Commentary on the Bhagavadgita - 12- 2. Swami Krishnananda.

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Tuesday,  August 31, 2021. 8:14. PM.
Discourse 12 :
THE FIFTH CHAPTER CONTINUES :
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A PERFECTED PERSON : 2.
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1.All processes in this universe—evolution, involution, activity of any kind—are said to be taking place on account of a peculiar propensity in the gunas of prakriti. Therefore, the Supreme Lord is not supposed to be directly responsible for either what we call creation or destruction, or for any kind of activity taking place. His participation in creation is secondary, just as the sun, the solar light, is responsible for everything—life and death in this world—and yet the sun is not directly connected. 

This is a very interesting verse in the Bhagavadgita : "Na kartritvam na karmani lokasya srijati prabhuh "(5.14). Full explanation below

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Gita : Ch-5, Slo-14.

"Na kartritvam na karmani lokasya srijati prabhuh

na karma-phala-sanyogam svabhavas tu pravartate."

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Translation :

na—neither; 

kartṛitvam—sense of doership; 

na—nor;

karmāṇi—actions; 

lokasya—of the people; 

sṛijati—creates; 

prabhuḥ—God; 

na—nor; 

karma-phala—fruits of actions; 

sanyogam—connection; 

svabhāvaḥ—one’s nature; 

tu—but; 

pravartate—is enacted

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Tatvam of the slokam :

"Neither the sense of doership nor the nature of actions comes from God; nor does He create the fruits of actions. All this is enacted by the modes of material nature (guṇas)."

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Commentary :

In this verse, the word Prabhu has been used for God, to indicate that He is the Lord of the world.  He is also omnipotent and controls the entire universe.  Yet, though He conducts the activities of the universe, He remains the non-doer.  He is neither the director of our actions, nor does He decree whether we will perform a particular virtuous or evil deed.  Had He been our director, there would be no need for elaborate instructions on good and bad actions.  All the scriptures would have ended in three short sentences: “O souls, I am the director of all your works.  So you do not need to understand what good or bad action is.  I will make you do as I wish.” 

Similarly, God is not responsible for our getting stuck with the sense of doership.  If He had deliberately created the pride of doing in us, then again we could have blamed Him for our misdoings.  But the fact is that the soul brings this pride onto itself out of ignorance.  If the soul chooses to do away with the ignorance, then God helps dispel it with His grace. 

Thus, renunciation of the sense of doership is the responsibility of the soul.  The body is constituted of the three modes of material nature, and all actions are performed by the modes.  But out of ignorance, the soul identifies with the body and becomes implicated as the doer of actions, which are in fact done by material nature (Gita : ch 3.slo 27). 

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2.The Supreme Being, the Lord, does not directly bring about the relation of cause and effect, in the same way as the sun does not directly interfere with the activities of the world. Agency in action is kart?tva. Action is karma. Neither agency in action nor the action itself are something that is created directly by God. That is to say, the defects of the human being are not to be attributed to God. Otherwise, the Supreme Reality, being inclusive of all the individuals in the universe, the total, would be a mass of ignorance, full of distractions. The total of all mankind would be nothing but a heap of distraction and incapacity to perceive correctly.

3.Transcendent is God, though He is also immanent. Water pervades every fibre of a cloth that is dipped in it. When a cloth is dipped in a bucket of water, every fibre becomes wet. That is, the water pervades the whole cloth; it is immanent in the cloth. The water is almost inseparable from the cloth, because when we touch the cloth we can see the wetness and the dripping of water; yet, the water is not the cloth. There is no connection between the cloth and the water. The pervasion of God through the universe, through every little thing in the world, even the littlest atom, does not mean that God has involved Himself in the defects of life, the limitations of things, the locations of bodies, the ignorance characterising individuals. These are not part and parcel of the Supreme Being.

4.The transcendence that is the real nature of God frees Him from every kind of defect that is otherwise seen in the effects which He pervades and in which He is immanent. That is why it is said here that agency in action—the consciousness of one’s own individuality being responsible for work—is not created by God. It is due to the defect of the ego that one feels that one is doing some action. The action itself is a process that is engendered by the movement of the gunas of prakriti and, therefore, that also does not come from God. He is not responsible for anything whatsoever. God is responsible for everything, and yet He is responsible for nothing. It can be put either way. God’s responsibility for everything lies in the fact of His being immanent, and His freedom from any kind of involvement arises on account of His supreme transcendence.

To be continued ...

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