Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan

Now Krishna goes further and takes from the converse perspective that if one has this knowledge then one will not become bound. 

Bg 18.17

yasya nāhaṅkṛto bhāvo
buddhir yasya na lipyate
hatvāpi sa imāḻ lokān
na hanti na nibadhyate

Synonyms: 

yasya — one whose; na — never; ahaṅkṛtaḥ — of false ego; bhāvaḥ — nature; buddhiḥ — intelligence; yasya — one whose; na — never; lipyate — is attached; hatvā — killing; api — even; saḥ — he; imān — this; lokān — world; na — never; hanti — kills; na — never; nibadhyate — becomes entangled.

Translation: 

One who is not motivated by false ego, whose intelligence is not entangled, though he kills men in this world, does not kill. Nor is he bound by his actions.

yasya nāhaṅkṛto bhāvo, na + ahaṅ + kṛto, for a person who is not having Ahankar, and without an Ahankar with such a Bhava one acts

buddhir yasya na lipyate, such a person’s intelligence in not entangled, 

then,

hatvāpi sa imāḻ lokān, the person does an activity which is as binding as killing, a murder or killing is considered sever crime and what a Kshatriya does is killing, so this is reference to Arjuna’s dilemma in battle field should I fight or not should I kill or not kill. So Krishna says if one doesn’t have ahankar if one doesn’t think that he is doer then even if one acts hatvāpi sa imāḻ lokān, even if one kills, na hanti na nibadhyate, one will not become bound and one will not be actually killing also. 

So is this verse license for indiscriminate killing. No not all. So can a murderer drops a bomb and say I am not the doer. So renouncing doership is not a simple verbalization, Police will say we will catch you we will hang you and we are also not the doers ☺. 

In the name of saying we are not the doer we cannot reject the responsibility for our actions. So it is we who are choosers and it is we who are the doers. So we are responsible for our actions but when we think that we are the only doer that becomes the illusion. There are generally so many conditions to be fulfilled before achieving something. 

Prior to this verse Krishna said one has to work according to prescribed duty and while doing so one should do that in a mood of detachment, 18.9 

kāryam ity eva yat karma
niyataṁ kriyate ’rjuna

So whimsical, non-scriptural, arbitrary action will cause bondage.

And that is not the action scriptures recommend at all.

Such actions are not licensed or rationalized by this verse.

What this verse is assuming is the action is according to the scripture and it is done with the detachment, it is part of one’s prescribed duty and even the prescribed duty seems as heinous, as bloody as killing it will not involve any bounding because it is actually done Na Aham Krito bhāvo, it is done without attachment, without the mentality of Karta. 

Srila Prabhupada’s Purport: When a soldier kills under the command of a superior officer, he is not subject to be judged. But if a soldier kills on his own personal account, then he is certainly judged by a court of law.

18.17 –License for violence?

Not silence

Not violence

But transcendence

Only reference to war in the last 6 chps after 11.32-34 –and it’s an indirect reference

End of transcription.