कर्तृत्व

Kartritva means doership: the feeling "I am the one who does." The word itself occurs in one verse: the Lord creates neither doership in people nor their actions (Gita 5.14). As a named idea, doership is the tradition's label for a teaching the Gita gives across several verses. The Gita's own sentence is this. All actions are performed by the modes of nature. But the mind deluded by ego takes it for granted: "I am the doer" (Gita 3.27).

The Gita does not condemn action here. The mistake lies in the claim: writing all the credit or all the blame in one's own name. That is why the Gita counts the doer among the five causes of every action without making him the only one (Gita 18.14).

The usual misreading is that giving up doership means giving up work or responsibility. It does not. The work goes on, effort stands as a cause of its own, and the right to action remains. What goes is only the claim "it is all mine."

The topic is read at length in Who Is the Doer?. For the feeling that raises the claim, see ego.