Bhagavad Gita 13.20
कार्यकारणकर्तृत्वे हेतुः प्रकृतिरुच्यते। पुरुषः सुखदुःखानां भोक्तृत्वे हेतुरुच्यते॥
kārya-kāraṇa-kartṛtve hetuḥ prakṛtir ucyate puruṣaḥ sukha-duḥkhānāṁ bhoktṛtve hetur ucyate
Translation
Prakriti is called the cause in the matter of effect, instrument, and agency. Purusha is called the cause in the experience of pleasure and pain.
Reflection
Watch one action today. Was the doing yours, or was the suffering yours?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Thirteen
A clean division of labor. Karya-karana-kartritva: the entire apparatus of effect, instrument, and doing belongs to prakriti. Whatever gets done, by whatever means, with whatever outcome, runs through her. Bhoktritva: the experiencing of pleasure and pain belongs to purusha. The knower is the locus of felt sensation. This is a more subtle teaching than it sounds. Doing belongs to nature. Suffering belongs to the witness. Most people invert this: they assume they are doing, and they hope the doing will end the suffering. The verse suggests checking whether the doing was ever theirs to begin with, and whether the suffering rides on identification rather than on what actually happened.