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Aptavani-4
karmas do not belong to you, but if you are agnani (ignorant
of the Self), then they are yours.
It is wrong to believe that the Atma (the Self) is the
‘doer’ of karma. In fact, the Atma is not the ‘doer’ of
karma. If it was the ‘doer’ of karma, it would never attain
liberation. Even the absolutely liberated ones, the Siddhas who
have gone to moksha, would continue binding karma, if the
Self was a ‘doer’ of anything. There is no superior entity that
binds karma or releases one from karma. What there is, is
only you.
Questioner: If the Self is pure (shuddha) then who gets
smeared and tainted by karma?
Dadashri: The ‘doer’.
Questioner: If the pudgal (non-Self complex) is the
‘doer’, doesn’t it remain here (after death)?
Dadashri: Neither the pudgal (non-Self complex) nor
the Self create, or bind karma. It is in the presence of the Self
that ego arises. And it is that very ego that is the doer of karma.
This is the ego that says, “I did this, I am happy, I am unhappy,
I attained Gnan, I slipped into ignorance (agnan).” The ego
does all this. Once the ego leaves, one becomes the Self. Just
so that the world could comprehend this, the vitarags have said
that the self from the perspective of the vyavahar (worldly
interaction) is the ‘doer’; however, from the perspective of
nischay (of the Self), it is a ‘non-doer’. ‘By relative viewpoint’,
the self is a ‘doer’ of karma. However, it is not the ‘doer’ of
these visible karmas (those evident through mind, speech and
body), it is the ‘doer’ of bhaavkarma (‘I am Chandubhai’), and
this charges karma. The ‘doer’ of the visible karma is Nature;
it is vyavasthit.
“By ‘real’ viewpoint” the Self is the ‘doer’ of swabhav
karma (its natural state of Knowing and Seeing).