The Doer

 

The Bhagavan Gita notably advises that we give up the "fruits of Action." Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi in Talks is said to have identified as a primary illusion the concept the one is the "Doer" as if such were equivalent to mis-identification  with the Body.  Other Enlish translations include "performer" or even "" Indeed, the Body is inert flesh until and unless it is thought to be "doing" something as the agent of  Cause and Effect within the "multiplicity" of Space and Time.

 

From the duality and further multiplicity inherent in the Subject-Object relationship, through the detailed Causality or Agency or Doer-ship, these relationships highlight the role of the Body as the token signpost of the Doer with a physical structure by which to exact physical Effect in a perceived and conceived "real" World.  Furthermore of course, the Body stands in as the particularized and isolated "subject" that symbolizes the supposed Doer.  Referring the action itself, the term Karma includes, "as a unit" we have said, the inherent consequences of any given action, "good" or "bad" according to our preferences. 

 

But since one is NOT the Body, one cannot truly be a Doer in the above sense.  And since Reality id singular and undifferentiated, there is no substantial reality to the momentary events that seem to describe the "action" anyway.  In fact, to use one illusion to describe another (in a "relative" but not Absolute manner), we discover no individual Ego to be the subject, and not individual thing or situation to be the object of any act of "doing".  Without doing where is no basis for merit or blame, for success or failure. 

 

Without obsessing overly much on these subsidiary details, we nevertheless can be assured that all this serves as yet another basis for useful Detachment and the Ego-diminishing remedy of relinquishing the good and ill results of apparent "action".  Forgo these needless preoccupations with illusory "Doer-ship" – a primary supporting concept for the Ego, which in itself is the essence of apparent non–Realization.