Non doership sloka. BG 5.8-9

 A

In the Bhagavad Gita, verses 5.8–5.9 describe the state of a realized person who acts without egoistic attachment.

Sanskrit (transliteration)

5.8

naiva kiñcit karomīti
yukto manyeta tattva-vit
paśyan śṛṇvan spṛśan jighrann
aśnan gacchan svapan śvasan

5.9

pralapan visṛjan gṛhṇann
unmīṣan nimīṣann api
indriyāṇīndriyārtheṣu
vartanta iti dhārayan

Common English Translation

“The knower of truth, established in yoga, thinks:
‘I do nothing at all.’
Seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, walking, sleeping, breathing…”

“Speaking, releasing, grasping, opening and closing the eyes —
he understands that only the senses move among the objects of the senses.”

Core Meaning

These verses teach non-doership (akartṛtva). The enlightened person recognizes:

• Actions still happen through the body and senses.
• Nature (prakṛti) performs activity.
• The deeper Self (ātman) remains the witnessing consciousness.

This is not passivity or denial of action. The person still lives normally — eating, walking, speaking, working — but without the ego-thought:

“I alone am the doer.”

Philosophical Idea

A central idea here is the distinction between:

• Body-mind activity → changing, active
• True Self → aware, unchanged witness

The verses are closely connected to Karma Yoga:

• perform action,
• but relinquish possessiveness and ego-identification.

A concise modern paraphrase

“Life continues through the body and senses, but the wise person no longer identifies the ego as the author of every action.”

Many commentators such as Adi Shankaracharya and Swami Vivekananda interpret these verses as pointing toward freedom from attachment and realization of the witnessing Self

B

“The human body at peace with itself is more precious than the rarest gem…all worldly things are brief like lightning in the sky; this life we must know as the tiny splash of a raindrop, a thing of beauty that disappears even as it comes into being.”

- Tsongkapa