Bhagwad Gita - Post 225

Verse 13

Learn from Me, O mighty-armed Arjuna, these five causes, as declared in the Sankhya system for the accomplishment of all actions!

Verse 14

The body, the doer, the various senses, the different functions of various sorts, and the presiding Deity, also, the fifth,

Verse 15

Whatever action a man performs by his body, speech and mind, whether right or the reverse, these five are its causes.

There are five conditioning factors behind any kind of movement, action, work, or whatever it be. 

Sankhya, which is the highest knowledge, and which details the varieties of results that follow from different kinds of karmas, tells us that there are five phases of an action. 

Body

The physical body has something to say about the quantum of work that we can execute, and also the quality of work that can be expected from us. Whether our body is strong and healthy, or whether it is weak and sick, is a factor that also is to be taken into consideration when we do any work.

Hence, according to the nature of the physical condition, there will also be the conditioning of the result that follows from the action. That is one aspect among the five.

Doer - Karta / Soul

Kartā means “the doer,” and refers to the soul. Although the soul itself does not perform actions, it inspires the body-mind-intellect mechanism with the life force to act. Further, it identifies with their actions, due to the influence of the ego. 

Therefore, it is responsible for the actions performed by the body, and it is called both the knower and the doer. 

The Prasna Upaniṣhad states: 

“It is the soul that sees, touches, hears, feels, tastes, thinks, and comprehends. Thus, the soul is to be considered both—the knower and the doer of actions.” 

For easier comprehension, we can understand this as soul+samskara or in very broader terms, the ego factor.

Various senses 

The instruments that we use in the performance of action also condition the work. Suppose we dig a pit. If we dig with our hands, we will get one type of result; but if we use a pickaxe or a shovel, or a bulldozer, then different kinds of results will follow. The kind of instrument that we use in the performance of action will also decide what kind of result will follow.

So, it is about how our 5 Karma Indriyas are used, that the action shapes up.

Different functions of Mind

Even when we are doing one work, twenty ideas may be in our mind at the same time, pulling us in different directions, and it does not mean that a person thinks only one thought at a time. Even when we are doing one work, if we are able to think only that and nothing else, we are really a great person. But, generally that is not possible. 

There is a memory of something that happened in the past, and an apprehension of something that could take place in the future, and a fear of something that is in the present.

These will distract the mind. These operations of the mind which distract are also conditioning factors in the performance of the work.

Proper functioning of mind with focused intellect / viveka is what we have understood as Self Efforts or purushartha and depending upon how we exercise this factor, our actions are performed by us. 

Presiding deity

This has been explained by various commentators in different ways.

Some say, these are the five elements.

Some say, this is the Atman and they justify this as under:-

“The five factors are the physical body, the five senses such eyes, ears, etc., the ego, the life airs which govern breathing and the atma the controller of them all. 

The Vedanta Sutra II.III.XXXIII beginning upadanat states: The atma of the jiva or embodied being at the death of the physical body takes the pranas along with it; therefore the atma is the controller.”

However, most appealing is the interpretation given by Swami Krishnananda who says, this is Divine providence or the cosmic will and explains,

“A thing that is not sanctioned by the Ultimate Will of the universe will not take place, however much we may sweat. That which is to happen will happen, whatever be our effort to prevent it; and that which is not to happen will not happen, even if we call for it. This is the inscrutable factor operating behind all things. 

Our very mind, our very body, our egoism, our mental faculty, our very existence, is conditioned by the central Cosmic Will; and if it does not permit any event to take place, that event will never take place even if millions of people work hard to make it happen. 

Whatever be our effort in the direction of guarding our person, our society, or our country, it has to be sanctioned by the Supreme Will. As Sri Krishna told Arjuna, “Go ahead. You will succeed.” But that sanction was not there for the Kauravas, and the opposite result followed.

Thus, the final operative factor is the central Universal Will, with which we have to always stand in a state of union and communion. We should not egoistically assert too much of our own individual agency in action. We are not the only agents. There are five agents in the performance of an action, and among those five there is one supreme principle which we cannot afford to forget: the existence of God in the world. The principle of divinity permeating all things—the immanence of God—ultimately decides all factors, though others also act as instruments”.

Love.