BG 09.09 na ca mam tani karmani... cited

Expressions researched:
"asaktam tesu karmasu" |"na ca mam tani karmani" |"nibadhnanti dhananjaya" |"udasina-vad asinam"

BG Chapters 7 - 12

BG 9.9, Translation and Purport:

O Dhanañjaya, all this work cannot bind Me. I am ever detached from all these material activities, seated as though neutral.

One should not think, in this connection, that the Supreme Personality of Godhead has no engagement. In His spiritual world He is always engaged. In the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.6) it is stated, ātmārāmasya tasyāsti prakṛtyā na samāgamaḥ: "He is always involved in His eternal, blissful, spiritual activities, but He has nothing to do with these material activities." Material activities are being carried on by His different potencies. The Lord is always neutral in the material activities of the created world. This neutrality is mentioned here with the word udāsīna-vat. Although He has control over every minute detail of material activities, He is sitting as if neutral. The example can be given of a high-court judge sitting on his bench. By his order so many things are happening—someone is being hanged, someone is being put into jail, someone is awarded a huge amount of wealth—but still he is neutral. He has nothing to do with all that gain and loss. Similarly, the Lord is always neutral, although He has His hand in every sphere of activity. In the Vedānta-sūtra (2.1.34) it is stated, vaiṣamya-nairghṛṇye na: He is not situated in the dualities of this material world. He is transcendental to these dualities. Nor is He attached to the creation and annihilation of this material world. The living entities take their different forms in the various species of life according to their past deeds, and the Lord doesn't interfere with them.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 9.7-10 -- New York, November 25, 1966:

You have got your life. If you like, you can have your life eternal without any birth and death just to get rid, just getting out of this material nature. So God creates and annihilates. So God says, Kṛṣṇa says,

na ca māṁ tāni karmāṇi

nibadhnanti dhanañjaya

udāsīnavad āsīnam

asaktaṁ teṣu karmasu

Now one may think that "Such a huge manifestation of the material world, it is once created and again annihilated. Then God must be very much concerned about this creation and annihilation." But the Lord says, "No." Na ca māṁ tāni karmāṇi nibadhnanti dhanañjaya: "My dear Arjuna, all this world is going on automatically. There is no concern about it." Just like a big man, big rich man in your city. Oh, he is dismantling so many big, big houses and again constructing skyscraper. Oh, his agents are doing. He has got money, spending. He is sitting nicely. He has no concern. Similarly, parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate. The material nature and so many other agents, they are, I mean to say, performing this creation automatically. Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport).

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Morning Walk -- April 2, 1974, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: Bhūta-grāmam, not He.

Dr. Patel: Bhūta-grāmam, is due to the prakṛti, after creating the bhūtas.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Dr. Patel:

na ca māṁ tāni karmāṇi

nibadhnanti dhanañjaya

udāsīna-vad āsīnam

asaktaṁ teṣu karmasu

Prabhupāda: Yes. The same thing, that just like a judge orders, "This man should be hanged," but the judge is not affected by such thing. He's not affected. Just like you surgical, you are going on surgical operation. You are not affected. The man is crying, "Oh, here, doctor, you are killing me, killing me, killing me." But the killing or not killing, doctor Saheb is not in con-(indistinct).

Dr. Patel:

mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ

sūyate sa-carācaram

hetunānena kaunteya

jagad viparivartate

(BG 9.10)

Prabhupāda: Yes. This is the... These rascal atheist class, they think that prakṛti is creating. Prakṛti is creating, that the ocean is created by prakṛti. But why the ocean does not come here? Fifty, sixty yards? Because there is order that "You cannot come here." This big ocean, immediately, in one minute, it can swallow up whole Bombay. Therefore it is controlled. It is controlled by the Supreme. Mayādhyakṣeṇa.