BG 3.27

The spirit soul bewildered by the influence of false ego thinks himself the doer of activities that are in actuality carried out by the three modes of material nature.

3.27. The actions are performed part by part, by the Strands of the Prakrti; [yet] the person, having his self (mind) deluded with egoity, imagines 'I am [alone] the doer'.

3.27 Action is the product of the Qualities inherent in Nature. It is only the ignorant man who, misled by personal egotism, says: I am the doer.'

3.27 Prakreh etc. Indeed the actions are performed by the Strands, Sattva etc., belonging to the Prakrti. But the fool unnecessarily binds himself by wrongly comprehending 'I' am the doer'.

3.27 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.

3.27 Karmani kriyamanani, while actions, secular and scriptural, are being done; sarvasah, in ever way; gunaih, by the gunas, (i.e.) by the modifications in the form of body and organs; (born) prakrteh, of Nature-Nature, (otherwise known as) Pradhana [Pradhana, Maya, the Power of God.], being the state of eilibrium of the three alities of sattva, rajas and tamas; ahankara-vimudha-atma, one who is deluded by egoism; manyate, thinks; iti, thus; 'Aham karta, I am the doer.' Ahankara is self-identification with the aggregate of body and organs. He whose atma, mind, is vimudham, diluded in diverse ways, by that (ahankara) is ahankara-vimudha-atma. He who imagines the characteristics of the body and organs to be his own, who has self-identification with the body and the organs, and who, through ignorance, believes the activities to be his own-, he thinks, 'I am the doer of those diverse activities.'

3.27 Actions are being performed in every way by the Gunas of Prakrti. He whose nature is deluded by egoism, thinks, 'I am the doer.'

3.27 While actions are being done in every way by the gunas (alities) of Nature, one who is deluded by egoism thinks thus: 'I am the doer.'