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Third Doubt regarding Soul being Kartä
The pupil has not gone very deep in the theory of Karma, but he is not sure about soul's acquiring of the bondage of Karma. If it acquires, the pupil wonders how it could be acquiring it. Several alternatives occur to him. Would Karma be clinging to the soul of its own accord? Or would it be within the nature of soul to acquire Karma? Or would God or Nature be prompting it to do so? In the following three stanzas he presents his doubt relating to these alternatives.
કર્તા જીવ ન કર્મનો, કર્મ જ કર્તા કર્મ; અથવા સહજ સ્વભાવ કાં, કર્મ જીવનો ધર્મ.
I૭૧ના
Karta Jiv Na Karmano, Karma Ja Kartä Karma; Athavä Sahaj Swabhäv Kän, Karma Jivano Dharma.
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Soul cannot be Kartä of Karma, Karma itself might be prompting Karma; alternately, it might be the soul's innate nature, or it may be its property to acquire Karma. (71)
Explanation & Discussion: The pupil states that there is no evident reason for a soul to acquire Karma. When it is aware that it has to bear the consequences, why would it act in a way that would lead to the bondage of Karma? It is therefore possible that the existing Karma might be prompting new particles of Karma to turn towards the soul and they might be clinging to it. In that case it would not be possible for the soul to avoid the influx of Karma and it would
y remain bound to it.
But occurrence of the bondage that way does not seem reasonable to the pupil. He therefore thinks that it could be the innate nature of soul to act in a way that leads
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