← Back to Bhagavad-gita Study Companion

How are my abilities determined?

Preparing the తెలుగు translation… showing English in the meantime. This page will refresh automatically.

Fast Deer

The ability itself is Kṛṣṇa

BG 7.8 — pauruṣaṁ nṛṣu — "I am the ability in man"

BG 7.9 — jīvanaṁ sarva-bhūteṣu — "I am the life of all that lives"

BG 7.10 — buddhir buddhimatām asmi, tejas tejasvinām aham — "I am the intelligence of the intelligent, the prowess of the powerful"

BG 7.11 — balaṁ balavatāṁ cāham — "I am the strength of the strong"

BG 10.41 — whatever is glorious, beautiful or mighty springs from a spark of His splendour. The deer's speed is a spark.

But it is issued through a body — and the body is a separate factor

BG 18.61 — yantrārūḍhāni māyayā — the living entity is seated as on a machine made of material energy. A machine has specifications. You did not order yours.

BG 15.9 — the living entity takes a particular type of ear, eye, tongue, nose, touch — and with those, engages the sense objects. The word particular is the whole point.

BG 18.13–14 — the five factors of any accomplished action: adhiṣṭhānam (the seat/body), kartā (the doer), karaṇam (the instruments/senses), ceṣṭāḥ (the endeavours), and daivam (the fifth — providence).

Your effort was the fourth factor. Fast-twitch fibre density, tendon elasticity, limb-lever ratios — that's adhiṣṭhānam, factor one. You were pouring everything into factor four and demanding that it overrule factor one.

What determines which machine you get

BG 13.22 — kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu — association with the modes is the cause of birth in higher and lower species.

BG 14.18 — goodness rises, passion stays, ignorance descends.

BG 8.6 — yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ — whatever state of being one remembers at death, that he attains. This is your "conceptions we form till we leave the body."

So what is mine?

BG 3.27 — ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate — bewildered by false ego, one thinks "I am the doer."

BG 18.16 — one who sees himself as the only doer, not seeing the five factors, na sa paśyati — he does not see at all.

BG 2.47 — right to the work, never to the fruits.

BG 6.5 — uddhared ātmanātmānaṁ — elevate yourself by your own mind. Keep this one. It's your guard-rail (see §5).

3