Gita 05.14 – The more we become detached, the more we master the body

Thank you na karma phala sanyogam subhavastu pravartate trutvam na karmani kar trutvam not have a proprietorish attitude na karmani not think that you are the doer of the activities lokasya sujati prabho nor is it that lokasya sujati how does he make others do things so prabhu here Krishna is using the word prabhu to refer to the soul and na karma phala sanyogam nor is there any contact with the fruit of work subhavastu pravartate subhav is material nature tu pravartate that is what is acting so Krishna is saying that the soul who is detached the soul who is situated in the body in the city of as was mentioned in the previous verse this soul does not act nor does the soul make others act but then isn't action happening yes action is happening because of material nature subhavastu pravartate pravartate yes so here Krishna is introducing this word of subhava subhava bhava emotions subhava is one's own emotion the word bhava can also mean nature according to our nature we have certain set of emotions that can also be a correlation between the two meanings bhava means nature sadatat bhava bhavita Krishna will say later on in the 8th chapter that according to our emotion we will acquire that kind of nature so subhava means one's own emotion one's own nature so there is kshatriya subhava there is brahmana subhava like that there are subhava according to varanas and according to one's subhava when people act then they can act with relative comfort and competence a brahmana can do brahmanical duties comfortably and competently because that is the subhava so Krishna is saying Arjuna when you will be fighting subhava astu pravartate know that it is your nature that is acting as a kshatriya you have to do the duty of fighting so do that duty and know that it is the subhava that is acting so nakartrutvam nakarmani lo nakartrutvam nakarmani you don't think that you are the doer and don't think that you are the doer don't think that even I am making you do things or you are making someone else do things nakarmani lokasya sujati prabhu sujati means create or impel it is not that you make others do things prabhu so the word prabhu generally we use in a respectful sense to refer to other devotees as master krishna dasa ki viraj go swamin chetan charitamat uses the word prabhu to refer to to chetan maha prabhu he uses the word maha prabhu on a few occasions but the standard reference that he uses is prabhu so here Krishna is stating that nakartrutvam nakarmani lokasya sujati prabhu so the prabhu the soul now the soul is it controlled by the body or is it under the control of the body actually the soul is in the condition stage controlled by the body so the spiritual awareness is covered over and then the soul is acting simply for material desires and demands so it has come under the control of the body under the spell of the body and the soul is acting to fulfill the desires of the body so the soul who is acting like this is definitely unfortunate is illusion and that kind of soul is not necessarily the prabhu although in one sense the soul is always the Ishwara because the soul is conscious and the body is not conscious soul is definitely not parameshwara he is not a supreme controller but Krishna will use the word Ishwara for the soul later on in the 15th chapter because the soul is the controller of the body atleast to some extent we cannot control the body absolutely we humans if we want to fly in the sky we can't fly like the birds can if i want to develop a sweet singer's voice i can't just develop that voice automatically so there are certain things we just can't change there are certain things we will be able to change gradually and there are certain changes we can definitely make so the point is we don't have complete control over the body we can't make it do whatever we want but certainly we do have some control over the body and if we use that control properly to the extent we give in to bodily desires to that extent we lose that control also each time we eat at a untimely urge in between meals then when we give in to the body like that the body's control on us increases and next time that urge will come and it will come stronger and it will pull harder and we will find resisting it more distressing more painful so by resisting bodily urges we minimize the body's control on us and we increase our control on the body so we don't have to necessarily envision an adversarial relationship between us and the body we want to use the body in Krishna's service and in that sense the body is a tool for us so it's not that say woodcutter has to quarrel with the axe woodcutter shouldn't consider the axe to be the enemy but at the same time though we may say the body is like a tool then the body is more like a chariot if you want to say in the chariot body metaphor and then the chariot has horses and the horses can frolic off in their own independent in their willful directions so that has to be avoided so for that the horses have to be kept under control so like that the body we don't have to imagine adversarial relationship with the body but if you don't discipline the body then the body takes control and then the horses will make the warrior go whichever direction they want to go and the warrior will get lost or distracted so similarly if we don't control the body then the body will go in whatever directions it wants and will take us there and in that way we will get distracted from our spiritual purposes and even our material long term purposes we just waste our body, our time satisfying petty bodily urges oh I want to eat, I want to sleep, I want to mate I want to become more comfortable whatever so certain bodily necessities have to be fulfilled but we don't have to ponder to every body the desire and demand so to the extent the soul is detached as it was mentioned that it is repeatedly mentioned the soul has renunciation the soul is detached so to the extent we are detached to that extent we become Prabhu, we become the master of the body so we provide for the body's needs according to a well made plan that we have made ok this is the time I will eat, this is the time I will sleep, this is the time I will do this and in that way we can use the body as an efficient vehicle for Atma Shuddha for our purification, for our service to Krishna the soul is Prabhu so now we are talking about three different senses the soul is Prabhu, first is ontologically the soul has consciousness the body doesn't have consciousness so the soul is superior in that sense we could say soul is Prabhu, second sense is that the soul does have it is related to the first itself that because soul has consciousness soul does have control over certain bodily functions now when we say the body doesn't have consciousness that is true but still the body is like a machine and as a machine it has a program and the program will work according to its machine so there are certain things in which the body we can't change certain things which we can change for the better so just like in a machine every machine I can run certain programs say in a mac machine I cannot run a windows program but within the mac machine that basic limitation may be there but after that I have facilities to run different kinds of programs although there is a basic OS that is the same so because of the subhava that is there that like the basic OS we can't change that but within that subhava we can run different scripts so kshatriya has kshatriya's subhava to heroism, chivalry eagerness to fight strength kshatriya can use that according to dharma or kshatriya can if it falls to the lower nature may use it for adharma so the second level of control that we have is that the body is a mechanism which works in particular ways but we have a choice which direction to take the bodily mechanism and third level is that to the extent we control the bodily urges to that extent our mastery of the body increases so that way Krishna is telling that when you become detached like this then Prabhu so you will be a master of the body and the master of the body know that you are not the doer of actions nor are you making others do actions this is happening according to subhava and if you are not emotionally entangled in what is happening according to subhava then you will also not become karmically entangled what is engaging what is making action happen is subhava so in this way Krishna is continuing this in-depth philosophical analysis of the nature of action and is explaining to Arjuna how detachment is the key to protection from reaction.