33. (The soul is) an agent, on account of Scripture (thus) having a
purport.
It has been shown that the individual Self is a knowing subject and
atomic. Now the question arises whether that Self is an agent or, being
itself non-active, erroneously ascribes to itself the activity of the
non-sentient gunas. The primâ facie answer is that the individual Self
is not an agent, since the sacred texts concerned with the Self declare
that the Self does not act, while the gunas do act. Thus, e.g. in the
Kathavallî, where the text at first denies of the individual Self all
the attributes of Prakriti, such as being born, ageing and dying ('he is
not born, he does not die'), and then also denies that the Self is the
agent in acts such as killing and the like, 'If the slayer thinks that
he slays, if the slain thinks that he is slain, they both do not
understand; for this one does not slay, nor is that one slain' (I, 2,
19). This means--if one thinks the Self to be the slayer one does not
know the Self. And the Lord himself teaches that non-agency is the
essential nature of the individual soul, and that it is mere delusion on
the Self's part to ascribe to itself agency. 'By the attributes (guna)
of Prakriti, actions are wrought all round.' He who is deluded by self-
conceit thinks 'I am the agent'; 'when the seer beholds no other agent
than the gunas'; 'Prakriti is said to be the cause of all agency of
causes and effects, whilst the soul is the cause of all enjoyment of
pleasure and pain' (Bha. Gî. III, 27; XIV, 19; XIII, 20).--The soul,
therefore, is an enjoyer only, while all agency belongs to Prakriti--To
this the Sûtra replies, 'an agent, on account of Scripture thus having a
meaning.' The Self only is an agent, not the gunas, because thus only
Scripture has a meaning. For the scriptural injunctions, such as 'he who
desires the heavenly world is to sacrifice,' 'He who desires Release is
to meditate on Brahman,' and similar ones, enjoin action on him only who
will enjoy the fruit of the action--whether the heavenly world, or
Release, or anything else. If a non-sentient thing were the agent, the
injunction would not be addressed to another being (viz. to an
intelligent being--to which it actually is addressed). The term 'sâstra'
(scriptural injunction) moreover comes from sâs, to command, and
commanding means impelling to action. But scriptural injunctions impel
to action through giving rise to a certain conception (in the mind of
the being addressed), and the non-sentient Pradhâna cannot be made to
conceive anything. Scripture therefore has a sense only, if we admit
that none but the intelligent enjoyer of the fruit of the action is at
the same time the agent. Thus the Pûrva Mimamsa declares 'the fruit of
the injunction belongs to the agent' (III, 7, 18). The Pûrvapakshin had
contended that the text 'if the slayer thinks, &c.,' proves the Self not
to be the agent in the action of slaying; but what the text really means
is only that the Self as being eternal cannot be killed. The text, from
Smriti, which was alleged as proving that the gunas only possess active
power, refers to the fact that in all activities lying within the sphere
of the samsara, the activity of the Self is due not to its own nature
but to its contact with the different gunas. The activity of the gunas,
therefore, must be viewed not as permanent, but occasional only. In the
same sense Smriti says 'the reason is the connexion of the soul with the
guwas, in its births, in good and evil wombs' (Bha. Gî. XIII, 21).
Similarly it is said there (XVIII, 16) that 'he who through an untrained
understanding looks upon the isolated Self as an agent, that man of
perverted mind does not see'; the meaning being that, since it appears
from a previous passage that the activity of the Self depends on five
factors (as enumerated in sl. 16), he who views the isolated Self to be
an agent has no true insight.