Bg. 3.27 · Bhagavad-gita As It Is

Devanagari

प्रकृतेः क्रियमाणानि गुणैः कर्माणि सर्वशः । अहङ्कारविमूढात्मा कर्ताहमिति मन्यते ॥ २७ ॥

Verse text

prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate

Synonyms

prakṛteḥ — of material nature ; kriyamāṇāni — being done ; guṇaiḥ — by the modes ; karmāṇi — activities ; sarvaśaḥ — all kinds of ; ahaṅkāra-vimūḍha — bewildered by false ego ; ātmā — the spirit soul ; kartā — doer ; aham — I ; iti — thus ; manyate — he thinks.

Translation

The spirit soul bewildered by the influence of false ego thinks himself the doer of activities that are in actuality carried out by the three modes of material nature.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

27. The person bewildered by pride thinks that he is the doer of actions which are being done completely by the senses made of prakṛti.

Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

27. The person bewildered by pride thinks that he is the doer of actions which are being done completely by the body, senses and prāṇas made of prakṛti.

Purport

Two persons, one in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and the other in material consciousness, working on the same level, may appear to be working on the same platform, but there is a wide gulf of difference in their respective positions. The person in material consciousness is convinced by false ego that he is the doer of everything. He does not know that the mechanism of the body is produced by material nature, which works under the supervision of the Supreme Lord. The materialistic person has no knowledge that ultimately he is under the control of Kṛṣṇa. The person in false ego takes all credit for doing everything independently, and that is the symptom of his nescience. He does not know that this gross and subtle body is the creation of material nature, under the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and as such his bodily and mental activities should be engaged in the service of Kṛṣṇa, in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. The ignorant man forgets that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is known as Hṛṣīkeśa, or the master of the senses of the material body, for due to his long misuse of the senses in sense gratification, he is factually bewildered by the false ego, which makes him forget his eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

The doubt may arise: how to distinguish the person in knowledge (vidvān) from the ignorant person, if the man in knowledge also performs actions. Two verses explain the difference. The ignorant person thinks that he is the performer of all the actions, which are actually performed completely by the material senses, which in turn are the products of the guṇas (prakṛteḥ guṇaih).

Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)

Though one should be tolerant of those persons absorbed in karma, the difference between the person in knowledge and the person in ignorance is expressed in two verses. The person bewildered by false ego thinks that he is the doer of activities. By the sutra na lokāvyaya-niṣṭhā (Pāṇini 2.3.69) genitive case is not used to express the agent or the object when the word is governed by certain active participles or nouns of agency such as karta. The accusative case is instead used to denote the object. He who is bewildered by ego thinks “I am the doer (kartā) of the activities (karmāṇi).” Thus karmāṇi (accusitive case) is used instead of the genitive case karmāṇām. The actions are described. He thinks he is the doer of all actions actions (karmāṇi) whether non-prescribed or prescribed by the Vedas, which are in fact performed by the products (guṇaiḥ) of the Lord’s māyā (prakṛteḥ), in the form of the body, senses and prāṇas, impelled into action by the Lord. The following should be understood by determining the intention of the statement. The jīvātmā, with a body made of knowledge (saṁvit), has a sense of ‘I’ and is actually the doer. But overcome with impressions (vāsanā) of enjoying material sense objects from begenningless time, he is embraced by prakṛti, who is situated next to him, who is the cause of his pleasure. Through false ego, a product of prakṛti, he becomes bewildered, devoid of knoweldge of the self,thinking himself to be a material body. He then thinks that the activities which are accomplished by the Lord and the material body, senses and life airs, are being done only by himself. [Note: As a human being, the free will and responsibility of the jīva never disappears, in spite of karma and desire. However his actions can only be performed along with prakṛti in the form of the body, senses, prāṇas and the consent of the Lord. How the jīva can conquer over the influence of karma and svabhāva is discussed at the end of the chapter.] The doership of the ātmā is only made possible by the body, senses and life airs, and by the paramātmā, who is the activator of all things. The jīva is not the only factor. That the jīva thinks that he is the only doer is a result of bewilderment from false ego. This is understood from three verses in the eighteenth chapter starting with adhiṣṭhānaṁ tathā karthā . (BG 18.14) The verse kārya-kāraṇa-kartṛtve hetuḥ prakṛtir ucyate (BG 13.18) describes prakṛti as the doer through the body and senses, but it is not possible to consider that prakṛti is the only doer because one must accept that prakrti comes into action only by contact with the Lord. Therefore it will be explained later that the doership of the Lord can never be rejected.