Sankhya Yoga 2.19

 Verse 2.19 A Quote from upanishad

य एनं वेत्ति हन्तारं यश्चैनं मन्यते हतम् |

उभौ तौ न विजानीतो नायं हन्ति न हन्यते || 19||

ya enaṁ vetti hantāraṁ yaśh chainaṁ manyate hatam

ubhau tau na vijānīto nāyaṁ hanti na hanyate

yaḥ—one who; enam—this; vetti—knows; hantāram—the slayer; yaḥ—one who; cha—and; enam—this; manyate—thinks; hatam—slain; ubhau—both; tau—they; na—not; vijānītaḥ—in knowledge; na—neither; ayam—this; hanti—slays; na—nor; hanyate—is killed

Neither of them knows the truth—the one who thinks atma can slay and the one who thinks atma can be slain. For truly, atma neither kills nor can it be killed.

Vedas that contain the upanishads at the end are called srutis. The scriptures that are born out of the minds of the mahatmas are called smritis. The smiritis, though they are born out of human minds, must endorse what the srutis say. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna presents himself  as the Lord (Ishwara) and teaches Arjuna. His teaching will still be considered valid even if he does not take reference from Upanishad which is a sruti. But since Krishna speaks at a given point in time and the entire Gita is born out of Krishna’s mind, to show that his teaching is well supported by sruti which is a pramana grnatha (an instrument of knowledge), he takes reference from kathopanishad for verses 19 and 20. In another place he says, “I am the one who is known through vedas.” He quotes upanishad in many places in the Bhagavad Gita.

Atma akartha (Self is non-doer)

The word this (yenam) in this verse denotes the eternal, non-objectifiable,self-evident, ever existing atma that is the substratum of all that is asat.

The one who thinks that atma indulges in an action (such as killing), or the one who looks upon atma as the one that is a subject of receiving an action (such as being killed), both do not know the nature of atma. Atma does not perform the action of killing or lends itself to be killed. Atma is not the killer nor is atma the killed. Because atma is non-doer.

Atma is neither the doer nor the receiver of an action. The sense of doership (kartrutvam) is only superimposed on atma. In order to understand this concept better, let us analyze the word sannyasa.

There are two kinds of sannyasa. 1) sannyasa the lifestyle 2) sarva-karma- sannyasa 

In the sannyasa lifestyle one releases himself from the nitya-naimittika karma imposed by vedas. This is called karma sannyasa. This kind of sannyasa does not remove the sense of doership and hence he continues to be the doer and enjoyer. But in the sarva-karma-sannyasa the spiritual aspirant gets rid of  the notion of doership and enjoyership by knowing that I, the atma, is not the doer or the enjoyer. The knowledge that I do not perform any action releases one from all actions and their results. The one who performs an action with this knowledge is considered only a non-doer. He is free from all implications of his wrong notions. This freedom is called sannyasa. 

Krishna’s Gita, Vyasa’s Mahabharata or the commentaries of Shankara are all results of their respective actions. A self realized person performs any action with a realization that he, the atma is not the doer. He is aware that it is his non-self such as the mind or the physical body that performs any actions. Hence he will never misidentify himself as the doer or enjoyer.

If one thinks that I have performed this action after completing a task, then he becomes a karta, doer. Any action will bring about a result. The desired results are punyas and the undesired results are papas. Since he coincides him to be a doer, the results of his actions belong to him. Ishwara designates the papas and punyas to the doer based on the nature of the action. When he receives the results of his own action the doer becomes an enjoyer, bhokta.

Karta - bhokta - samsari ( doer - enjoyer - sufferer)

Akarta - abhokta - muktha: ( non-doer, non-enjoyer, free person)-atma

Now a question.  If the mind and the physical body are inert they should not be able to perform any action. How is it possible for an inert object like the mind to perform actions?

The nature of atma is of consciousness. Atma lends its nature to the inert object, mind. The consciousness borrowed by the mind is called the reflected consciousness, (chitabasa). Like even a mirror reflects the light of the sun, the mind reflects the consciousness. With this reflected consciousness, the mind acquires the status of doer and enjoyer. We must notice that the physical body is considered an extension of the mind and hence it also borrows the light of consciousness and shines. You could also consider the mind as another kind of body, the subtle body.

Ahankara (the ego) is the thinking that I am this physical body or the mind, or both. But the nature of the bodies are ever changing while atma is eternal. When clouds vanish from the sky, the sky itself does not vanish. Likewise when the bodies perish, atma remains unaffected.