World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

Page 744

Welcome acquisitions like the gaining of svarga (the heaven of pleasure) etc., and all undesirable things, etc. (the various narakas/births) emanate from the illusion of kartrtva (on the part of the jīva). He who knows God alone to be the sole kartā is released from this samsāra. (The cycle of birth/death, svarga/ naraka etc.) and goes to God', says the Mahābhārata. “I do this", "I do not do this”, “I do this wrongly", such notions are misconceptions. The illusion is caused by the rajas and tamo gunas. God does everything.23
When Madhvāchārya talks of the bhrama or 'illusion', it is the confusion in the human agent who mistakenly arrogates total agency to himself and errs, and the error leads him on to heaven or hell depending on the nature of the action performed. He sees jīva's absolute surrender of kartrtva, agency, to God alone as the key to salvation. Commenting on the Bhagavadgitā (III.40-31) in the Gītā Tātparya, he writes
“I am not the doer, Hari is the doer. All actions are acts of worship. Even then, my worship is owing to His grace. The devotion to Him, the fruit of that devotion is mine, by His grace, again and again.” The surrender of all action to God in this way is always pleasing to Him. Therefore all independent doership is always His, none else's. The jīva's independence is subject to Him, and is so when compared to any person/entity inferior to him. Jiva's doership is vikrati, a modified one, only in respect of the things inferior, like the inanimate things...24
Again, "All the actions are motivated by Him, I have no independence." This should be the attitude, and realizing this he should remain detached. Thus will the Lord be pleased with him.25
Madhvāchārya also describes, God's akartrtva, 'inaction' in Bhāgavata Tātparya Nirnaya (1.3.35)
He is called akartā (non-doer) because of his effortlessness, independence, detachment to the fruit, and also because He is not different from his acts. Those who do not know the truth, call God's kartrtva illusory. His kartrtva is a manifestation of his lordliness, so do they know who know the truth. The Padmapurāņa says so... His kartstva is because of his total ease. It is also because of his omnipotence. Thus says, the Tantrasāra26
That is, even when jīva is described as kartā, he is indeed akartā; even when God is described as akartā, he is indeed the kartā. Unless this profound conviction is seen as the true incandescence of a soul ignited
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