BG 5.8

Bg 5.8-9

naiva kiñcit karomīti

yukto manyeta tattva-vit

paśyañ śṛṇvan spṛśañ jighrann

aśnan gacchan svapañ śvasan

pralapan visṛjan gṛhṇann

unmiṣan nimiṣann api

indriyāṇīndriyārtheṣu

vartanta iti dhārayan

Word for word: 

na — never; eva — certainly; kiñcit — anything; karomi — I do; iti — thus; yuktaḥ — engaged in the divine consciousness; manyeta — thinks; tattva–vit — one who knows the truth; paśyan — seeing; śṛṇvan — hearing; spṛśan — touching; jighran — smelling; aśnan — eating; gacchan — going; svapan — dreaming; śvasan — breathing; pralapan — talking; visṛjan — giving up; gṛhṇan — accepting; unmiṣan — opening; nimiṣan — closing; api — in spite of; indriyāṇi — the senses; indriya–artheṣu — in sense gratification; vartante — let them be so engaged; iti — thus; dhārayan — considering.

Translation: 

A person in the divine consciousness, although engaged in seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving about, sleeping and breathing, always knows within himself that he actually does nothing at all. Because while speaking, evacuating, receiving, or opening or closing his eyes, he always knows that only the material senses are engaged with their objects and that he is aloof from them.

 

Chapter 5 Overview

1-6: KY, Karma Yoga is equal to, but easier than JY, jyan Yoga

7-16: By fixing mind on atma, Karma Yogi remains free from bondage. (This is elaboration of first 6 verses from 1-6. 

How Karma Yoga is equal? 

As Karma causes bondage and renunciation leads to liberation, 

so here Krishna tells that if one is not fixing mind on sense object instead he fixes his mind on atma the soul then the Karma yogi will remain free from bondage, then Krishna is saying by fixing mind on Super Soul Paramata in 17-29, a Karma Yogi will attain liberation. So here are two phases: one is not getting bound further and second is getting liberated. E.g. when we are sick one part is to remove the infection the virus or germs etc. and second is to regain the strength, so first part is to prevent aggravation of sickness so that it should not spread further and second is to remove the sickness and regain health, recovery is in two parts stop the negative and bring out the positive. So Atma gyana will help us not get bound further and Paratma gyana will lead to liberation.

Now we are discussing how Karma Yogi becomes free from bondage. By fixing the mind on Atma, Karma Yogis are free from bondage.

We discussed 5.7 sarva-bhūtātma-bhūtātmā, kurvann api na lipyate

Verse 5.8 and 5.9 are clubbed together by Srila Prabhupada

naiva kiñcit karomīti => na + iva -> Certainly not; kiñcit -> even a little; karomī + iti -> I am doing or I do + one doesn’t think like this 

yukto manyeta tattva-vit => tattva-vit -> the person who is knower of the truth, manyeta -> such a person thinks that I am not the doer of things. What things? paśyañ śṛṇvan spṛśañ jighrann …These are actions of various senses, first are sense which takes things inward, knowledge acquiring senses, paśyañ -> Seeing, śṛṇvan -> hearing, spṛśañ -> touching, jighrann -> smelling, aśnan -> eating, So these are the ways by which we take things inside the body, gacchan -> going here and there, svapañ -> dreaming, śvasan-> breathing, pralapan-> talking, visṛjan — giving up; gṛhṇan — accepting. So these are the various things by which we take things inside the body and send things outside the body.  unmiṣan — opening; nimiṣan — closing; 

indriyāṇīndriyārtheṣu

vartanta iti dhārayan

The tattva vit person knows that simply the senses are coming in contact with the sense objects, nothing more is happening. 

So Sri Krishna is telling that a wise person understands that when so many things are happening in the body I am not the doer of those things. 

e.g. we think I am speaking, which is true but it is not the complete picture, at scientific level understanding: in body there are diff kind of activities like consciously doing things and unconscious activities like while speaking I am breathing. There are some disease where things happening involuntarily in the body doesn’t happen like that e.g. breathing they have to remind consciously that I have to breath, this is a nightmarish disease they cannot sleep without an artificial repository system, if the artificial system fails they will die in sleep.

