Bg 18.17
yasya nāhaṅkṛto bhāvo buddhir yasya na lipyate
hatvāpi sa imāḻ lokān na hanti na nibadhyate
Translation
17. He who is free from the egoistic notion, whose intelligence is not tainted (by good or evil) , though he slays these people, he slays not, nor is he bound (by the action) .
Commentary
So far we have been told that the realm-of-matter is the field of all activity, and the weeds of sorrows and agitations can grow only therein. The Spirit, the farmer, has an existence independent of this field and yet the farmer, in his identification with the self-projections on the field, feels happy or unhappy according to the condition of the field at any given moment.
Similarly, it is our unhealthy contact created by our self-projections on to the matter-envelopments around us that has given rise to the 'ego', which in its turn comes to suffer the buffetings of life. Therefore, Krishna says that "HE WHO IS FREE FROM THE SENSE OF EGOISM" and whose "INTELLIGENCE IS NOT TAINTED" by false values of possession, acquisition, aggrandisement, etc., does no action even though activities take place all around and even through him; "THOUGH HE SLAYS THESE PEOPLE, HE SLAYS NOT."
This does not mean that a man-of-Wisdom, who has withdrawn from his false evaluation of matter, will no longer act in the world. He will not remain like a stone statue. The statement only means, that even while he is acting in the world, to him it is all a self-entertaining game. It is always our ego-centric clinging that leaves impressions (vasanas) in our mind and thus actions of the past come to goad us on to more and more activities. A man-of-Perfection who has the necessary discriminative intellect, learns to detach himself and act, and therefore, in him the footprints of the past activities cannot beat out any deepening footpath.
Krishna says: "THOUGH HE KILLS, HE KILLS NOT; NOR IS HE BOUND." If we were to compare the results of the lusty, passionate acts of some self-seeking murderer, with the honourable heroic activities of some devotedly dedicated warrior championing the cause of his country's freedom and independence, we shall easily understand the above assertion of the Lord. The murderer develops vasanas, and propelled by his tendencies, he again and again commits heinous crimes and disturbs the society, while the hero on the battle-front, though he too kills many, returns from the battle-front as a more educated, noble, and refined personality. In the former, there is the "ego," and therefore, the foul vasanas get registered; while in the latter, the soldier's mind was fixed in his love for the country, and therefore, the murderous activity on the battle-front could not leave in him any ugly mental residue. Once the ego is surrendered in the consciousness of the Divine, the "BONDAGE OF VASANAS CAN NO MORE REMAIN IN HIM."
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
yasya nāhaṅkṛto bhāvo buddhir yasya na lipyate
hatvāpi sa imāḻ lokān na hanti na nibadhyate
Translation
17. He who is free from the egoistic notion, whose intelligence is not tainted (by good or evil) , though he slays these people, he slays not, nor is he bound (by the action) .
Commentary
So far we have been told that the realm-of-matter is the field of all activity, and the weeds of sorrows and agitations can grow only therein. The Spirit, the farmer, has an existence independent of this field and yet the farmer, in his identification with the self-projections on the field, feels happy or unhappy according to the condition of the field at any given moment.
Similarly, it is our unhealthy contact created by our self-projections on to the matter-envelopments around us that has given rise to the 'ego', which in its turn comes to suffer the buffetings of life. Therefore, Krishna says that "HE WHO IS FREE FROM THE SENSE OF EGOISM" and whose "INTELLIGENCE IS NOT TAINTED" by false values of possession, acquisition, aggrandisement, etc., does no action even though activities take place all around and even through him; "THOUGH HE SLAYS THESE PEOPLE, HE SLAYS NOT."
This does not mean that a man-of-Wisdom, who has withdrawn from his false evaluation of matter, will no longer act in the world. He will not remain like a stone statue. The statement only means, that even while he is acting in the world, to him it is all a self-entertaining game. It is always our ego-centric clinging that leaves impressions (vasanas) in our mind and thus actions of the past come to goad us on to more and more activities. A man-of-Perfection who has the necessary discriminative intellect, learns to detach himself and act, and therefore, in him the footprints of the past activities cannot beat out any deepening footpath.
Krishna says: "THOUGH HE KILLS, HE KILLS NOT; NOR IS HE BOUND." If we were to compare the results of the lusty, passionate acts of some self-seeking murderer, with the honourable heroic activities of some devotedly dedicated warrior championing the cause of his country's freedom and independence, we shall easily understand the above assertion of the Lord. The murderer develops vasanas, and propelled by his tendencies, he again and again commits heinous crimes and disturbs the society, while the hero on the battle-front, though he too kills many, returns from the battle-front as a more educated, noble, and refined personality. In the former, there is the "ego," and therefore, the foul vasanas get registered; while in the latter, the soldier's mind was fixed in his love for the country, and therefore, the murderous activity on the battle-front could not leave in him any ugly mental residue. Once the ego is surrendered in the consciousness of the Divine, the "BONDAGE OF VASANAS CAN NO MORE REMAIN IN HIM."
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
