What is the scriptural basis for the idea that only desire and endeavor are in our hands?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, is there any scriptural reference for the point that desire and endeavor is all that in our hands and apart from that everything is in Krishna’s hands? The 18.49 which talks about the 5 factors of action. So, Krishna says the body, the senses, the body is the area of action, the senses, the doer, the endeavor and the destiny.
These are the 5 factors of action. The soul, the soul, the endeavor and the divine, destiny or god, whatever you want to use the word. The 5 factors of action.
Now, if you consider among these, another way of analyzing this is that in any action that is done, there are 3 factors that are involved. There is jiva, eshwar and prakriti. The soul, god and material nature.
So, for example, right now I am speaking, I the soul am desiring to speak and then the body is speaking. It is the throat that is being used to speak. But I don’t even know the mechanism by which the throat speaks.
I just desire to speak and the throat moves accordingly. So, the body, material nature has its own mechanism and that mechanism is overseen by the super soul. Just like now if I decide to send an email to someone and all that I know is I type this key, this key, this key and the mail appears over there.
But how that mail gets sent? I don’t know that. I know the part which I have to do in sending the email. But if I consider and I send the email, I type, that’s my part.
Then there is some expert programmer or expert set of programmers or many people who are involved, whatever, who have set up a whole system of the internet by which emails go. So, there are those people and their intelligence involved and there is also a mechanism that is involved. The mechanism is I have to be connected to the internet and then I press the send button and it goes.
So, we could say I am the soul like the typer in the center of the email is the soul. The whole system is like the super soul. Ishwara.
And the mechanism that the system is the conscious intelligent engineers and all those who have designed the internet, they are like the super soul. And the mechanism by which the email gets sent that is like material nature. So, Krishna talks about this in the fifth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita also.
Not exactly using these terms but the way we put it is that the Jiva desires, the Ishwara sanctions and the Prakriti executes. Among these three, the Jiva, the soul desires, the Ishwara sanctions and the Prakriti executes. So, I desire to speak.
I think you won’t get it directly in a verse. That is the inferences from the verses. yeah, I would say if you read 5.13, 5.13, 14, 15, you can draw this inference from it.
The Bhagavad Gita has a lot of wisdom in it but it has to be drawn out. It is in Sanskrit and it is in a particular cultural intellectual context. So, how it applies in our context, we need contemporary explanations.
Without that, it is not accessible. But 5.13, 14, 15, we can talk about it. So, I have another website called GitaDaily.com GitaDaily where there are a lot of articles on each verse of the Gita.
So, if you go to 5.13, 14, 15, you might find some articles on these verses also. And the top chapters 1 to 18 are there. And then you look at chapters 1 to 18.
Go to chapter 5 and then go down to verse 15. So, now having said that, so, if you consider Jeeva, Ishwar and Prakriti, so, desiring is in our hands. Right now, I desire to speak.
But if my throat is spoiled, I may not be able to speak. So, material nature is the executor. We are not the executors.
We are the desirers. Or you could say the initiators. So, we are not the doer.
We hear that in class. So, 18.16 says this that we are not the only doers. We are the doers, but we are not the only doers.
Just go on the Surya Scientist, you’ll find that answer. That’s the question. Are we the doers or are we not the doers? It’s right on the top only.
Currently, it is there. So, we are the doers, but we are not the only doers. To think we are the only doers is an illusion.
So, to think that I alone am the doer is an illusion. I am the doer, but… In what sense are we the doer? We are the desirer. We are the desirer.
We are the initiator of action. So, I guess the phrase, we are not the doer, came because everyone is thinking about their body doing something as opposed to desire in doing something. That’s why we get the balance in the… I think it’s not exactly a one-to-one inference.
What the Bhagavad Gita says is those who think they are the doers are an illusion. That doesn’t exactly mean we are not the doers. So, you are signing the clause.
Yeah. So, there is a difference. To think I am the doer is an illusion, but that doesn’t mean the reality is I am not the doer.
The reality is that I am not the sole doer. So, now… So, if we go… So, the desire and the endeavour is in our hands and then beyond that, the execution is not in our hands. The execution is in Krishna’s hands.
Sorry, the execution is by material nature and that is sanctioned by Krishna. Sometimes I may desire to raise my hand. But if I have paralysis, I will not be able to raise my hand.
Sometimes we do desire to do something, but sometimes it’s just circumstances not possible for us to do it. So, therefore, we do… That’s the whole principle of Manas Puja also. If you are not able to worship the Deities directly, personally, then just worship in the mind.
It is also appreciated. Because the intention… Because what is ultimately in our control is desiring and endeavouring. So, we are doing that at the mental level.
Yeah. So, physically, if you are not able to do it, it’s okay. The key thing is that we keep trying and that way we move forward.