VERSE NUMBER 27 OF KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF ACTION

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER THREE

KARMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF ACTION OR THE METHOD OF ACTION

VERSE NUMBER 27

Text in Transliteration:

prakrteh kriyamaanaani gunaih karmaani sarvasah

ahamkaara vimoodhaatmaa kartaa ‘ham iti manyate

Text in English:

The Gunas of Prakriti perform all karma. With the understanding clouded by egoism, man thinks, “I am the doer.”

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANANDA:

Karma is inherenet in Nature which is constituted of the three Gunas—Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. But there is no karma whatsoever in Atman. The ignorant man is incapable of distinguishing between the action-ridden Nature and the actionless Self.

It is egoism to identify the Self with the non-Self. Twop trains stand side by side in a  railway station. A passenger in one train fixes his gaze on the other. When the other train moves the man fancies that his own vehicle moves. Lidewise the mobility of Prakriti is imposed on the immobile Atman. Egoism is brought about by mistaking Prakriti for Atman. Bondage persists as long as egoism lasts. The egoistic man thinks of himself as the doer while actually he is not. Egoism and agency are the outcome oc ignorance.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

When an onion is peeled continually all skin goes away and no substance is left. Similarly on analysing the ego it is found to be no entity.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

prakrteh: pradhaana of the Samkhya. It is the power of maayaa or the power of the Supreme God.

The deluded soul attributes the acts of prakrti to itself.

There are different planes of our conscious existence and the self which becomes the ego attributes to itself the agency for actions forgetting the determinism of nature. According to the Gita, when the ego soul is entirely subject to nature, it does not act freely. Body, life and mind belong to the side of the environment.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Prakriti or pradhana or Nature is that state in which the three Gunas, viz,. Sattva, Rajas and Tamas exist in a state of equilibrium. When this equllibrium is disturbed, creation begins; body, senses, min, etc., are formed. The man who is deluded by egoism identifies the Self with the body, mind, the life force and the senses and ascribes to the Self all the attributes of the body and the senses. He therefore, thinks through ignorance, “I am the doer”. In reality the Gunas of Nature perform all actions.

Comments by the blogger:

It is very difficult to accept for us all that it is Nature that acts through us and we, in our ignorance, think it is we who act.

The I ness of the aspect of the mind is called ahankara or Ego. Like the peeling of the onion, if we continue to dismember a person and ask if you are this hand or this legs of this trunk or this mouth or these earas or this head, till life force is there and understanding is possible, that man would look at the dismembered part and stoutly say this hand or leg or trunk or mouth or ear or any other part is not ME. Then we need not put any question. Because there is something inside of him, his Self, that is him or he. Out of God’s ignorance man thinks his body his Self , or mistakes his body for his Self. Body can never be the self.

Then, if all the actions are wrought by Nature or Prakriti or Samkhya’s Pradhana , then why should the Lord impose the war on Arjuna. There is no need for Arjuna, who does not want to kill his kinsmen and great folks worthy of his unstinted worship, to slay them. Is God a masochist or a cynic?

How could God that be?

The whole world is Ishwara’s body and every action takes place in the body and mind because of the proximity of the Self and outside, every action of the planet’s planned motions and movements and changing seasons occurs because of the proximity of the Universal Soul. It is not as though the inanimate is of less value. God permeates the whole universe in which we are.

God says the Dhruyodhnadhis or the Kauravas are already dead and wants Arjuna just His agent of action. Moreover in the process, Arjuna’s swadharma gets fulfilled. Otherwise God does not need Man for conducting this Universe.