A common line of thought goes like this. The Gita says that the modes of nature perform all action, and that the knower believes he truly does nothing. So when something goes wrong, "I did not do it" must be the Gita's own answer. If one does nothing, what is there to answer for?
The thought rests on two real sentences of the Gita, so it deserves a proper reply. It is a misreading all the same. "I am not the doer" is the cure for pride and dread. It is not a cure for answerability. The verses below show why. The whole subject is in Who Is the Doer?.
Why the idea seems to be supported
अहङ्कारविमूढात्मा कर्ताहमिति मन्यते ॥ ३.२७ ॥
ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate || 3.27 ||
All actions are performed by the modes of material nature. But the one whose mind is deluded by ego thinks, 'I am the doer.'
All actions are done by the modes of nature, and the mind deluded by ego thinks, "I am the doer" (Gita 3.27). From here it is natural to conclude that being the doer is an illusion. Then, in the fifth chapter, the knower of truth is said to hold, even while seeing, hearing, walking and sleeping, that he truly does nothing (Gita 5.8). Put the two together and it seems that dropping doership means dropping the fruit and the blame as well.
Who says "I do nothing", and when?
पश्यञ्शृण्वन्स्पृशञ्जिघ्रन्नश्नन्गच्छन्स्वपञ्श्वसन् ॥ ५.८ ॥
paśhyañ śhṛṇvan spṛśhañ jighrann aśhnan gachchhan svapan śhvasan || 5.8 ||
A knower of truth, established in yoga, understands that the Self is not the doer. Therefore, even while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, walking, sleeping, and breathing, he inwardly knows, 'I am not truly doing anything.'
Read slowly, the sentence belongs to a person who is seeing, hearing, walking, eating, speaking, opening and closing the eyes (Gita 5.8–9). He has not stepped out of the work. He is fully in it. What he understands is that the senses are moving among their objects, and the swollen thought "I am everything here" is not in him.
Two things follow. The thought is held during the work, and its fruit is that success does not puff him up and failure does not frighten him. And he does not use it after a mistake as a defence. Nowhere in the Gita does this sentence appear as "I spoiled the work, but I was not the doer."
Both pictures are incomplete
The Lord names five causes of any action: the base, the doer, the various instruments, the many efforts, and, fifth, destiny (Gita 18.13–14). The doer is on the list. He then adds that whatever a person undertakes by body, speech or mind, right or wrong, has these five causes (Gita 18.15).
पश्यत्यकृतबुद्धित्वान्न स पश्यति दुर्मतिः ॥ १८.१६ ॥
paśhyaty akṛtabuddhitvān na sa paśhyati durmatiḥ || 18.16 ||
That being so, one who, because of an untrained intellect, sees the Self alone as the doer, that person of perverse understanding does not see truly.
Given this, whoever sees the Self alone as the doer, because the understanding is untrained, does not see truly (Gita 18.16). So "I do it all" is a fault of seeing. Just as incomplete is the idea that "I am nothing in this." The doer is one of five, in right action and in wrong action. Taking one cause out of the list takes the list out with it.
Blame does not pass to anyone else
One might think the fault could be put on nature or on the Lord. The Gita closes that door in advance: the all-pervading Lord accepts no one's sin or merit, and beings are bewildered because their knowledge is covered by ignorance (Gita 5.15). One's own share cannot be handed to another and left there.
The Lord also tells Arjuna to lift himself by his own mind, for the mind can be a friend or an enemy (Gita 6.5). A person who is asked to lift himself is being treated as someone who can keep an account of his own share.
Honest use and alibi
| Honest use | Alibi | |
|---|---|---|
| When it is said | Before and during the work | After the mistake |
| What it does | Lessens pride and dread | Avoids answering |
| Effect on care | The whole mind stays in the work | Care slackens |
| What follows | Seeing one's own part and mending it | The matter is put off |
The Gita's two pictures of the doer help here. The doer who is free from attachment, does not speak in ego-words, is firm and enthusiastic, and stays level in success and failure is called pure (Gita 18.26). The doer who is undisciplined, stubborn, deceitful, lazy, despondent and given to putting things off is called dark (Gita 18.28). Whoever says "not me" in order to put the work aside is nearer to the second. Whoever drops ego-words and works with enthusiasm is nearer to the first. This is not a label for any person. It is a way of spotting a tendency.
An example: Meera and the unchecked figure
Take Meera, who leads a small team. An audit shows that one figure in a report was never checked, and a client received a wrong number.
Her first impulse says: "The assistant entered it, how could I have known, we were under pressure." Some of this is even true. But Meera stops and says three sentences. "My part: I sent the report on without looking at that figure. The other causes: the time was short, one tool had a gap, and the assistant had not been told clearly what to check. What I will do now: send the client the right number and set up a check before sending in the team."
Meera counted the other causes without turning them into an excuse. Her own share may be small, but it is not nothing. And having seen it, she did not sink into guilt, because the purpose was repair.
If the fault really was not mine
Sometimes one's share in a mistake is very small. The list of five still helps then: it lets one see the other causes clearly, without taking them on oneself and without hiding behind them. To see one's own share exactly as large as it is, no larger and no smaller, is honesty.
- The last time something went wrong, when did I say something like "I was not the doer": during the work, or after the mistake?
- What was my share in it, even if small?
- Which were the other causes, and did I use them as an excuse?
- What is the next step to mend it?
The right meaning
"I am not the doer" means that I am not the sole owner and sole cause. It loosens pride and dread, and it makes it easier to look at one's own share with a cool mind. Responsibility does not become lighter. It becomes clearer. And the person who sees his share plainly works with more care and more heart than before.
Going deeper
The full discussion, the table of the five causes and the commentators' streams are in Who Is the Doer?. A companion misreading, that if destiny decides everything then effort is pointless, is treated separately.