Sloka 14 (Chapter 5)
NA KARTRUTVAM NA KARMANI LOKASYA SRUJATI PRABHUHU
NA KARMAPHALA SAMYOGA SVABHAVASTU PRAVARTATE.
The Lord does not create agencies, nor action, nor union with the fruits of action. But nature leads to action.
It is the opinion of many of us that as God is within every individual, whatever the man does it is done by the God and God made him to do it. The funny part of it is that when good things happen we gives the credit to ourself and when bad thing happens he puts the blame on the God.
Na kartrutvam: I am the doer; The feeling of “I” did it is “Kartrutva bhavana”. It is a mental attitude. It is due to the ego. The God did not create such agency and it is the individual who creates such a feeling within himself.
Na karamani: no actions; Each one of us conducts a variety of actions. Some are good, some are bad. The Lord did not make us do any of such actions.
Na karma phala samyoga: no union with the fruits of actions. Whatever action is conducted, it will have its own results whether good or bad. Again the God did not bring the union with the results. God gave it to me and it is all mine should not be the attitude to the benefits from actions.
When the results are bad, many of us are of the opinion that God gave the bad results.
All the three notions are wrong, the Lord says. We should remember that “He” is only a witness to the actions and acting as a judge only. The judge may send a person to life imprisonment but he did not make the person get the life imprisonment.
Na Srujati: does not create. “I did not create any of these three” is the definite statement from the Lord.
Then what makes us to conduct our actions? “Swabhavastu Pravartate” is the answer. It means ” nature leads to actions.” What is “Nature?”
It is not the nature which is the world around us. The word “Nature” is used in the context of the way each one of us act. Our actions as we have discussed several times in detail before is due to the thought imprints settling as vasanas in our mind.
What we take from the world around, how our mind reacts to the same, how and in what form it is stored in our mind, how we open up the stored vasanas, the sum total of these makes our “Nature.”
Vedanta says there are two types of nature, One is Para Prakrati (Upper nature) and second is Apara Prakrati (Lower Nature). We with the conscious mind have to think whether have to operate from lower nature of higher nature. For example, anger is a natural thing, you have not created. But what type of anger is important. Anger is a raw material, if you refine it, you can use that anger in the right manner. And not used by anger.
If we act at the mental level and let the stored vasanas of desires/hatreds shine out our actions will be rajasic or tamasic.
On the other hand if we act at the intellectual level, think of our thoughts and actions, analyse whether they are right or wrong, not just for us but for our loved ones and the society and then conduct our actions, we will be assisting ourselves in clearing the stored vasanas and our actions will be Satvic.
Finally, if we can use of the consciousness within by letting the light of divine knowledge shine forth, our actions will be divine and we are said to be on the path of “Union with the Supreme” and we would be able to experience the “Eternal Bliss.”