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How are my abilities determined?

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).

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