Is the activity of the individual soul independent (free), or does it
depend on the highest Self? It is free; for if it were dependent on the
highest Self, the whole body of scriptural injunctions and prohibitions
would be unmeaning. For commandments can be addressed to such agents
only as are capable of entering on action or refraining from action,
according to their own thought and will.
This primâ facie view is set aside by the Sûtra. The activity of the
individual soul proceeds from the highest Self as its cause. For
Scripture teaches this. 'Entered within, the ruler of creatures, the
Self of all'; 'who dwelling in the Self is different from the Self, whom
the Self does not know, whose body the Self is, who rules the Self from
within, he is thy Self, the inward ruler, the immortal one.' Smriti
teaches the same, 'I dwell within the heart of all; memory and knowledge
as well as their loss come from me'(Bha. Gî. XV, 15); 'The Lord, O
Arjuna, dwells in the heart of all creatures, whirling, by his
mysterious power, all creatures as if mounted on a machine' (Bha. Gî.
XVIII, 61).--But this view implies the meaninglessness of all scriptural
injunctions and prohibitions!--To this the next Sûtra replies.
41. But with a view to the efforts made (the Lord makes the soul act) on
account of the (thus resulting) non-meaninglessness of injunctions and
prohibitions and the rest.
The inwardly ruling highest Self promotes action in so far as it regards
in the case of any action the volitional effort made by the individual
soul, and then aids that effort by granting its favour or permission
(anumati); action is not possible without permission on the part of the
highest Self. In this way (i.e. since the action primarily depends on
the volitional effort of the soul) injunctions and prohibitions are not
devoid of meaning. The 'and the rest' of the Sûtra is meant to suggest
the grace and punishments awarded by the Lord.--The case is analogous to
that of property of which two men are joint owners. If one of these
wishes to transfer that property to a third person he cannot do so
without the permission of his partner, but that that permission is given
is after all his own doing, and hence the fruit of the action (reward or
anything) properly belongs to him only.--That, in the case of evil
actions, allowance of the action on the part of one able to stop it does
not necessarily prove hardheartedness, we have shown above when
explaining the Sânkhya doctrine.--But there is a scriptural text.--'He
(the Lord) makes him whom he wishes to lead up from these worlds do a
good deed, and the same makes him whom he wishes to lead down from these
worlds do a bad deed' (Kau. Up. III, 8)--which means that the Lord
himself causes men to do good and evil actions, and this does not agree
with the partial independence claimed above for the soul.--The text
quoted, we reply, does not apply to all agents, but means that the Lord,
wishing to do a favour to those who are resolved on acting so as fully
to please the highest Person, engenders in their minds a tendency
towards highly virtuous actions, such as are means to attain to him;
while on the other hand, in order to punish those who are resolved on
lines of action altogether displeasing to him, he engenders in their
minds a delight in such actions as have a downward tendency and are
obstacles in the way of the attainment of the Lord. Thus the Lord
himself says, 'I am the origin of all, everything proceeds from me;
knowing this the wise worship me with love. To them ever devoted,
worshipping me in love, I give that means of wisdom by which they attain
to me. In mercy only to them, dwelling in their hearts, do I destroy the
darkness born of ignorance, with the brilliant light of knowledge' (Bha.
Gî. X, 8; 10-11). And further on the Lord--after having described
'demoniac' people, in the passus beginning 'they declare the world to be
without a Truth, without a resting-place, without a Ruler,' and ending
'malignantly hating me who abides in their own bodies and those of
others'--declares, 'These evil and malign haters, most degraded of men,
I hurl perpetually into transmigrations and into demoniac wombs' (XVI, 8-
19).