Gita 05.15 – The judge is not responsible for the criminal’s conviction

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nādatte kasyacit pāpaṁ
na caiva sukṛtaṁ vibhuḥ
ajñānenāvṛtaṁ jñānaṁ
tena muhyanti jantavaḥ (Bg 5.15)

Word-for-word:
na — never; ādatte — accepts; kasyacit — anyone’s; pāpam — sin; na — nor; ca — also; eva — certainly; su-kṛtam — pious activities; vibhuḥ — the Supreme Lord; ajñānena — by ignorance; āvṛtam — covered; jñānam — knowledge; tena — by that; muhyanti — are bewildered; jantavaḥ — the living entities.

Translation:
Nor does the Supreme Lord assume anyone’s sinful or pious activities. Embodied beings, however, are bewildered because of the ignorance which covers their real knowledge.

Explanation:
Kṛṣṇa speaks here about who the doer is and who actually makes things happen. In philosophy, there is a sub-branch called etiology, which studies causality—the question of what causes things to occur.

Kṛṣṇa says:
nādatte kasyacit pāpaṁ: He does not accept anyone’s sinful activity.
na caiva sukṛtaṁ vibhuḥ: Nor does He accept pious activities, O all-pervading Supersoul.

The Supersoul is vibhuḥ (all-pervading), whereas the soul is aṇu (infinitesimal). It is described that the soul is one ten-thousandth the tip of a hair. In contrast, the Supersoul, although present in the body in the size of a thumb, is the very same Supersoul who pervades all of existence.

These two lines mean that the Supersoul does not accept either sinful or pious actions. The question of who the actual doer is will be answered in the next part of the verse, C and D:
ajñānenāvṛtaṁ jñānaṁ: Knowledge is covered by ignorance,
tena muhyanti jantavaḥ: and by that ignorance, living beings are bewildered.

This verse explains that it is not the Supersoul who performs right or wrong actions; rather, it is the soul, covered by ignorance, that becomes implicated. Yet, in the previous verse, it is stated that the soul is not the doer. In 5.13, we see: sarva-karmāṇi manasā sannyasyāste sukhaṁ vaśī—one should renounce all activities mentally. This means that although work is carried out externally, one should understand within the mind that the self is not the doer.

Then, verse 5.14 states: na kartṛtvaṁ na karmāṇi lokasya sṛjati prabhuḥ—the soul is not the doer, nor does it make others act. The same point is again emphasized: na karma-phala-saṁyogaṁ svabhāvas tu pravartate—it is svabhāva (one’s nature) that makes things happen.

This raises the question—is svabhāva actually the doer of anything? We may say it is unconscious, insentient, because it is prakṛti (material nature). Can something insentient like svabhāva truly make anything happen?

The question of who is the doer is being analyzed here, and it is explained that it is the soul, covered by ignorance. Our svabhāva is that ajñāna (ignorance) which veils the soul, obscuring our awareness of our true identity.

Let us try to understand this with examples. Consider a jail. A criminal commits a crime, is arrested, brought before the court, and then sentenced by the judge to ten years of imprisonment. After that, the prisoner is sent to jail. Now, who is the real doer here?

Since the judge gave the sentence, one might say that the judge is the cause of the person being sent to jail. Yet, the same judge may also release another person who was previously convicted wrongly.

Therefore, the point is that the judge is not the sole doer. The judge is not someone eager to send people to jail. He may be the ultimate decision-maker in the courtroom, but he is not the root cause. One could also say that the policeman put the person in jail, which is true, but does that make the police the cause? After all, in another situation where a person is attacked by a criminal, it is the police who protect.

Is it really the police who put people into jail? No—the police are simply instruments. Ultimately, it is the person’s own misdeed that becomes the real cause of his being sent to jail. Thus, we see that all three factors are involved. The wrongdoing is committed by the criminal, the sentence is passed by the judge, and the execution is carried out by the police. Hence, all three factors are involved.

