Bhagavad Gita 3.27
प्रकृतेः क्रियमाणानि गुणैः कर्माणि सर्वशः । अहङ्कारविमूढात्मा कर्ताहमिति मन्यते ॥
prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ | ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate ||
Translation
Actions are, in every way, performed by the qualities of nature. He whose self is deluded by egoism thinks thus: I am the doer.
Reflection
Which deed of yours today would feel lighter if you stopped signing your name to it?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Three
Kartāham iti manyate. He thinks: I am the doer. Ahaṅkāra, the I-maker, the verse's diagnosis. The gunas, three currents of prakṛti, do all the actual doing. The man who claims authorship is vimūḍhātmā, the self gone confused. Shankara: the claim of being the doer is not just inaccurate, it is the operational form of the bondage being discussed. To say I did this is to take on the weight of what you did. To see the gunas did this is to keep the energy and drop the load. The verse is the chapter's hinge from cosmology back to inner geometry.