ced asi pāpebhyaḥ, sarvebhyaḥ pāpa-kṛt-tamaḥ

sarvaṁ jñāna-plavenaiva, vṛjinaṁ santariṣyasi

yathaidhāṁsi samiddho ’gnir, bhasma-sāt kurute ’rjuna

jñānāgniḥ sarva-karmāṇi,bhasma-sāt kurute tathā (Gītā  4:36-37)

“Even if you are the most sinful of all sinners, you shall undoubtedly cross the ocean of sins by the boat of knowledge (wisdom) alone. O Arjuna, as the blazing fires burns fuel to ashes, so does the fire of wisdom reduce all actions to ashes.”

This means that when a spiritual aspirant realizes that he is naturally established in the sentient (Self, Consciousness) part, he is freed from all evils and sins and is liberated from the birth and death cycle.  Assuming relationship with the insentient aspects is the root cause of birth and death.

kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo ’sya, sad-asad-yoni-janmasu (Gītā  13:21)

 Attachment to the modes becomes the cause of its birth, in good and evil bodies.

Here a doubt may be raised as to how sinful and virtuous actions are possible in the inert matter without the sentient Self. The clarification here is that as a man dies because of an accident with a bus, but instead of the bus the driver is punished.  Though the actual collision was with the bus, but the punishment was given to the person who was the driver (doer, performing the deed) of the bus. Similarly sinful and virtuous actions are done by the insentient (Body) but its fruit has to be reaped by the doer (sentient) who accepts his relationship with the insentient. This implies that all evil is in the insentient (body) aspects only, but because of the identification with the body, the sentient (Self) has to reap its fruits. 

As the body suffers from fever but because of the identification with the body, a man believes that he is suffering from a high fever.  He (the Self) does not suffer from high fever.  If he (the Self) had suffered from fever, then he could never recover from it.   A deluded person, due to identification with the sentient part (i.e. ego), a part of lower nature, holds that he is a doer and an enjoyer –  

ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā, kartāham iti manyate  (Gītā 3/27) 

puruṣaḥ prakṛtistho hi bhuṅkte prakṛtijānguṇān (Gītā 13/21)  

It means that the sentient being is neither a doer nor an experiencer, but due to lack of discrimination (vivek) assumes that he is a doer and an experiencer. 

It is due to desire for pleasure or desire for fruit of actions that he thinks that he is a doer and it is because of doership that he has to be an experiencer i.e. he has to reap the fruit of the action.  The reason is that when he assumes himself to be the doer of an activity of Nature (prakṛti), he is connected with it, then that activity of nature becomes an action which bears fruit for him. 

In the Self there is no doership or enjoyership in the least bit – 

naiva kiñcit karoti saḥ (Gītā 4/20),  

naiva kiñcit karomīti (Gītā 5/8). 

Whatever actions have been performed in the 8.4 million forms of life, none of them can have access to the Self, as the department of Self is totally separate from the department of actions. So long as a seeker performs actions for himself, his doership persists because without doership one cannot prove the performance of action for one’s own self.  Therefore the spiritual discipline for one’s own salvation is to be free of egoism.  Any action done with egoism, cannot lead to salvation because egoism is the root of birth and death.  Therefore instead of attaching importance to an action, an aspirant should attach importance to the Self. 

The body has its relationship with the world while the self has its relationship with God.  The body is a part of prakṛti (nature) and the self is a part of God.  Therefore the self can never rest in the body.  But a man out of ignorance assumes himself to be established in the body,.  In it there is a vital fact that a man in spite of assuming himself to be established in the self, is in fact neither a doer nor an experience –  

śarīra-stho ’pi kaunteya, na karoti na lipyate (Gītā 13/31).

It proves that non-doership and non-enjoyership of the self are not attained by any means, but they are natural.  Therefore a striver has not to wipe out doership and enjoyership, but he has not to accept them in him, because they are not really in him.  In the Gītā, the Lord has explained the absence of enjoyership by giving the illustration of ether and the absence of doership by giving the illustration of the Sun  – 

yathā sarva-gataṁ saukṣmyād ākāśaṁ nopalipyate |

sarvatrāvasthito dehe tathātmā nopalipyate ||  (Gītā 13/32) 

“As the all-pervading ether is not tainted because of being subtle, so the self (ātma) permeated everywhere in the body, is not tainted.”  

Divinity (Existence) can’t rest in the body or prakṛti.  It is all pervading like the ether –  “nitya sarvagatah”  (Gītā 2/24).  It pervades all bodies within   and without. 

That all pervading divinity is our nature. 

yathā prakāśayaty ekaḥ, kṛtsnaṁ lokam imaṁ raviḥ |

kṣetraṁ kṣetrī tathā kṛtsnaṁ prakāśayati bhārata  || (Gītā 13/33) 

“O scion of the Bharata (Arjuna)  as the Sun illumines the entire universe, so does the Lord of the Kshetra (spirit) light up the whole Kshetra (field)”. 

In the light of the Sun all virtuous and sinful actions are performed.  In the light of the sun someone recites the hymns of the Vedas, while some other person hunts animals.  But the Sun is neither held responsible for reciting the hymns of the Vedas or for hunting.  It incurs neither virtue nor sin.  The reason is that the sun does not become either a doer or an enjoyer.  Similarly the soul (all pervading Divinity) illumines all bodies but it neither acts nor is tainted.  Therefore the Lord declares –- 

yasya nāhaṅkṛto bhāvo buddhir yasya na lipyate |

hatvāpi sa imāḻ lokānna hanti na nibadhyate || (Gītā 18/17) 

“He who is free from the egoistic notion  (I am a doer) and whose intellect is not tainted, though he may slay all creatures, he neither slays nor is bound.”

 As in the Ganges, someone drowns, but the Ganges does not incur sin and someone else bathes in it, but it does not incur virtue. The reason is that the Ganges has neither the notion of egoism (doership) not the taintedness of intellect (enjoyership). 

Doership and enjoyership are in prakṛti (nature) not in the self.  Therefore an enlightened exalted soul who remains established in the self holds “I do nothing”  –  

naiva kiñcit karomīti, yukto manyeta tattva-vit (Gītā 5/8) 

All the worldly activities such as eating, drinking, sleeping, awakening and jobs such as service and business etc.,  as well as,  all the spiritual activities such as listening to Vedantic texts, cognition and assimilation etc.,  take place in prakṛti.  In the self no action is possible.  therefore an aspirant should not renounce the world and spiritual activities sanctioned by the scriptures physically but he should not regard himself as the doer of those activities.  i.e. he should not regard them for him and to be performed by him.  Attaching importance to activities means attaching importance to the insentient. If an aspirant attaches importance to action in spite of practicing the spiritual disciple for years, obvious progress is not perceived in him.  Therefore an aspirant should attaché importance to the sentient rather than the insentient.  An aspirant is not the body while an action is performed by the body,  The nature of an aspirant (self) is Divinity (Existence) and in Divinity there is no action.  The nature of the world is action and objects. 

Doership and enjoyership are not in the self but because of ignorance they have been assumed in the self.  In spite of this assumption we are free from doership and enjoyership – 

śarīra-stho ’pi kaunteya, na karoti na lipyate ||

It means that in spite of assuming that we (the self) are established in the body, in fact we are separate from the body. Though assuming we are bound, we are in fact liberated.  It is very essential for an aspirant to accept this fact. 

Narayana !  Narayana !!  Narayana !!!  

From book “For Salvation of Mankind” by Swami Ramsukhdasji Maharaj