Bg. 13.22

This verse makes clear the agency of the jīva alone in enjoying and suffering and in living in prakṛti. The Lord also shows the cause of the jīva’s combining with prakṛti. Though the jīva is by nature knowledge and bliss, it is situated in prakṛti due to impressions of beginningless karma. Endowed with body, senses and prāṇa which are produced by prakṛti, which the jīva rules, the jīva experiences (bhuṅkte) happiness and distress (guṇān) which are produced by prakṛti. [Note: Happiness, distress, desire and hatred were included in the description of the field of prakṛti.] Where? He experiences this by taking births in wombs which are higher (such devas and men) or lower (animal, bird and others), in well-made or poorly made wombs. In all this, the jīva alone is the agent. The cause of the association is explained. The cause is beginningless desire for objects made of the guṇas (guṇa saṅgaḥ). The meaning is this. The beginningless jīva is contaminated with beginningless imprints in the form of karma. The jīva desiring enjoyable objects because of his being an enjoyer, will take shelter of prakṛti equipped with the desirables which she offers to him, until those imprints of karma are destroyed by devotee association. With the destruction of impressions, he enjoys the happiness in the abode of the Lord. The śruti says so’śnute sarvān kāmān saha brahmaṇā vipaścitā: he attains all his desires with the omniscient Lord. (Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.1) The followers of sāṅkhya, taking isolated meanings of the statements “all activities are carried out by the modes” (BG 3.27) “prakṛti is the doer” (BG 13.20), “everything is done by prakṛti alone” (BG 13.29) and “the guṇas alone are the agent” (BG 14.19), claim that prakṛti alone is the agent. That is an impetuous interpretation, since prakṛti, like a lump of earth or wood, is an unconscious element. The ability to gain knowledge, perceive, desire and act—the qualities of the agent—belong to conscious entities alone. The śruti says vijṣānaṁ yajṣaṁ tanute karmāṇi tanute’pi ca: the jīva accomplishes knowledge, sacrifice and action. (Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.5) Śruti also says: eṣa hi draṣṭā spraṣṭā śrotā rasayitā ghrātā mantā boddhā kartā vijṣānātmā puruṣaḥ: the conscious ātmā alone is the seer, toucher, hearer, taster, smeller, thinker, knower, and agent. (Praśna Upaniṣad 4.9) They maintain that prakṛti has this nature of an agent because of being the receptacle of the jīva and thus having superimposition of consciousness. This is not so, because the agency of prakṛti through proximity and imposition is caused by the proximity of the jīva alone. It is seen that the ability of hot iron to burn is due to fire, not the iron. One should not compare dull iron (or prakṛti) to the water that moves or the tree that bears fruit, and thus conclude that this proves prakṛti’s nature as an agent, because all of that action is accomplished by the presence of antaryāmi, and because this contradicts the śruti, which is the foundation of knowledge. Memory (of scriptural rules) enables one to perform jyotiṣṭoma for bestowing svarga and meditation for bestowing liberation. This indicates that consciousness, the experiencer, not inert prakṛti, is the agent. [Note: What would be the use of scripture if prakṛti did everything?] Agency belongs to the jīva alone. When there are statements in scripture saying that prakrti is the doer, those statements are made in order to show the prominence of her functioning. Though a man carries something using his hand, we say that the hand carries an object. Similarly, because jīva accomplishes using prakṛti, the scriptures say that prakṛti accomplishes. This is how some explain such statements. Others say that prakṛti is said to be the agent in actions like sacrifice or war for the jīva attached to body and senses made of prakṛti, whereas prakṛti is not the agent for the pure jīva without attachment to body and senses.