We talked about five factors necessary for the performance of any action. What kinds of actions are done by them?
śarīravāṅmanobhiryat karma prārabhate naraḥ | nyāyyaṁ vā viparītaṁ vā pañcaite tasya hetavaḥ ||18.15||
That karma, whether proper or the opposite (improper), which a man undertakes with body, speech or mind, has these five causes.
The word naraḥ, etymologically means the one who does not die, na mriyate iti naraḥ. It refers to a human being, because by doing karma he perpetuates himself. This human being - naraḥ being undertakes various forms of activity - karma, which are divided into three groups from the standpoint of the three means used to perform them. A physical activity - kāyika, an oral action - vācika, and mental action - mānasa.
The types of karma done by these three means are again divided into two. An action that conforms to the moral order - nyāyyaṁ karma, and that which goes against the order - viparītaṁ karma. Some actions are voluntary, and some are not. Every one of them, voluntary and involuntary, has these five causes - pañcaite tasya hetavaḥ.
The intention is not really to understand the nature of karma, but to lift our vision to see whether ātmā - I am really involved in action. The aim is only to point out that ātmā - I am always free from all activities. This fact is never seen by us, this is what Lord Krsna says in the next verse.
tatraivaṁ sati kartāram ātmānaṁ kevalaṁ tu yaḥ | paśyatyakṛtabuddhitvān na sa paśyati durmatiḥ ||18.16||
When this is so, the one who sees, on the other hand, the self, which is “pure,” as the agent, because of an immature mind, that person whose thinking is distorted does not see (the truth ).
tatraivaṁ sati - when this is so, means when these five factor just mentioned are the causes for karma, one who sees the self who is pure as the agent is durmatiḥ - one whose mind sees other than what is. Such a mind doesn’t see things as they are, but sees everything in a distorted manner. When we see external things wrongly, no great harm might be done, but when we see ourselves wrongly, it is a problem. We cannot afford to see ourselves wrongly because if we do, everything else gets distorted.
The self is pure - kevalaṁ, means it performs no action whatsoever, because it does not undergo any change. It is impossible for any action to take place when the locus of action is changeless.
What is the cause for his distorted thinking? He is a person whose mind has not matured - akṛtabuddhi. His mind is “not done very well,” it has not undergone the necessary process of vedānta learning through a teacher in the proper way.
Even though he sees, he doesn’t see - paśyan api na sa paśyati. Even though he sees ātmā as something distinct from the body, still he doesn’t see at all because he commits a mistake. Even though ātmā is the very basis for this body-mind-sense-complex to exist, it doesn’t perform any action.
Having pointed out the durmatiḥ, Lord Krsna now talks of the sumatiḥ - one who has a clear mind.
yasya nāhaṅkṛto bhāvo buddhiryasya na lipyate | hatvāpi sa imām̐llokānna hanti na nibadhyate ||18.17||
The one who has no doership, the one whose mind is not affected, he even killing theses people, does not kill, nor is he bound.
The person who has undergone proper process of learning with the help of a teacher and śāstra, he doesn’t have the notion that “I am the doer” - nāhaṅkṛto bhāvah. Such a person understands that ātmā seems like a doer, it is because there is no doer without ātmā, but in reality ātmā is not the doer. This person has the discriminative knowledge which takes the form of the cognition, “I am not the doer”. He understood the five factors of actions are superimposed upon ātmā because of ignorance - avidyā.
Doer-ship causes omission and commission, where things that were supposed to have been done by me were not done and things that should not have been done at all were done. This is the lot of everyone, but not for this person. He is the one whose mind is not affected at all - buddhiryasya na lipyate. He has no regret or remorse, because he sees that he is not the doer of those actions. Even destroying all these people assembled on the battlefield, he does not perform the act of destruction - hatvāpi sa imām̐llokānna hanti. Therefore he is not bound by the result of any action - na nibadhyate.
He knows ātmā is only the witness - śāksī, the very basis - adhisthāna of the body and all actions, but itself performs no action. Gītā 13.31 “this limitless self, being beginning-less and without attributes is imperishable. Even though obtained in the body, it doesn’t perform action, and is not affected by the result of action”. Being beginning-less, ātmā never dies. This is why Lord Krsna told Arjuna that “he grieves for those who are not to be grieved for” gītā 2.11. Being unchangeable, ātmā can never kill since no action can be done. Therefore in gītā 4.18 “the one who sees actionless-ness in action (ātmā who is not doing any action in the body which is doing action) and action in actionless-ness (one choose not to do anything, actually is having doer-ship of non-doing) is wise among human beings.”
We are not presenting a kartā other than ātmā, in fact nothing is other than ātmā. But ātmā alone is not the kartā - doer, only in association with the body, etc., it becomes the kartā. However ātmā is part-less, then how is it able to have association? Being pure existence it has no part to associate with anything. Therefore this association is mityā, just like my association with my dream child, it is experienced but doesn’t have its independent existence. Its existence is based on me satyam ātmā.
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