Re: The Doer
Originally Posted by
satay
Namaste,
I have been reading the 'Sri Ramanuja Gita Bhasya' published by Sri Ramkrishna Math and I have a few questions that I am hoping someone can clarify.
In chapter 18, specifically in verses 14 and onwards there is a concept of 'an agent' or 'karta'. It is stated in verses 16 and 17 that
16: he who sees only the self as the agent on account of uncultivated understanding he of wicked mind, does not see at all and,
17: he who is free from the notion 'I am the doer' and whose understanding is not tainted slays not though he slays all these men nor is he bound.
Further there is a discussion of 'knowledge, object of knowledge and the knower.
In verse 19, it is stated that knowledge, act and the agent are declared in the science of Gunas to be of three kinds according to the difference in the Gunas and lord Krishna then proceeds to talk about these separately from verse 20 to 28.
Previously in verses 13 and 14 the bhasya gives a purport explaining that 'supreme self' alone is the agent working through body.
Thus when Sri Krishna talks about 'niyatam...' The obligatory act in verse 23 and the classification of all acts into sattvika, rajasika etc, is he talking about the 'acts' performed by the 'supreme self' working through the body?
What's throwing me off is that in 26 to 28 there is discussion of classification of ' the agent' itself into sattvika, rajasika etc.
My confusion is this: who is this classification of talked about in verse 26 to 28? Of the individual self or the supreme self since supreme self is the only agent/karta and the individual self seems to be only the observer or knower?
My underlying confusion is about who is actually performing the acts, the individual self or the supreme self? Or both? If individual self is not the doer and not actually doing anything then what is his role?
Namaste. Excellent questions!
In regards to the last question, Sri U. Ve. Velukkudi Krishnan Swami, a well-known traveling Sri Vaishnava scholar and preacher often noted that when the gItA is saying "you are not the doer," what it is really saying is "you are not an *independent* doer." In other words, the jIva is a dependent-doer, because for it to "do" anything, four other factors are required - the body, the mind and motor-organs, the life-airs (prANa-s), and paramAtmA (see gItA 18.14-15). So the answer to your question is that the individual self performs actions, but always in conjunction with these other four factors, and thus is in one sense a doer, and in another sense a non-doer. Now, when verse 16 says that he is a fool who sees only the Self (jIvAtman) as the doer, the sense of it is that the wise one understands that the paramAtmA, who supports the body, sense, all of prakRiti, etc must give His consent for any actions which the jIvAtman wishes to perform out of its own free will. The foolish person does not appreciate his dependence on paramAtmA - he thinks he is in control of his own body without any outside agency actuating his desires and translating them into physical actions.
Note the application of this principle here: if the warrior understands that his very body and senses are all supported by the paramAtmA, and thus it is paramAtmA who must give His consent for any actions the jIva-as-warrior wishes to perform, then it follows that if he fights the battle according to the direction of paramAtmA, then he is not an independent agent who will accrue sinful reaction but rather is merely acting according to His direction.
The "agent" being talked about in verses 26-28 is the jIvAtma, since paramAtmA can never be sAttvik, rAjAsik, tamAsik. This seems contradictory if one does not understand the interdependence between the different players in performing action. However, since the jIva is a doer, but only in a dependent sense, he can be thought of as an agent in a conventional sense, and that is the sense in which verses 26-28 are discussing.
As an aside, I found a free bhagavad gita e-book with translation and commentary according to Ramanuja's system done by Sri U.Ve. Ranga Ramanuja Swami, an Australian devotee. It's available as a free download, and the commentary is very crisp, more like an abridged version of Raamaanuja's commentary, but you might find it helpful in understanding the unabridged commentary translated by Swami Adidevananda.
http://yajurvedaustralasia-resources...manuja-acarya/
Philosoraptor
"Wise men speak because they have something to say. Fools speak because they have to say something." - Plato
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