If we are not the doers then are our mistakes actually our mistakes?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So if we are not a doer, does that mean that we should not do anything? And how do we see our mistakes if we are not the doers? With that, that doership is a subtle concept.
Because at one level, the Bhagavad Gita says, one who thinks that he is the doer is an illusion. patate kriyamanani gunai karmani carvasha ahankara vimura atma kartahan iti manyate That’s 3.27 in the Gita. But then at the end of the Gita, in 18.63, Krishna says that vimrishshaitad arsheshe na yathe chrittha kuru Deliberate deeply on this message and then do as you desire.
So kuru, karta, it’s a variant of the same word. So Arjuna is saying do as you desire. So if Arjuna is not the doer, then why is Krishna telling Arjuna do as you desire? And then 10 verses later, in 18.73, Arjuna tells Krishna that karishye vachinam tava I will do your will.
That means I’ll be the doer. So if we are not the doers, then what does the conclusion of the Gita mean? I should just explain in 18.63 that we are not the only doers. patraivam sati kartaram atmanam kevalam tuya pashyatya akrpta buddhitvan nasa pashyati durmatihi That one who thinks atmanam kevalam tuya, one who thinks I am the only doer, that person is not seeing properly.
That person is an illusion. So right now I am speaking. So I am the doer.
But I am not the only doer. I want to speak right now. But suppose I get cough.
I want to speak but I’ll not be able to speak. The cough attack persists. I’ll not be able to speak at all.
I want to speak a particular verse. But if I don’t get the recollection, I won’t be able to recite that verse. So we are one of the doers in the action.
So to think ourselves as the doer is not the illusion. To think ourselves to be the sole doers is the illusion. So sometimes our mistakes are that we do our part wrong.
If I am driving a car and somehow I am inattentive and the car veers off and goes and hits the kerb. So that’s my inattention which causes a mistake. But circumstantially if some passerby happens to be on the kerb at that time and they get hit, then this mistake will lead to much greater consequences.
There’s nobody there. It’s just my car that gets damaged a little bit. So basically our mistakes also, we are responsible for the wrong that we do.
But beyond that, sometimes circumstances may arise in such a way, that a small mistake may lead to a big consequence. And sometimes a big mistake may also lead to only a small consequence. That’s why past karma also comes into the picture.
So not acknowledging that there is much more than our action which determines the result, that is the illusion. But our actions are important. And our actions are something which we are meant to choose.
Our actions are not Krishna’s, our mistakes are not Krishna’s plan. Krishna has given us in scripture how we are to act. And if we don’t act according to the way Krishna tells us, then that is a mistake on our part.
So our mistakes are because we do have free will. And we are meant to use the free will properly. Illusion is to think that we alone are the producers of the results of our actions.