🪷 Bhagavad-Gītā · 5.8

Shri Purohit Swami · Poetic English · 1935 · public domain · Cosmo Press tradition

5.8 Though the saint sees, hears, touches, smells, eats, moves, sleeps and breathes, yet he knows the Truth, and he knows that it is not he who acts.

Swami Sivananda · Direct prose · Divine Life Society

5.8 "I do nothing at all," thus would the harmonised knower of Truth think seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, going, sleeping, breathing.

Swami Gambīrānanda · Word-key glosses · Advaita Ashrama · Śaṅkara-school

5.8 Yuktah, remaining absorbed in the Self; tattva-vit, the knower of Reality-knower of the real nature of Truth, of the Self, i.e., the seer of the supreme Reality; manyeta, should think; 'na karomi eva, I certainly do not do; kincit, anything.' Having realized the Truth, when or how should he think? This is being answered; Api, even; pasyan, while seeing; srnvan, hearing; sprsan, touching; jighran, smelling; asnan, eating; gacchan, moving; svapan, sleeping; svasan, breathing; pralapan, speaking; visrjan, releasing; grhnan, holding; unmisan, opening; nimisan, closing the eyes. All these are to be connected with the above manyeta (should think). For the man who has known the Truth thus, who finds nothing but inaction in action-in all the movements of the body and organs-, and who has full realization, there is competence only for giving up all actions because of his realization of the nonexistence of actions. Indeed, one who proceeds to drink water in a mirage thinking that water is there, surely does not go there itself for drinking water even after knowing that no water exists there!

Swami Ādidevānanda · Śrī-Vaiṣṇava perspective · Rāmānuja school

5.8 - 5.9 Thus he who knows the truth concerning the self should reflect in mind that the ear and the other organs of sensation (Jnanendriyas) as also organs of action (Karmendriyas) and the vital currents (the Pranas) are occupied with their own respective objects. Thus he should know, 'I do not do anything at all.' He should reflect, 'My intrinsic nature is one of knowledge. The sense of agency comes because of the association of the self with the senses and the Pranas which are rooted in Karma. It does not spring from my essential nature.'

Dr. S. Sankaranarayan · Academic precision · modern scholarly

5.8. A master of Yoga, knowing the reality would think 'I do not perform any action at all'. For, he who, while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, going, sleeping and breathing;