न कर्तृत्वं न कर्माणि लोकस्य सृजति प्रभुः ।
न कर्मफलसंयोगं स्वभावस्तु प्रवर्तते ।। ५.१४ ।।

na kartṛtvaṁ na karmāṇi lokasya sṛjati prabhuḥ |
na karma-phala-saṁyogaṁ svabhāvas-tu pravartate || 5.14 ||

Religious faith and tradition extol God, but often out of proportion too. Every action, event, incident or accident anywhere is ultimately instrumented by God’s will alone; this is their summary pronouncement. Against such immense faith and piety, does Krishna strike a heretic note? Or is he only showing clearly as to how the non-acting truth of the Soul can be in full harmony with God and His relationship with the world? He has to, of course, be ‘truthful’ to his mission of revealing the right Wisdom, the tower of strength and freedom for all.

The Lord of the Universe ordains neither the sense of doership nor various actions that are done; nor again does He connect one with results of his actions. What indeed acts and activates is “one’s nature”, the characteristic qualities of each.

What Krishna says is not new to the Vedic and Upanishadic thoughts. Right in the Rigveda you will find Vedic thinkers questioning and probing into the ‘state before creation’ and hence the Creator too. “What was there then, when neither existence nor non-existence reigned? When there was nothing to be seen, nor hence any seer, what ruled? What reference can we make to that state, when no distinctions of any kind could prevail?” Obviously, did not their search transcend the usual concept of ‘God’, the Creator? Can Krishna afford not to reflect the same spirit and purpose?

To be able to expose forcefully the truths of life and the world, one has to be steeped in freedom and clarity. In the next chapters, Krishna takes the pedestal of the Supreme Lord Himself to speak on His behalf. But here the context is different. He has been firmly holding the ‘non-involvemental nature’ of the Soul, showing that it is the true identity of everyone. How will it hold good when the Lord of the Universe is attributed with false qualities and intentions? How will thinking people accept such a God, who imposes His arbitrary will on men and women? What will become of the will and choice of the humans, which too are equally the gift of creation? Can imaginations, however faithful, be allowed to deter or confront the creative freedom of the human personality?

Krishna, or any other exponent for that matter, cannot be timid, meek or retreating when disclosing the supreme Truth. To reveal the truth is to blaze like fire. Fire burns whatever it gets. Only in being so will its real worth and mission reign.

Fearing nothing, favouring none, freed of undue reservations, the exponent has to reveal the supreme Truth, redressing the aggrieved and fulfilling the yearning. Only by that will the cause of the seeker be met and the goal of exposition served.

Krishna thus confidently pulls down all curtains of convention and superstition to show firsthand the innermost recess of religion as well as spirituality. True enlightenment alone can remove conflicts and assuage torments.

True, the sole purpose of religion as well as devotion is to give a powerful and reliable prop to human mind and psychology. But the devotional and religious message will not be complete until the worth and content of this prop are also brought home. Sreemad Bhagavatam, the great devotional scripture, therefore, makes an authentic analysis of God, devotion and devotee throughout its narration.

Devotional psychology leans upon God more with the intensity of emotion than with reason. To hold God responsible for everything – to cause good as well as bad – may be an inevitable need of piety, but not the demand of reason. The seeker must be adorned with a deeper vision. Krishna is strict in disallowing any kind of immaturity that will discredit religion and devotion. God’s position, he wants all seekers to know, is, at best, like the sky, surrounding and interpenetrating all visible existence.

Lord, the Creator, does not, he says, enjoin anything specifically on anyone with regard to any event, act or outcome. In everything that takes place anywhere, it is the scope and choice provided by nature that bring about the resultant outcome. It is so in every sphere, in every matter. As the earth found its trajectory in space and stabilized it, preserving the required harmony with the surrounding bodies, every human has to adopt his course, giving due place for those around, in natural harmony.

Anything has its in-built quality, character. To recognize it and give expression to it, taking into account similar notes in others around, is the undeniable role for everyone.

Variety rules nature on every front. Are not plants different from one another? Trees also are varied. The reptile, bird and animal kingdoms also abound in variety. The same rule and process apply for the humans too. Thus is each man or woman different from the others, in physiognomy, psychology and philosophy. This variety will reign in attitudes, responses, ideals, nay in everything.

