Bhagavad Gita Chapter 13, Verse 21 (BG 13.21) — Meaning, Translation & Commentary

13.21 कार्यकारणकर्तृत्वे in the production of the effect? and the cause? हेतुः the cause? प्रकृतिः Prakriti? उच्यते is said (to be)? पुरुषः Purusha? सुखदुःखानाम् of pleasure and pain? भोक्तृत्वे in the experience? हेतुः the cause? उच्यते is said (to be).Commentary Pleasure and pain are the fruits of virtuous and vicious actions. The force of desire acts on the mind and the mind impels the senses to act to get the objects of desire. Good and evil actions proceed from Nature and lead to happiness or misery. Evil actions produce misery and sorrow. Virtuous actions cause happiness and joy. The soul is the enjoyer. The wife works and prepares nice? palatable dishes the huand silently enjoys the fruits of her labour. He sits ietly and eats them to his hearts content. Even so Nature works and the soul experiences the fruits of Her labour? viz.? pleasure and pain.When harmony predominates? virtuous actions are performed. When there is a preponderance of Rajas? both virtuous and vicious actions are performed. When Tamas predominates? sinful? unlawful and unrighteous actions are done.In the place of Kaarana (कारण) which means cause? some read Karana (करण) which means instrument such as the five organs of knowledge? five organs of action? mind? intellect and egoism (thirteen principles located in the body).Karya The effect? viz.? the physical body. The five elements which form the body and the five senses? and which form the senseobjects which are born of Nature come under the term effect. All alities? such as pleasure and pain and delusion which are born of Nature? come under the term instruments because these alities reside in the instruments? the senses.In the production of the body? the senses and their sensations Nature is said to be the cause. Thus Nature is the cause of Samsara.Sugarcane is the cause. Sugarcane juice? sugar and sugarcandy are the effects or modifications of sugarcane. Milk is the cause. Curd? butter and ghee (meleted butter) are the modifications of milk. Whatever is a modification of something is its effect? and that from which the modifications come is their cause. Nature is the source or cause of all modifications. She generates everything. The ten organs? mind and the five objects of the senses are the sixteen modifications or effects.Mahat (intellect) is born of Mulaprakriti. From Mahat Ahamkara (egoism) is born. Mahat is the effect of Mulaprakriti and the cause of Ahamkara. Therefore Mahat is called PrakritiVikriti. Mahat? Ahamkara and the five Tanmatras (rootelements of matter) are the seven PrakritiVikriti. Each of these is a modification of its predecessor and is in turn the cause of its successor. The five rootelements generate the five gross elements. They are the subtle elements. These seven are both Nature and modification (Prakriti and Vikriti)? cause and effect? and are included under the term cause.The functions of the body? senses? lifeforce? mind and intellect are superimposed on the pure Self. So the ignorant man says I am black I am fat I am hungry I am angry I am deaf I am blind I am the son of so and so? I know? I am the doer? I am the enjoyer? etc.The intellect is very subtle. It is in close contact with the most subtle Self. The Consciousness of the Self is reflected in the intellect (Chidabhasa) and so the intellect which has the semblance of,the Consciousness feels I am pure consciousness or Chaitanya. I experience pleasure and pain. The attributes of the pure Self are superimposed on the intellect. There is mutual superimposition between the intellect and the Self? Nature and Spirit. This is the cause of Samsara.Purusha? Jiva? Kshetrajna and Bhokta are all synonymous terms. Purusha here referred to is not the Supreme Self. He is the conditioned soul? the soul subject to transmigration who experiences pleasure and pain. The Self or the Absolute is ever free from Samsara and is unchanging.Prakriti and Purusha are the cause of Samsara. Nature generates the body? lifeforce? mind? intellect and the senses. The soul experiences pleasure and pain. Samsara is the experience of pleasure and pain. The soul is the Samsarin. He is the experiencer of pleasure and pain. (Cf.XV.9)

# BG 13.21 Nature is the cause in the performance of action and its results. Here, the word "action" refers to these thirteen principles: the five great elements, the five sense organs, the mind, the intellect, and the ego. The five qualities—sound, touch, form, taste, and smell—which are the collective properties of the five elements, exist individually as the five sense organs. We have already explained this before. The five senses each perceive different objects, and it is the function of the mind to gather and integrate these perceptions. After that, there is a need for another principle that can understand the nature of the perceived objects and determine the appropriate response. That principle is the intellect. Now, throughout all these activities—the perception of objects, their integration, and the determination—there persists a constant sense of "I": "I see," "I decide," and so forth. This sense of "I" is called ego, which arises from the identification of the soul with these instruments of perception and action. These thirteen principles are indicated here by the word "action." This entire manifest world of effects is what we perceive, and its unmanifest cause is called the source. Both the effect and the cause are nature itself. The soul is the experiencer of pleasure and pain. The conscious principle that illuminates this nature—both as cause and effect—is the soul, or the supreme self. Here, the soul is described as the experiencer of pleasure and pain in its conditioned form, not in its true nature. Pleasure and pain are reactions of the mind. When favorable circumstances bring the desired, there is pleasure; when the undesired comes, there is pain. Every experience, in its final analysis, is determined as either pleasure or pain. Consciousness alone illuminates all these experiences; without it, the stream of experience that constitutes life would be impossible. Therefore, it is said here that the supreme self is the cause of the experience of pleasure and pain. The soul, functioning as the knower of the field within the limitations of the field, becomes the experiencer of the world. Just as one who stands in the intense heat of the sun must endure its warmth, and one who moves into dense shade experiences coolness—so too does the soul experience the world according to its circumstances. In this verse, the supreme self is called the experiencer of the world of pleasure and pain. What is the cause of this world? The Blessed Lord answers: