Devanagari
नादत्ते कस्यचित्पापं न चैव सुकृतं विभु: ।
अज्ञानेनावृतं ज्ञानं तेन मुह्यन्ति जन्तव: ॥ १५ ॥
Verse text
nādatte kasyacit pāpaṁ
na caiva sukṛtaṁ vibhuḥ
ajṣānenāvṛtaṁ jṣānaṁ
tena muhyanti jantavaḥ
Synonyms
na
—
never
;
ādatte
—
accepts
;
kasyacit
—
anyone’s
;
pāpam
—
sin
;
na
—
nor
;
ca
—
also
;
eva
—
certainly
;
su-kṛtam
—
pious activities
;
vibhuḥ
—
the Supreme Lord
;
ajṣānena
—
by ignorance
;
āvṛtam
—
covered
;
jṣānam
—
knowledge
;
tena
—
by that
;
muhyanti
—
are bewildered
;
jantavaḥ
—
the living entities.
Translation
Nor does the Supreme Lord assume anyone’s sinful or pious activities. Embodied beings, however, are bewildered because of the ignorance which covers their real knowledge.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
15. Thus, the Lord does not receive the sinful or pious reaction from those actions. The jīva’s knowledge is covered by ignorance. Because of this, living entities are bewildered.
Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)
15. The Lord is not responsible for the sinful or pious acts of the jīvas. The jīvas knowledge is covered by their hostility to the Lord. Thus the living entities are bewildered by that ignorance and blame the Lord.
Purport
The Sanskrit word vibhu means the Supreme Lord who is full of unlimited knowledge, riches, strength, fame, beauty and renunciation. He is always satisfied in Himself, undisturbed by sinful or pious activities. He does not create a particular situation for any living entity, but the living entity, bewildered by ignorance, desires to be put into certain conditions of life, and thereby his chain of action and reaction begins. A living entity is, by superior nature, full of knowledge. Nevertheless, he is prone to be influenced by ignorance due to his limited power. The Lord is omnipotent, but the living entity is not. The Lord is vibhu, or omniscient, but the living entity is aṇu, or atomic. Because he is a living soul, he has the capacity to desire by his free will. Such desire is fulfilled only by the omnipotent Lord. And so, when the living entity is bewildered in his desires, the Lord allows him to fulfill those desires, but the Lord is never responsible for the actions and reactions of the particular situation which may be desired. Being in a bewildered condition, therefore, the embodied soul identifies himself with the circumstantial material body and becomes subjected to the temporary misery and happiness of life. The Lord is the constant companion of the living entity as Paramātmā, or the Supersoul, and therefore He can understand the desires of the individual soul, as one can smell the flavor of a flower by being near it. Desire is a subtle form of conditioning for the living entity. The Lord fulfills his desire as he deserves: Man proposes and God disposes. The individual is not, therefore, omnipotent in fulfilling his desires. The Lord, however, can fulfill all desires, and the Lord, being neutral to everyone, does not interfere with the desires of the minute independent living entities. However, when one desires Kṛṣṇa, the Lord takes special care and encourages one to desire in such a way that one can attain to Him and be eternally happy. The Vedic hymns therefore declare, eṣa u hy eva sādhu karma kārayati taṁ yam ebhyo lokebhya unninīṣate. eṣa u evāsādhu karma kārayati yam adho ninīṣate: “The Lord engages the living entity in pious activities so that he may be elevated. The Lord engages him in impious activities so that he may go to hell.” ( Kauṣītakī Upaniṣad 3.8)
ajṣo jantur anīśo ’yam ātmanaḥ sukha-duḥkhayoḥ īśvara-prerito gacchet svargaṁ vāśv abhram eva ca
“The living entity is completely dependent in his distress and happiness. By the will of the Supreme he can go to heaven or hell, as a cloud is driven by the air.”
Therefore the embodied soul, by his immemorial desire to avoid Kṛṣṇa consciousness, causes his own bewilderment. Consequently, although he is constitutionally eternal, blissful and cognizant, due to the littleness of his existence he forgets his constitutional position of service to the Lord and is thus entrapped by nescience. And, under the spell of ignorance, the living entity claims that the Lord is responsible for his conditional existence. The Vedānta-sūtras (2.1.34) also confirm this. Vaiṣamya-nairghṛṇye na sāpekṣatvāt tathā hi darśayati: “The Lord neither hates nor likes anyone, though He appears to.”
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Since the Lord does not make the jīva do either good or bad actions, he does not experience the results in the form of suffering or enjoyment. He does not accept (na adatte) them. (He is not responsible for them). However, one of His associates, His śakti called ignorance (ajṣānena) covers the inherent knowledge of the jīva. Because of this (tena), the jīvas are bewildered (and hence act. and suffer or enjoy their karma).
Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)
“But if you say that the pure jīva is not the doer, then one must conclude that the paramātmā, out of some impulse of amusement, forcing pradhāna down the jīvas throat, created him with body and senses which are transformations of pradhāna. This is justified. The śruti confirms:
eṣa u hy eva sādhu karma kārayati taṁ yam ebhyo lokebhya unninīṣate
eṣa u evāsādhu karma kārayati taṁ yam adho ninīṣate.
