प्रकृतेः क्रियमाणानि गुणैः कर्माणि सर्वशः
अहंकारविमूढात्मा कर्ताहमिति मन्यते
prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ
ahaṃkāravimūḍhātmā kartāhamiti manyate
TRANSLATION
Actions are being performed in every way by the Gunas of Prakrti. He whose nature is deluded by egoism, thinks, ‘I am the doer.’
PURPORT
It is the Gunas of Prakrti like Sattva, Rajas etc., that perform all the activities appropriate to them. But the man, whose nature is deluded by his Ahankara, thinks, ‘I am the doer of all these actions.’ Ahankara is the mistaken conception of ‘I’ applied to the workings of Prakrti which is not the ‘I’. The meaning is that it is because of this (Ahankara), that one who is ignorant of the real nature of the self, thinks, ‘I am the doer’ with regard to the activities that are really being done by the Gunas of Prakrti.