In our context, what are these three factors? They are material nature, the soul, and the Supreme Lord. This can be understood through the three terms beginning with “ja”: Jagat, Jīva, and Jagadīśa. Or, put another way: Prakṛti, Īśvara, and Jīva.

It is the Jīva who desires, and because the Jīva is the desirer, he is responsible. But after desiring, the Jīva cannot act alone. The Jīva desires, the Supersoul—like the judge—sanctions, and material nature—like the police—executes. Thus, Jīva, Īśvara, and Prakṛti together bring actions into effect. The Jīva desires, Īśvara sanctions, and Prakṛti carries them out. That is how actions take place through the cooperation of all three.

To consider another example: when I desire to speak, it may seem effortless—I simply open my mouth and begin talking. Yet, many factors can prevent me from speaking or from speaking coherently—biological, medical, or even psychological.

Thus, after I desire, the Supersoul present within sanctions—does this person deserve to speak clearly, or to be embarrassed by a stutter, a stammer, a memory lapse, or something else? The Supersoul makes that consideration, and then the body executes it.

If I have the karmic credits to speak, then the body becomes the instrument to execute it. Human speech, however, is so complex that researchers developing text-to-speech software or synthetic voices have never been able to capture its full subtlety. We do not merely utter words—we emphasize some, de-emphasize others, speak with particular accents and tones, and add myriad other nuances. All these elements together create the emotional tenor and profoundly shape the impact of speech.

These factors are neither fully under my control nor within my knowledge. I may want to speak, to emphasize certain words, to say some loudly and others softly. Yet, how all the inflections in the voice and the subtleties of sound production are actually executed—I have no idea. Still, they happen.

If I think I am the doer, then I am in illusion, because I do not even know how things are happening—what to speak of actually making them happen. Here, Kṛṣṇa explains what causes the soul to engage in material activities. By nature, the soul is spiritual and has only one true desire—to love and serve Kṛṣṇa. But in the material world, the soul acts to fulfill material desires. Where do those desires come from? They arise from the soul’s conditioned nature, which is called svabhāva.

For example, the same soul in India may cheer at a cricket match, and when that person goes to America, influenced by American culture, he may start cheering wildly at a baseball game. Or the same soul may, in one lifetime, speak coherently and intelligently—perhaps a double doctorate delivering lectures on physics at an international conference of leading scientists—but after death, that same soul may take birth as a dog and begin barking. It is the same soul. Why such a difference?

The answer is: ajñānenāvṛtaṁ jñānaṁ tena muhyanti jantavaḥ—knowledge is covered by ignorance, and thus living beings are bewildered. The soul always has a desire to act, whether it is to cheer for a sports team or to produce some sound. The desire to act is inherent, but the specific way in which the soul acts is determined by its svabhāva—svabhāvas tu pravartate.

Kṛṣṇa continues here to explain that ajñānenāvṛtaṁ jñānaṁ—our svabhāva itself is the ajñāna, the ignorance, that covers us.

Whether I say my svabhāva is brāhmaṇa-svabhāva, kṣatriya-svabhāva, or vaiśya-svabhāva, from the spiritual point of view it is ultimately ignorance. Spiritually, I am the soul—I am not a brāhmaṇa or a kṣatriya. If I am inclined to act in a particular way, it is only because my nature impels me in that direction.

And what is that nature which drives me so? It is the set of conditionings I have acquired through past karma, conditionings that obscure my true spiritual identity.

The soul is the doer in the sense of being the desirer. The Supersoul is the doer in the sense of being the sanctioner. And material nature is the doer in the sense of being the executor.

However, the soul develops particular desires because of ajñāna. It is due to this ignorance that the soul desires to act in specific ways. Since the Supersoul only sanctions in reciprocation to the soul’s desires and actions, He does not accept the resulting reactions. Thus, as Kṛṣṇa explains, it is ajñāna that causes the soul’s bondage.

If that ajñāna is removed, the soul is no longer bound but becomes liberated. Once ignorance is dispelled, the soul can act in its true nature without bondage. How this takes place will be explained in the next verse.

Thank you.