श्रीमद्भगवद्गीताShrimad Bhagavad Gita 📖 Read as a flipbook

Bhagavad Gita · Karma Sannyasa YogaChapter 5, Shloka 14 (5.14)

Original Sanskrit · श्रीभगवान्

न कर्तृत्वं न कर्माणि लोकस्य सृजति प्रभुः
न कर्मफलसंयोगं स्वभावस्तु प्रवर्तते
॥ 5.14 ॥

na kartṛtvaṃ na karmāṇi lokasya sṛjati prabhuḥ
na karmaphalasaṃyogaṃ svabhāvastu pravartate

Translation

"The Lord (the self) creates neither the doership of people, nor actions, nor the link between action and its fruit — it is nature (prakriti) that drives all this."

Interpretation

Shankaracharya — the Lord = the self, nature = maya. Na kartṛtvaṃ svataḥ "kuru" iti — the self does not create doership by telling anyone "do it"; nor actions like ratha-ghaṭa-prāsādādīni (a chariot, a pot, a palace); nor the link with their fruit. Then who does? Svabhāvas tu svo bhāvaḥ svabhāvaḥ avidyā-lakṣaṇā prakṛtiḥ māyā pravartate — nature, that is, prakriti in the form of avidya, maya, is what operates — which will later be called daivī hi (7.14). Shankara's conclusion: paramārthatas tu — in ultimate truth the self is a non-doer.

Acharya Ramanuja — nature = beginningless vasana (latent tendency). Ayaṃ prabhuḥ akarma-vaśyaḥ svābhāvika-svarūpeṇa avasthita ātmā — the "Lord" means the self, which is not under the sway of karma and abides in its natural form — it does not create the doership of god, animal, human and so on. Svabhāvaḥ prakṛti-vāsanā — the vasana formed by the association with prakriti, arising from old karma carried on since beginningless time, and by the identification "I am a god / I am a human", drives all this; na svarūpa-prayuktam — not from one's own nature.

The difference: For Shankara, nature = maya (avidya), and non-doership is the ultimate truth; for Ramanuja, nature = karmic vasana, and the self's nature is real, only presently bound to prakriti.

AI-assisted draft translation — under review.

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