Similarly chewing food as soon as food is taken, there are so many processes for digesting food, similar to breathing of air, if we have to be conscious of so many things there would be a big burden on our brain. We think that these things are happening automatically but automatic means we don’t know who is in control and how things are happening, automatic doesn’t mean absence of control, automatic means absence of awareness of control, so who is controlling it is Supersoul who is controlling…Maya adikshena prakriti BG 9.10, so many things are happening in our body which are necessary to be happening but it happens without our consciousness w.r.t. these things we can say that we are not the doer, science can tell how many things in the body for which we are not doers, 

Similarly wound happens we put ointment and medicines but just putting medicine would be of no use if there is no healing process in terms of say WBC is present in body, clotting which takes place, some Dr. said most of the medicine is entertaining while body heals itself, so medicine are not the primary cause of healing it is body but medicine does help no doubt as sometimes healing system takes time and medicine accelerate the process. E.g. AIDS disease, when the immune system stops working and the defense system collapses, so there are so much in the body for which we are not doer, even for activities which are happening at a voluntary level we are not doer like when paralysis or Parkinson happens we cannot control our hand movement or stopping the movement. 

Our living in the body itself is temporary where sometimes we are able to do something and sometimes we are not doer. There is a system in place by which there is an illusion that we are doer, when system changes its way of functioning then we can do the things. These are at scientific level.

 

At philosophical level we can understand that, I as a soul don’t have to do much with the body, like a soul in human body then goes to dogs body he cannot do much but just bark, so he is bounded with the type of body he gets…Sarira bandhan, soul starts expressing its desire as per the facility present in the body, so body is a mechanism, according to that mechanism people will work. When we understand this we understand that we are not the doer. 

 

indriyāṇīndriyārtheṣu

vartanta iti dhārayan

 

Who is the karta?

If the soul is not the doer,

  1. Whose reactions is he getting?
  2. Whom are the scriptures meant for?

The soul is not the karta means the soul is not the svatantra-karta

We say that soul gets the reaction and scripture says that soul is responsible; scripture says that you should do this and you should not do this. So point is not that absolutely soul is not doer, point is soul is not svatantra-karta Doer.

Soul works in coordination with other elements, it is a dependent doer.

 

Who is the karta?

If a tree is cut,

Axe is the instrumental cause & woodcutter is the initiating cause.

Both causes are important for cutting the wood.

For actions in the world both cause are important, for material cause

Prakriti is the instrumental cause

Jiva is the initiating cause

Soul in dog body, human body,  horse body soul is initiating cause it wants to communicate something but in these bodies the instrumental cause is different, all these body voice boxes are different.

Similarly cutting wood someone can use an ordinary axe, someone can use an electric axe.

 

Who is the karta?

If a criminal is jailed,

The police – the instrumental cause

the judge – the sanctioning cause

The criminal – the initiating cause

So in the act of jailing criminal all three are involved, the criminal, the police and the judge.

If a soul suffers,

Material nature – the instrumental cause, e.g. disease

Supersoul – the sanctioning cause, e.g. Supersoul sanctions updrista anumanta ca

Soul – initiating cause, e.g. we did certain karma for which we have to get reactions so we get reactions according to time, place and circumstances and according to our best for our reformation.

So in this way we understand that who is karta, the karta is all three Prakriti, Soul and Supersoul.

 

When sense object is perceived, input comes from sense object then soul desires with sense object but that desire is perceived by Supersoul in the heart the Supersoul sanctions, at that time material nature executes and that person engages in sense gratification, this is how we engage in activities.

So who all are doers here? Soul is doer in the sense of desirer, initiator, Supersoul is sanctioner and material nature is the executor so all three are doers.

So what is the point of Gita verse here naiva kiñcit karomīti so what it means is indriyāṇīndriyārtheṣu vartanta iti dhārayan, simply the senses are coming in contact with sense objects, so what does it mean is, there are some evitable need of the body which have to be fulfilled and those are fulfilled but beyond that there is no further requirement to try to engage in sense gratification because soul is not motivated by material desire, soul is not motivated for material desire then there is not further stimulation to do sensual activities and that is why the person stays protected so person doesn’t get bound.

So in this case what will happen for the detached soul, so actually there is no desire for sense gratification indriyan indriyarthesu material nature means the senses body need food so material nature body which is like fuel, when food goes inside body person doesn’t think that I will enjoy this food, senses are coming in contact with sense object, one may wonder if a person doesn’t desire how he will eat food, yes desire for eating food will be there but the desire is eat to live or eat to enjoy, when there is eat to live there is no enjoying mentality there when eat to enjoy then enjoying mentality is there that can implicate one in karmic bondage.