Bhagavad Gita Chapter 13, Verse 30

Chapter 13 – Kshetra Kshetrajna Vibhaga Yoga · Speaker: Krishna

Sanskrit verse

प्रकृत्यैव च कर्माणि क्रियमाणानि सर्वशः ।
यः पश्यति तथात्मानमकर्तारं स पश्यति ॥

Transliteration

prakṛtyaiva ca karmāṇi kriyamāṇāni sarvaśaḥ .
yaḥ paśyati tathātmānamakartāraṃ sa paśyati ॥

Meaning

He who sees that all actions are performed in every way by Nature alone, and that the Self is not the doer, he truly sees.

Word meanings

प्रकृत्या – by Nature (Prakriti)
एव – alone
च – and
कर्माणि – actions
क्रियमाणानि – being performed
सर्वशः – in every way
यः – who
पश्यति – sees
तथा – likewise
आत्मानम् – the Self
अकर्तारम् – non-doer
सः – he
पश्यति – (truly) sees

Anvaya (word order)

यः च कर्माणि सर्वशः प्रकृत्या एव क्रियमाणानि, तथा आत्मानम् अकर्तारं पश्यति, सः पश्यति ।

Explanation

Verse 28 described one side of true seeing: recognising the imperishable within the perishable. This verse gives the other side: a right understanding of action and agency. Seeing, hearing, walking, thinking and deciding are all functions of Prakriti, carried out by body, senses, mind and intellect. The Self is the witness of these activities, not their agent. Earlier in this chapter (13.21) Krishna said that Prakriti is the cause in the production of effects and instruments.

The idea has been prepared throughout the Gita. In 3.27 Krishna explained that actions are done by the gunas of Nature, while one deluded by ego thinks, I am the doer. In 5.8-9 the knower of truth reflects, I do nothing at all; the senses are simply moving among their objects. The present verse condenses that teaching into a single sentence and calls it real sight.

A caution is needed. Knowing the Self as a non-doer is no excuse for laziness or for escaping responsibility. The whole Gita is a call to action. The difference is that the wise person acts fully while remaining free from the ego of doership and attachment to results, and so action does not bind.

Shankara holds that the Self is changeless and actionless; doership is superimposed on it through ignorance. Ramanuja attributes the actions of the embodied soul to the gunas of the Prakriti with which it is associated, while the self in its own nature remains distinct from that bondage. Madhva adds that even the soul's limited agency depends on the Lord and is never independent. Each reading, in its own way, loosens the knot of ‘I alone am doing this’.

Context

Continuing the discrimination between field and knower, Krishna tells Arjuna that activity belongs to the field, Prakriti, and not to the knower, the Self. Verses 28-29 described the fruit of equal vision; the next verse explains that when one sees all beings resting in the One, one becomes Brahman.

Life lesson

When we see that body, mind and circumstances together produce action, both the pride of ‘I did it’ and the excess burden of ‘it was all my fault’ grow lighter. Act wholeheartedly, but know yourself as the witness.

Key terms

Prakriti: primal Nature made of the three gunas, from which body, senses and mind arise
Akarta: non-doer; the witnessing Self
Kartritva-abhimana: the ego-sense of being the doer