103. Roots of Virtue and Sin

Krishna says that the Prabhu (Lord) creates neither doership nor actions nor union with the fruits of action for the world. The delusive cosmic nature is the originator of all these (5.14).

The Lord is not a karta (doer) but a Srishta (Creator or creativity). There are two types of creations. One is like a potter who creates pottery and the creation (pot) gets separated from the Creator for independent existence. Another is like a dancer who is creating dance, but dance (creation) won’t be there in the absence of the dancer. The Lord is like a dancer where the entire universe is dependent on Him, but he is not dependent on it. That’s why dancing Shiva is depicted as Nataraj and musician Krishna as Murari.

The Lord can also be seen as a catalyst in a chemical reaction where the presence of a catalyst makes the chemical reaction happen. The catalyst itself doesn’t undergo any change.

Krishna further says that the All-pervading takes no account of anyone’s virtue or sin (punya or paap). Human beings are deluded because their knowledge is covered by ignorance (5.15). Delusion can be due to longing and aversion (7.27) or because of three gunas (7.25). But in whom ignorance is destroyed by knowledge of self, in them wisdom reveals the Supreme like the illuminating Sun (5.16).

The Lord is like a screen in a movie theatre where the screen has nothing to do with what is being projected on it while the audience goes through a flurry of emotions. These projections are nothing but shadows but we all get deeply involved which creates emotions and judgements having a long-lasting impact. In this entire process, the screen is neutral and has nothing to do with our emotions.

Krishna earlier used moha-kalilam (darkness of delusion) in this context (2.52). Once we are out of this moha then awareness gets uncovered to shine like the Sun.


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