I humbly request Maha Swamiji to educate us on the subject of Kartruttva.

[Shri Sharath V asked:- Shashtanga Pranamas to Sri Swamiji,

In the philosophical world, the subject of Karthrutva (doership) and Karma is profoundly complex. Are all actions performed by the Jiva (individual soul), or by Paramatma? Is the Jiva svatantra (independent), or paratantra (dependent)?

The Rigveda says न ऋते त्वत्क्रियते किञ्चनारे महामर्कं मघवञ्चित्रमर्च (1.84)

“Without You, O Supreme Lord, nothing whatsoever is done." This mantra strongly affirms that no action is possible independent of Parabrahman. The Supreme is the ultimate ground of all activity.

Yet the Brahmasutras say -

कर्ता शास्त्रार्थवत्त्वात् ॥ 2.3.33 ॥

“The soul is a doer, because otherwise scriptural injunctions would be meaningless.”

If the Jiva were not a doer, then commandments such as “perform yajna,” “speak truth,” or “avoid sin” would have no relevance. Moral responsibility presupposes agency.

 Sri Adi Shankara's teaching of Vyavaharika doership which is believed to be taught to atheists can be neglected but Sri Madhwa says इदं मया क्रियते, इदं मया न क्रियते, इति बुद्धिभेदः रजस्तमोगुणनिमित्तो भ्रमः, सर्वं हि परमेश्वरः करोति ॥

"The notion “I do this” or “I do not do this” arises from delusion caused by rajas and tamas. In truth, Parameshvara alone is the Doer. The Jivas are completely dependent (paratantra) on Him."

 In the book Satyartha Prakash, Maharshi Dayananda Saraswati of Arya Samaj presents a distinct Vedic interpretation, affirming that the soul must be a real doer otherwise, moral responsibility collapses. For him, the jiva's independence safeguards justice within the law of karma.

But in Bhagavad Gita Sri Krishna says

अहङ्कारविमूढात्मा कर्ताहमिति मन्यते ॥ 3.27 ॥

“All actions are performed by the guṇas of Prakṛuti. The ego-deluded person thinks, ‘I am the doer.’”

He further says: नैव किञ्चित्करोमीति युक्तो मन्येत तत्त्ववित्

“The knower of Truth thinks, ‘I do nothing at all,’ even while acting.”

And finally

 ईश्वरः सर्वभूतानां हृद्देशेऽर्जुन तिष्ठति ।

 भ्रामयन्सर्वभूतानि यन्त्रारूढानि मायया ॥ 18.61 ॥

“The Lord dwells in the hearts of all beings, causing them to revolve, as if mounted on a machine.

Practically speaking, the idea that jivas are absolutely independent appears unreasonable. We cannot consciously regulate the complex biological processes of our own bodies. We do not possess any control on even one organ so how then can we claim full ownership?

Yet, if the Supreme Lord alone is the Doer, the law of karma appears morally problematic. If He prompts one toward punya karma and another toward paapa karma, while the Jiva reaps pleasure or pain, questions of divine justice arise.

Further, if Jivas were completely independent, the future would be unknown to them and perhaps even to God since we do not know what we will do the very next minute. But the Vedas declare the Lord as ‘SarvajKKnana mayo hi saha and Trikaalajnani’, the Knower of past, present, and future. If He perfectly knows the future, does that not imply that the future is already determined in His Will?

I humbly request Maha Swamiji to educate us on the subject of Kartruttva from the highest standpoint.]

Swami replied:- All the concepts presented by you must be correlated with each other. Otherwise, you will face a chain of mutual contradictions everywhere. Let Me start with a simple example. You are traveling by a horse to a forest or to your native place. Your journey by the horse is completely based on the energy of your horse only. At the same time, I can say that the direction of your journey is completely based on the energy of your brain only. Now tell Me, whether yourself or your horse is the doer of the journey. Both are equally important in their own respective fields. You have free will either to go to a forest and get attacked by robbers or you have the equal free will to go to your native place to be surrounded by your kith and kin with happiness. Hence, the direction in an action belongs to the soul and is linked with the bad and good fruits of the bad and good directions respectively. Enjoyer of the fruit is called ‘Bhoktā’ and he is always linked with the doer-ship or ‘Kartā’ (Kartṛtva). The soul may not be the actual doer of the journey (actually, the horse is the straight doer of the journey), but due to enjoyer-ship of the fruits, the soul is to be decided as the Kartā or doer. Hence, both your self and your horse are the doers of the action of journey. Even though horse is the straight doer, the horse is not a doer at all because the horse is not at all enjoying the fruit of the action. This is the state of God in which there is the doer-ship of every action without enjoyer-ship of the fruit of any action. Therefore, the straight doer is not linked with the enjoyment of fruit, whereas the assumed doer deciding the direction of action becomes the enjoyer of the fruit. The energy of the horse shall be taken as inert and the brain energy of your self is non-inert awareness, which alone enjoys the fruit of action.

