The doer

Who does (anything)?

We have this everyday perspective that each animal or plant acts. This perspective originates from the perception that we are separate entities. The student of advaita vedanta will call this separateness an illusion.

The advaita vedanta perspective says that Brahman does not act, only Prakriti does. All action is in, and by, her.

If we keep aside the perspective of the advaitin, and take the perspective of the seeker on bhakti marg, her entire worldview is encapsulated in one line: “Thy will be done.” This cuts across religions.1 Therefore, the devotee too will say that there is only one doer: God. What she calls God is Prakriti of the vedantin.

Am I a doer? I do not believe any body-mind apparatus is an independent doer of any action. All the body-mind machines we see are all reacting. The entire dance of Prakriti is a totally deterministic dance. Physicists will agree. In my perspective, there is only one doer: Ma.

This becomes a bit clearer if we dwell on the lives of plants. Plants are living and sentient. We believe we are different, but we are not. We are inanimate bodies which have been energised by the injection of prana, which is a feature of Prakriti. And because we can jump around, feel, and fantasize, we believe we act. In actuality, we, like plants, are living out our lives reacting, from birth to growth to death.

Next: On opinions

  1. Some Christians believe that there are two omnipotent polar opposites, God and Satan, who are both actors, and therefore some actions may be as per Satan’s will, in which case not all actions in the universe are as per God’s will. This mental model is too self-contradictory to merit further discussion. โ†ฉ๏ธŽ