Fwd: There is No Sense of Doership in the Self

[Guest guest]

Hare Krsna

 

Therefore one who thinks himself the only doer, not considering the five factors, is certainly not very intelligent and cannot see things as they are. GITA 2:55

 

The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature. GITA 3:27

 

Now let us think, in whom is the desire ? Some believe that the desire resides in the mind. But in actuality, the desire does not reside in the mind, rather it comes (visits) into the mind -"Prajahaati yadaa kaamaansarvonyaarth manogataan." (Gita 2:55). The mind is an internal instrument. An instrument has no desire. Does a pen have a desire to write ? Does a car have a desire to move? No, it does not. If we believe that desire (kaamana) is in the mind, then the sorrow that comes from lack of fulfillment of a desire should also be only in the mind. But if the desire is not satiated, the sufferer or the unhappy one is the doer (Self). There in fact, the desire is not in the instrument (mind-intellect) , but it is in the doer (kartaah). The instrument is dependent on the doer. But being entangled in the duality in the form of happiness and sorrow, resulting from satisfying or not satisfying a desire,

a man's discriminative faculty does not function properly, and he holds the desire to be in the mind. Now let us reflect on - Who is the doer? If the mind were the doer (agent of action), then it would have not acted depending on the intellect But it is everyone's experience that, whatever the intellect decides, the mind will not do. The mind leaves the desire for that thing; while that which the intellect is determined to do, the mind desires to do that act. But the intellect too is not an independent agent, as the intellect is also an internal instrument. When a man derives pleasure from satisfying a desire, then his intellect decides to do that act. But the man who knows that the end outcome of enjoyment of pleasures is nothing but pain, that man renounces the pleasure derived from satisfying desires, then the intellect decides not to pursue the desire for pleasure. Rather the

intellect renounces that desire for pleasure. An instrument depends on the agent, and is very useful in performing an action -"saadhaktam karanam" (Paani. Astaa 1:4:42). But the doer is independent (Paani. Astaa. 1:4:54). Even the Self is not the doer; because if there was doership in the Self, then that doership would never come to an end. Therefore in the Gita, God has negated the sense of doership in the Self - "Sharirasthopi kaunteye, ne karoti, ne lipyate," (Gita 13:31). In fact, he who is the experiencer (he who becomes happy and sad), is the doer.