Does this mean that God (horse) is inert and soul (rider) is non-inert awareness? Not at all. Both yourself and the horse are non-inert items only. Let us take a separate incident regarding the horse. In this incident, the horse is running away by seeing a tiger. Here, the horse is both the inert straight doer and the non-inert director-doer also. It saves its own life and enjoys the fruit of its own action. Similarly, God created this world by Himself without the help of any other second person/item and is enjoying by the entertainment. Here, God is both types of the doer (both inert straight-doer and non-inert director-doer) and hence, the enjoyer. Hence, the rule that ‘doer is enjoyer’ is not violated anywhere including the case of God. The essence of this rule is that when there is single doer, he himself becomes the enjoyer (Kartā bhoktā Maheśvaraḥ - Gita). We can say that the intention of the action (saṅkalpa) is the source of the desire that binds the soul to the fruit (saṅalpa prabhavān kāmān... - Gita).

If there are two doers, both will enjoy the fruit (Kartā kārayitā caiva) because both are active doers and simultaneously equal directors interested in enjoying the fruits. But here, how one doer (soul/rider) is enjoying the fruit and not the other doer (God/horse)? You must understand that the enjoyer-ship is always linked with director-ship of an action and is not linked with the inert doer-ship (inert doer-ship need not mean that the doer is an inert item. Even a non-inert item like the horse can be treated as inert doer because such non-inert doer like horse strictly follows the direction of the other director-doer). Therefore, the fruit is always related to the non-inert directorship. This non-inert directorship may or may not be associated with the inert doer-ship since it is immaterial. I will illustrate this with the following two examples:- 1i) You are travelling by a non-inert horse, which is acting like inert item running as per your direction only and not running as per its own direction even for one minute. Here, the fruit comes to you only, who is the non-inert director, not controlled by any other item and the fruit does not come to the inert-doer even though such inert-doer (horse) is a non-inert item. 2ii) You are stabbing a person with a knife, which is actually an original inert item. Here, the fruit comes to you only, who is the non-inert director-doer and it doesn’t come to the knife, which is an inert-doer without directorship. Doer-ship may or may not be associated with non-inert awareness, but, the director-doer-ship is always associated with non-inert awareness only and gets linked with the fruits.

The important question here is that why the non-inert God acts as inert doer (Kriyā śakti) like a horse controlled by the rider (soul)? The reason is that at the beginning of creation (Kṛta Yuga), God did not give any freedom to souls and hence, souls were continuously bored with the robot-like state without any trace of free will. Then, God gave some limited free will allowing free actions in limited way (Svabhāvastu pravartate - Gita). Since the free will is very much limited, the soul cannot control any organ of even its own body. Free will means that if you wish to do something, that something shall happen with the help of the power of God so that we can say that God not only gave theoretical free will, but also granted such free will based action to happen really. God actually does the whole thing as per the wish of the soul like the horse is taking the director (yourself, the soul) as told in the Veda (Abadhnan puruṣaṃ paśum— means that souls use God like the animal that drags the cart under their control as per their wishes). You may ask that if this is allowed, every soul will become a sinner. You need not fear for this because the controlling factor is that the soul knows well in advance that if the soul does a sin, the soul itself has to undergo the punishment of such corresponding sin. God also preached the souls about the sin and its corresponding punishment through ethical scriptures.

Therefore, in the worldly actions done by souls, God helps the souls as the straight doer without giving any direction to the action. Of course, God provides direction through His preachings, but following that direction is left to the free will of the soul. Hence, God as the power is the doer of everything and at the same time, He is not the doer of anything since God is not linked to the fruit of any action of the soul (because the enjoyer of the fruit should be the director-doer of any action). Hence, you must understand that God is doer (because He does everything) and at the same time, He is not the doer of anything (since He is not linked to the fruit of any action of the soul). The soul is not the doer of anything and at the same time, the soul is the doer of everything by director-ship (since the soul enjoys the fruits of its every action). The Gita says that the subject of action explaining doer-ship and enjoyer-ship is very very complicated (Gahanā karmaṇo gatiḥ). All sorts of intellectual questions can be answered by standing on this background. For example, if a criminal says that he has not killed anybody since God is the doer of everything, God will reply the criminal through the mouth of judge “I am giving the punishment of death sentence to you and I have not punished you since God punished you because He is the doer of everything!”. Buddhists sent an elephant towards Shankara telling that the elephant is unreal. Shankara while running away from the elephant replied “I told that the entire world is unreal, which means that not only the elephant is unreal, but also mMy running is unreal!”.

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