Ramsukhdasji Maharaj - The Self is Neither Acts nor Tainted

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In Gita the Lord says " Na Karoti Na Lipyate " (Gita 13:31) - The Self

neither acts nor is tainted - this fact is not a result of any

spiritual practice, but it IS (naturally). It means that in the Self

there is no doership - enjoyership - it is self-evident. This needs

no effort i.e. nothing is to be done to realize this. It means that

doership and enjoyership are not to be wiped out, but they are not to

be accepted at all in the Self; but a spiritual aspirant has to

realize the non-existence of doership, because the truth is that this

doership is not in the Self. Therefore a spiritual aspirant should

realize that he is neither a doer nor an enjoyer. Realization of

freedom from doership and enjoyership in the Self (disinterestedness

and freedom from the sense of mine) is liberation from worldly

bondage. In Gita, this point has been declared with the statement

that memory about this truth is once again regained - " nasto mohah

smritir labdhaa. " (Gita 18:73).

 

If the Self in neither the doer, nor the enjoyer, then who is the

doer and enjoyer? Let us reflect on this. First think over - who is a

doer? The body is not the doer, the mind, intellect, the reflecting

faculty within (citta) and the ego - these four are instruments which

are called internal instruments (antahkarana) . This " antahkarana " is

also not the doer, because the instrument depends on the doer, while

the doer is independent (svatantrah kartaa). An instrument

facilitates the accomplishment of an act or action. As a pen does not

write independently, but it is merely an instrument for writing which

depends on the writer (doer). Therefore an instrument is not the doer

and the doer is not the instrument.

 

Secondly, if the doership is in the instrument, why is the Self

feeling happy and sad? If the instrument is the recepient of

happiness and sorrow, what harm / gain does this cause the Self? But

the true Self is also not the doer, as " I " ness (mein pana) is the

evolute of nature " prakriti " , then how is that " I " ness possible in

the Self, which transcends Nature " prakriti " ? Had there been

doership in the Self (innately present) then, it would be impossible

to wipe it out (remove it), because the Self is imperishable and

eternal. Therefore here the Lord has negated doership in the Self -

" na karoti " . Further in Chapter 18 also the Lord declares, " He who

assumes and believes the Self as the doer, that man of perverse

understanding does not see right, because his mind is not pure. "

(Gita 18:16). In reality, the one who is an enjoyer (experiencer, who

becomes happy and sad), he alone is the doer.