Is anyone responsible for his or her birth? In fact, the only event, for which one cannot be held to be the cause, is his ‘birth’ into this world. All other things follow this first ‘chance’ event or outcome!

Thus one is ‘good’ as another is ‘bad’. The inborn or innate good generates its notes, and the bad, its too. Both irresistibly try their might to meet their inevitable fates. It is exactly like rain falling on earth, only to flow ‘down’. Does rain have any causality in the process? Nor does the earth have. The nature, svabhava, of water is to move to a lower level. Earth’s nature makes its terrain uneven. The flowing water and uneven terrain together result in the birth of rivers.

Nature is, of course, ‘intricate’ and ‘complex’, but it is ‘complete’ and ‘comprehensive’ to bring about all the interactions, their orderly sequence and outcome. It is like sodium and chlorine reacting to produce sodium chloride – a very natural and sequential development! The procedure is similar even when the acting and reacting constituents are sentient, including the humans.

Krishna wants all seekers to know clearly that He, whom they consider the Lord of the Universe, does not at all wish or bestow any kind of agency or ownership on anyone with regard to anything that takes place anywhere – in the limited circle of family, in still larger circles like the society, nation, world or the endless universe itself. In this, small or big incidents make no difference. The process and sequence are the same for all.

As are the planets, so are the planetary creations. The Lord has nothing special to pronounce, cause, do or undo. Things move in their order and rhythm, set by their own nature – their in-built qualities, powers and characteristics.

Birds and animals conceive and bring forth their young ones. Plants and trees have their own ways of propagation. Each species has its distinct level and features. Human race also is quite unique. But in humans the scope for thought, ideation, articulation and deliberation is abundant. Hence diverse views, norms and ideals emerge and try to assert. What Krishna does is also part of this deliberation. In the prevailing divergent views, the svabhava (the nature) of each – be it of an individual, group or still greater aggregate – manifests or expresses itself powerfully.

Salt is saline. Sugar is sweet. So too is man, human. Human variety is, of course, astounding. A tiger remains tigerly. So too are the other animals. But the human has the full scope to look into himself and others, and determine what he should be, as different from what he finds himself to be. Such observation and the subsequent transition are what make human life distinct, and in a way superior too.

The potential to change, correct and improve is in-built in the human system. That is how in Kurukshetra, Arjuna confessed his mental and moral crisis before Krishna, and Krishna began to deliver his thoughts and vision to help him. Did Duryodhana care to mend his evil in the same way? Only when one’s mind responds, the change is possible, and necessary.

Man’s nature makes him act with his volition and choice. And the actions bring their outcome. Will they not? Does not even a seed, falling somewhere by chance, begin to sprout there, though uncared and unattended? What about a willful act of the human then? To act and enjoy or suffer its outcome, is all in the nature of life and existence.

Remember what Krishna said: “All beings are adhering to their nature. Each follows its own. Even the Knower does so. What can undue restraint or restriction from outside do (3.33)?”

But he instantly rejoined: “It is for everyone to exercise his or her option and avoid falling a victim to the traps the objects create (3.34).” Did he not emphasize that the objects carry the power to ‘allure and delude’ the human mind? He equally stressed the need for each person to safeguard against enslavement or subjugation by the objects.

Krishna is clarifying the same stand here, with even more wholesome statements and elucidation. Any ultimate ownership or possessiveness one feels for whatever he does, is misplaced. It is against the broad scheme of things and the flow of nature. To assign various duties to oneself or the rest is also not in the domain of Providence. Kartrtva, doership, is the deluded notion ruling the mind.

Duties and dharma are concepts of the human mind. They are meant to facilitate and strengthen individual and collective life. It is like our laying roads, making vehicles and enforcing traffic rules. The purpose is to make travel smooth and safe. As are the traffic rules, so are the postulates of dharma – the behavioural and interactional disciplines for healthy collective living and interaction. Do not hold the Lord to be the author of all these.

Full responsibility for evolving the dharmik codes as well as their faithful pursuit rests with the humans alone. The dharma of our land has been the result of age-old thinking and evaluation. Immense thought, experience and introspection has preceded the process. Ultimately, it was with unparalleled confidence, strength, purity and self-discipline that the thinkers arrived at Sanatana Dharma, the eternal dharma, which Krishna propounds here.