Karma Sanyasa Yoga
Chapter 5, Verse 14
na kartṛtvaṁ na karmāṇi
lokasya sṛjati prabhuḥ
na karma phala saṁyogaṁ
svabhāvastu pravartate
The Lord neither creates the works of the world, nor the state of the doer, nor the joining of the works to the fruit: Nature does this.
Lord Krishna previously says, “I stand on My own Nature!” God is not bound by His creation. He is ever-free. When you are observing from within, in deep meditation, the soul sees that the Doer, the Creator, the Supreme Lord, Narayana Himself, is not bound by anything. He Himself doesn’t even create. He has placed Brahma in charge of creation. Brahma is doing His duty! He has placed Vishnu in charge of preservation. Vishnu is doing His duty! And He has placed Shiva in charge of destruction. Shiva is doing His duty! Therefore, the Lord Himself is above the process of creation, preservation and destruction. He observes the whole creation, but He doesn’t take part in it. He is like a big boss! He observes, He has the full control, but He doesn’t go and do it Himself. He has created the manager, the director for that purpose. So they are doing their job. So, He is ever free! He doesn’t claim the doership. He doesn’t have any pride inside of Him. He doesn’t have any arrogance inside of Him. It’s the mind, the ego and the pride that says, “I am doing this” or “I am doing that”.
On the contrary, those who are under the control of the indriyas, the sense organs, and the sense enjoyment claim doership. They are not aware of the Divine Self within themselves due to this ignorance. Here the Lord says, “I am beyond this.” All this game of the outside reality is done by Prakriti. Everything which is manifested, which is tangible, is Prakriti. But this doesn’t affect Him or touch Him. He is the Great Observer. He is the Soul of souls who is not touched by anything. We can say that the soul is the director. The Great Boss is God. The heart is the manager and the senses, the indriyas, are the labourers. In this way, the Great Boss is not touched by anything and doesn’t claim anything.
When during sadhana, during Atma Kriya Yoga, you are sitting and observing within and reach the state of merging or attaining this communion with the ‘Boss’, you perceive that the Lord is never affected by any of this drama, because all this drama is under the law of Prakriti only. Furthermore, Lord Krishna emphasises that as you are the Atma, you also are out of this game: you are not the doer. It is just the human mind that gives you the limited perception that you are the doer.
Here Lord Krishna says that whatever one does as action is not done by God, but it is done by the natural law of Prakriti. The natural function of the heart is to beat and to pump the blood throughout the body. The natural function of the eyes is to see. The natural role of fire is to burn. The natural role of water is to wet. All these have been created through Prakriti, only through His Will! So Nature carries on Her own work. But when one gets realised, one rises above Nature. However, if the Jiva has not risen above Nature, if one doesn’t realise that one is hanging onto the gunas, how can one be free? If people don’t realise their true essence as being part of the Supreme, if they don’t see the divinity within themselves, if they get stuck in the duality of like and dislike, good and evil, then they unite themselves with Nature and limit themselves to only that outward reality. That’s why their arrogance awakens and then they claim that they are doing this and they are doing that. Whereas the bhakta is completely different. The bhakta is aware that the Lord is doing everything through him. At the beginning, the bhaktas can only have this perception due to the love that they have for God. But later on, when they have attained full Realisation, when they are fully immersed in Him they realise, “Actually, all this is done by Nature!” But a bhakta is always above Nature. Even if they take life after life, moving from one body to another, this is the drama of the outside reality.
But a God-realised soul perceives only the oneness of God in everything.
Bhagavad Gita
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