A Study of the Bhagavadgita :14.4. - Swami Krishnananda.

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Wednesday, September 14, 2022. 06:30. 
Chapter 14: Our Involvement in the Whole Creation -4.

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Karaṇaṁ ca pṛthagvidham: There are also instruments of action. For instance, you may be digging, but your instruments are blunt, not working properly, or the nib of your fountain pen is broken, so you cannot write well, or the apparatus that you use in a scientific laboratory is defective; these are various ways in which your instrument of action may not be suitable for the purpose, and this conditions the result of your action. So the instruments of action are the third factor.

Vividhāś ca pṛthakceṣṭā: The motive behind action is the fourth factor. The intention with which you are doing a thing is very important, though the intentions are not always very clear to your mind. You have a muddled idea of even the purpose for which you do some work. You drudge in an office, in a bank or a factory. Why are you working? The logical answer cannot come immediately. "I have to work because I have to live," a person will say. "I have to take care of my family." That is all; the matter ends there, and he does not have to pursue this question further. "Why do you want to live and take care of your family?" This question will not arise. You have a minimal understanding connected with the near future, without any thought or foresight, and the motive behind the action itself is not always clear before your mental perception. The way in which you work will also depend upon why you are working. You know very well how they are interconnected.

I have mentioned four things: the body, the agency, the instrument of action, and the motivation behind the action. There is a final thing: daivaṁ caivātra pa–camam, the will of the Supreme God. The Absolute wills that something has to be done in this way, and it will be done only in that way. It cannot be done in any other manner. And its will manifests itself through the divinities. The eyes and ears, etc., will not cooperate if the will is not there. The central will of the cosmos decides even the movement of a sparrow, or the waving of a little leaf on a tree by the wind. Not a leaf will fall on your head unless the Central Will operates.

Now, here is a great question before you: Who is doing anything? Who are the doers of deeds? If these five factors, especially the last one mentioned, are determining all your deeds, it means all action is done by the universe. The whole universe is acting when you seem to be lifting your finger. The cosmos is active. A little movement of a single atom somewhere in the bowels of the earth is known to the distant sky, and the cosmic rays react in other ways. There is no secret action in this world. Every action is public.

The Gita is again specific in this matter to remove from your mind the idea of personality involved in action, as if you are doing things. Why are you going on saying you are doing things and getting bound, when the whole world is acting? Nobody else can act, as the whole body is acting when even the feet are moving. When the food is digested because you are eating, the whole body is active – the entire alimentary canal, the respiratory system, everything is active. So who does the action? The entire creation is acting, and no one has the right to feel that he or she is acting.

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To be continued ....

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