Is God Responsible for the Success of Deeds of the Souls?

[Prof. JSR Prasad asked:- Saashtaanga namaskaram Swami, kindly correlate the two statements: i) Abhadhnan purusham pashum – (souls are using God like an animal tied to the cart), ii) Adhishthanam tathaa kartaa… daivam caivaatra pancamam (God is only 20% responsible for the success of deeds of the souls).]

Swami replied:-

i) The first Vedic hymn is related to the context of free will granted by God since souls were very much bored by the discipline for a long time in Kruta Yuga. In that Yuga, people were not having any freedom and were doing justified deeds only as per the direction of God. After the Kruta Yuga, the bored souls got free will from God along with the divine preaching that gives instructions against doing injustice using free will. But still, souls liked to have free will in which they are free to do anything they like, which may be good or bad. Such free will was given by God and hence, whatever the souls wished to do (good or bad), God was donating His power to the souls to do any deed they like. This is the meaning of the saying that even an ant cannot move without the power of God. This is real freedom. But, since it is very dangerous, God restricted the number of fields to which this free will can be applied. Therefore, souls cannot control even the diseases present in their own bodies! Now, in this context of free will, the soul is able to do a deed, which it likes, whether it is good or bad. God does not interfere with goodness or badness of the deed and does not advise any soul in such deeds for which free will is given. God only preaches general instructions to all souls without any particular stress. God behaves like the animal that is tied to the cart in the journey. Just like the cart-animal travels as per under the guidance of the driver, God also performs the deed with His power as per the direction of the soul, irrespective of its goodness or badness. In this context, the soul becomes the doer and the enjoyer of the fruit. God is neither the doer of the deed by His own direction nor the enjoyer of the fruit.

ii) The second verse in the Gita says that God is only 20% responsible for the success of deeds of the souls. Here, God wants the souls to be active in doing the deeds so that the souls do not become inactive and lazy. Otherwise, the souls will put the entire responsibility of work also on God and try to enjoy the fruits only. If the work is done by God under His own direction, God will become the enjoyer of the fruits of the deeds of all souls, which cannot be true. Hence, God threw all the responsibility of the work on souls only. The participation of God in doing the work like inert energy without any direction of awareness gets only 20% participation in the work of the soul. Here, since the soul is the major component by giving direction to the work and by doing the work using the energy given by God, 80% participation is given to the soul.

In this same context, even though God is omnipotent to bless the success of the whole deed even without any work, His participation in any deed is virtually zero due to the absence of His direction in the work and the absence of the doer-ship of the work. But still, to encourage the souls He is saying that He will show His grace up to 20%. This is said so that the soul is encouraged to do the deeds and this is an Arthavaada or a white lie told for the purpose of a good benefit for the soul in making the soul to do the work without laziness.

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