Gita 05.15 – The judge is not responsible for the criminal’s conviction

Thank you Bhagavad Gita 5.15 Krishna speaks over here about who is the doer who is it that makes things happen in philosophy is a sub branch called as etiology it looks at study of causality what is the cause of things now Krishna is saying over here doesn't accept of anyone slightly also the sins nor does he accept the Sukriti, the Punya also Vibho Vibho refers to the Vibho literally means big so the big one is the super soul the Atma is Anu it is described that the Atma is one ten thousand the tip of a hair so as contrasted to that the super soul although in present is of the size of a thumb but still in the body but the super soul is the same super soul who pervades all over the existence so this means that the sinful reactions are the sins basically the credit for the actions the sins or the pious actions is not accepted by the super soul then who is the doer of the question may come up so that is mentioned in the next part of the verse C and D by ignorance covered so the knowledge is covered because of ignorance by that the living entity soul so it is said that it is not the super soul who does right and wrong actions but it is soul who is covered by ignorance now previous line actually the soul is not the doer we see that in 5.13 it was said mentally renounce work renounce work mentally that means do the work externally but in the mind understand that you are not the doer then 14th verse said that the soul is not the doer soul doesn't make others to do also and in that same point was stressed again so now which makes things happen so now the question will come up it is is it actually a doer of anything so how we could say that it is unconscious it is insentient because it is prakriti so can somehow make anything happen so the question of who is the doer is being analysed here and it is stated here that it is the soul who is covered over by ignorance now what is the that is the so our our is the which covers our which covers our actual identity our awareness of our actual identity so let's try to understand this with some examples if we see here if say there is a jail now now if a criminal is committed a crime and then the criminal is arrested and then is brought in front of the court and then the judge sentences the criminal to death so now or not to death may be to ten year imprisonment or whatever and after that the criminal is sent to the jail so now who is the doer could say that actually it was a judge who gave the sentence the judge is the cause of the person going into the jail but then that same judge may have released another person who was wrongfully judged so therefore the point is that a judge is not the sole doer judge is not the person who is eager to put people into the jail so judge judge is the ultimate decision maker over there but a judge is not the root cause so now we could say actually the policeman put the people in the jail put the person in the jail the policeman it's true but then are they the cause and the police otherwise protect people if a person is being attacked by a criminal the police will protect so is it the police who put people into jail the police are simply the instrument so what put that person into the jail it is that person who did some misdeed and the misdeed of that person was the cause ultimately of going into the jail so we see here all three factors are involved there is the action that is done by the there is the so the wrong doing is done by the criminal then there is the sentence that is passed by the judge and then there is the execution that is done by the police so all three factors are involved now what are the three factors in our context there is material nature there is the soul and there is the supreme lord this can be referred to by the three words starting with J so there is Jagat, Jeev and Jagdish there is Prakriti Ishwara and Jeeva we could also put it that way so now it is the Jeeva who desires and because the Jeeva is the desirer so the Jeeva is responsible but after desiring it is not that the Jeeva can do alone anything so Jeeva cannot do alone it is the Jeeva who desires and after that it is the super soul, super soul is like the judge the super soul is the one who executes sorry who decides and then the police are like the material nature Prakriti so Jeeva, Prakriti Ishwara and Prakriti so Jeeva desires the Ishwara sanctions and the Prakriti executes and that's how actions happen by the combination of all three to consider another example actually when I desire to speak I have given this example earlier also but let me now put it in the framework of this three causes now when I desire to speak right now I am speaking so I desire to speak but after that it is not that I can speak although I think it is so effortless I just open my voice and start speaking but there can be so many causes biological psychological or sometimes psychological which may prevent me from speaking or speaking coherently so after I desire then the super soul is present and the super soul sanctions ok does this person deserve to speak or does the person deserve to be embarrassed with a stutter or stammer or with a memory blackout or whatever so super soul considers that and then after that there is the body which executes if I have the karmic credits to speak then this is the body that executes now the human speech is so complex that researchers who try to make text to speech software or otherwise make synthetic voices they can never get the subtleties of the way humans produce sound now we don't just speak words but we emphasize certain words we de-emphasize certain words there is the accent there is the tone and there are myriad other factors which bring the emotional tenor and the and affect the impact of the speech significantly so these factors are not are not even under under my control or not in my knowledge how exactly yes I want to speak emphasize certain words I want to tell certain words loudly certain words softly now all the inflections in the voice and all those things how exactly they are executed at the level of voice production I have no idea at all but they happen so if I think I am the doer then I am an illusion because I don't even know how things are happening not to speak of making them happen so here Krishna stating that what is it that makes the soul do material things the soul is spiritual and the soul has only spiritual desires to love and serve Krishna but now the soul is in this material world and acting for fulfilling material desires so where do those material desires come from they come from the conditioned nature of the soul so that is so for example the same soul is in India cheering a cricket match and when the soul goes to America the same person goes to American culture and then starts wildly cheering a baseball match or that same soul may speak very coherently intelligently maybe a double doctorate speaking on physics at international high level conference of cutting edge physicist but then that person dies and becomes a dog and that person is barking it is the same person why the difference so that is the soul has a desire to act whether it is to cheer a sports team or whether it is to produce some sound soul has a desire to act but the specific way is in which the soul acts will be determined by the kind of so how that the soul has so Krishna continues over here and said that so our is the that covers us so whether I say my Brahmana or Vaishya from the spiritual point of view ultimately it is ignorance from the spiritual point of view it is that I am the soul and I am not a Brahmana or Kshatriya so if I am inclined to act in a particular way that is because the nature impels me to act in that way and what nature is it that is impelling me like that it is the set of conditionings that I have acquired based on my past karma and which obscure my spiritual nature so the soul is the doer in the sense of being the desirer the super soul is the doer in the sense of being the sanctioner and material nature is the doer in terms of being the executor but the soul is has a particular kind of desire because of agyana so and how that happens will be discussed in the next verse thank you.