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284
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 (ʻI 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).