The Lord engages the living entity in pious activities whom he desires to elevate from these worlds. The Lord engages him in impious activities whom he desires to degrade. Kauṣītakī Upaniṣad 3.8
The smṛti also criticizes the Lord:
ajṣo jantur anīśo’yam ātmanaḥ sukha-duḥkhayoḥ
īśvara-prerito gacchet svargaṁ vāśv abhram eva ca
The ignorant living entity is completely powerless in regards to attaining his distress and happiness. Impelled by the Supreme Lord he will go to heaven, or the sky. Mahābhārata 3.31.273 [Note: The Mahābhārata verse is almost the same as that quoted.]
Therefore the Lord leads the jīva into states of sin and piety. In being the instigator, the Lord must therefore have the quality of injustice and must be blamed for the sins of the jīva.”
This verse answers that accusation. The Supreme Lord (vibhuḥ), full of immeasurable bliss and knowledge, and full of unlimited energies, enjoying His own bliss, and being indifferent to all else, simply engages the jīva in activity according to the jīva’s impressions—a jīva who desiring to enjoy, bound up by beginningless impressions in the pradhāna, takes a body made of a transformation of pradhāna just by proximity to the Lord. Therefore, the Lord does not receive any sinful or pious reaction for any jīva’s actions.
The Viṣṇu Purāṇa says:
yathā sannidhi-mātreṇa gandhaḥ kṣobhāya jāyate
manaso nopakartṛtvāt tathāsau parameśvaraḥ
sannidhānād yathākāśa-kālādyāḥ kāraṇaṁ taroḥ
tathaivāpariṇāmena viśvasya bhagavān hariḥ
Smell brings about disturbance to the mind by proximity with the mind, not because of doing anything. In the same way the Supreme Lord also acts in relation to the living entities without thoughts of disturbing them. Just as by proximity, ether and time are causes of a tree without their undergoing transformation, so Bhagavān is the cause of the universe without His undergoing contact or transformation. Viṣṇu Purāṇa 1.2.30-1
The example of fragrance is given to illustrate the neutral position of the Lord, but this does not mean that the Lord does not have desire in creating, for the śruti also says :
so’kāmayata
The Lord desired.
Bṛhad Āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.2.4
But then why do the jīvas accuse the Lord of injustice? This is explained in the next line of the verse. The knowledge of the jīva, though eternal, disappears from view (āvṛtam) due to the jīva’s hostility to the Lord without beginning (ajṣānena). Because of this (tena), the jīvas (jantuh) are bewildered. The Lord is just, but the ignorant people, not the wise, say that the Lord is unjust.
The author of the Vedānta Sūtras says :
vaiṣamya-nairghṛṇye na sāpekṣatvāt tathā hi darśayati
The Lord has no injustice or hatred. Rather he is favorable to the jīvas. The sciptures declare this. Vedānta Sūtra 2.1.35
na karmāvibhāgād iti cen nānāditvāt
You cannot say the Lord is just, because He gives them different karmas to each jīva at the beginning. But that is not so, because karma is without a beginning. Vedānta Sūtra 2.1.36
Surrender Unto Me
This is knowledge of the Supersoul.
Here is the real knowledge that removes ignorance : (1) we are not our body; (2) the modes of material nature are controlled by the Supersoul, and (3) the Supersoul Himself is not responsible ‑ "He does not assume anyone's sinful or pious activities".
In his Purport, Srila Prabhupada says: "A living entity is, by superior nature, full of knowledge. Nevertheless, he is prone to be influenced by ignorance due to his limited power. The Lord is omnipotent, but the living entity is not. The Lord is vibhu, or omniscient, but the living entity is anu, or atomic. Because he is a living soul, he has the capacity to desire by his free will. Such desire is fulfilled only by the omnipotent Lord. And so, when the living entity is bewildered in his desires, the Lord allows him to fulfill those desires, but the Lord is never responsible for the actions and reactions of the parti situation which may be desired. Being in a bewildered condi therefore, the embodied soul identifies himself with the circumstantial material body and becomes subjected to the temporary misery and happiness of life. The Lord is the constant companion of the living entity as Paramatma, or the Supersoul, and therefore He can understand the desires of the individual soul, as one can smell the flavor of a flower by being near it. Desire is a subtle form of conditioning for the living entity. The Lord fulfills his desire as he deserves: Man proposes and God disposes. The individual is not, therefore, omnipotent in fulfilling his desires. The Lord, however, can fulfill all desires, and the Lord, being neutral to everyone, does not interfere with the desires of the minute independent living entities. However, when one desires Krsna, the Lord takes special care and encourages one to desire in such a way that one can attain to Him and be eternally happy.
The living entity, although he is not the doer, because of his desiring, he is responsible.
And the Supersoul's service to the living entity is to sanction and fulfill the living entity's desires as he deserves. Even though He is the omnipotent Lord and He is the controller of everything, still the Supreme Lord is not responsible because He is neutral and is just 'sanctioning'.
This is knowledge about the Supersoul's position and this was already explained in the 4th Chapter, Section B (Applied transcendental knowledge), after describing the limited freedom of the living entity, not free to obtain his desires. He is free to desire, but is the Lord who allows him, the Lord fulfils his desires.