[Advaita-l] gita 5.29

[Sundaresan, Vidyasankar (GE Infra, Water)]

>Translation by Sw. Gambhirananda "jnatva, by knowing; mam, Me who am
>Narayana; who, as the sarva-loka-mahesvaram, great Lord of all the
>worlds; am the bhoktaram, enjoyer (of the fruits); yajna-tapasam, of
>sacrifices and austerities, as the performer and the Deity of the
>sacrifices and austerities (respectively);"
>
>A couple of questions:
>
>1) What is meant by "respectively" in the translation? 

I would guess that Swami Gambhirananda is reading the term kartR-rUpeNa
with
yajnAnAM and devatA-rUpeNa with tapasAM. Hence the "respectively,"
although
it is not clear to me that Sankara bhagavatpAda means it strictly that
way in the
bhAshya.

>2) If Ishwara is the kartA and bhoktA, does he not become a karmI
>tainted by karma? If instead he is to be known as nArAyaNa from
>pAramArthika-dRiShTi standpoint, why talk about kartRitvam and
>bhoktRitvam at all? 

In the introduction, bhagavatpAda refers to nArAyaNa as Adi-kartA. There
are many
discussions in the various bhAshya-s as to why ISvara does not become
tainted by
the karma of all jIva-s. Briefly, the answer given in one place in the
brahmasUtra
bhAshya is "jIvaH ... karoty eva. ... kArayati parameSvaraH ..."

In the gItAbhAshya here too, bhagavatpAda describes nArAyaNa as
karma-phala-
adhyaksha and as sarva-pratyaya-sAkShI, which captures in what sense
ISvara is
the ultimate kartA and bhoktA.

Best regards,
Vidyasankar