Doer's Imaginary Existence: Gita & God 30

Gita says that since no body is a real doer to think that ‘I am/ you are or he doing’ is delusion or illusion. The mind is not the doer, the intellect is not the doer, the Self is not the doer. Man is not the doer. Then, who is the doer? Is is all mystery?
It is a perfectly valid question. And, one should if possible and to the extent one is capable must explore this mystery.
To start with, best is to forget what Gita says. Just observe a phenomenon and ask who does something to create this phenomenon. Sun rises in the East. Does the Sun rise? Really speaking the Sun does not rise. We assume that the Sun, Moon, Clouds, Ocean Water, Trees do not have mind or intellect or Self. Sun burns and gives light, the Earth moves round the Sun, Moon reflects Sunlight, Clouds burst and transforms into rain, Ocean water churns and evaporates to form clouds. Burning takes place, so do earth’s orbiting, rains’ falling and water’s evaporating. These things do happen. But we only say that certain things do certain things as doer. But do they really do anything? They do not do anything. It is the property/ guna/ nature of these things that they seem to be associated with certain events and phenomena. These things happen but no body does: none is the doer of these things.

The Truth is that there does not have to be doer to explain the observed action of doing. The concept of doer is a convenient imaginary product of mind and intellect. In reality doer does not exist and does not need to exist for any phenomenon and event to take place. The human race and the Universe would continue the same way it has been doing even if we assume that there is no Doer. The concept of “Doer” is consistent with all that happens but is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition to explain whatever happens. The cocept of the existence of a ‘Doer’ therefore is a superstition and matter of faith.
To explain all that happens in the Creation/ Universe, the assumptions that are needed are various properties or gunas that lead certain objects including life forms like human beings to behave in certain manner under certain conditions. A car runs but stops if there is no fuel. Car does not do anything. The phenomenon of car running happens given the properties of the car and certain properties of other objects in the environment of the car. A man eats at certain times if food is available. Man eating is a phenomenon that results from the properties / gunas/ nature of the man and other objects surrounding the object man. Similarly, it is not necessary to really believe that a man acts or does: the phenomenon of man's behaviour occurs. There is no doer.
The concept of doer is an illusion. We do not need a door for the Universe, Creation and the processes that continue in the Creation. Thus, the basic question as to who is the doer just does not arise. The answer to that question is simply that no body does: doer does not exist. Things happen without any doer. Since this is the Truth, Gita says remove the ego of doing.

But I am a scientific man. I need more than the above logic to prove the non-existence of ’Doer’. I should be able to empirically test that ‘Doer’ does not exist. So, better I collect and use empirical evidence on the existence of ‘Doer’. How? If I can show that a particular human does indeed behave differently under the same internal and external conditions, I would have some reason to suspect that the a ‘doer’ may exist. If my suspect ‘doer’ does the same thing every time under the same set of internal and external conditions, I would tend to doubt the existence of ’doer’: for, this man acts exactly as the car does when running: same road, same traffic, same driver, same passenger, same fuel, same traffic, same temperature, leads to same behavior and performance by the same car. Man becomes just like another car that has no ‘Doer’. ( I am not confused with the driver being a ‘doer’ because the driver is an external condition).
Unfortunately, seldom does the same person remain in the same external and internal condition over time. The internal and external conditions change. So, the behavior also changes. Even if I observe a child trying to learn walking, it learns from the first few failures and then succeeds to balance and walk. The behavior changes over time due to change in internal conditions: increased learning and experience. What is the alternative way to test for the existence of ‘Doer’ in Man? A somewhat less rigorous but scientific approach would be to do control experiments over many people. This is the method the psychologists follow. I select two samples of people. One group I treat with some information and training, keeping the other group as it is. Then I put the groups into an experiment. If the behavior of the controlled group and the other group differs statistically significantly, it would tend to cause worry to me as training and information becomes the cause of behavior rather than the existence of ‘Doer’. On the other hand, if I have chemical/ biological/ cellular statistics on the individuals and make my control groups formed on the basis of similarity of characteristics based on such diagonistic/ laboratory clinical test data and then observe that groups behave differently under given problems to solve/ external conditions to respond to, I would suspect that my suspect ‘doer’s in different persons are nothing but chemicals/ cells, proteins, acids and DNA/ RNA, etc. Then, the concept of ‘Doer’ loses relevance. I do not any more need the concept of ’Doer’ to explain variations in behavior of people: I can directly explain that the cause of behavioral differences are the properties of the biological and atomic composition of different persons. The ‘Doer’ vanishes because it does not anymore serve my scientific inquiry.

Gita is based on such empirical methodology of science: the’ Doer’ essentially is an imaginary artifact that is nothing but a bonded slave of the Gunas. Thus, we arrive at the conclusion that emerges is that no one is a doer. If I remain steady and settled in that Truth, I will identify myself with an identity of non-doer. As non-doer, all are the same - equanimity follows automatically. That non-doer cannot logically have any desire and therefore any action to satisfy any desire. My body, mind and intellect may still be part of the phenomenon of satisfying desire through certain behavior. Just like the Sun burns but the Sun is not the doer of burning. The phenomenon of burning of a type is what we call burning: that is the guna of Sun. I do not do anything nor does he or she : none is a doer. The gunas play them out.

One that realizes this Truth every moment is the Self: But the Self also does not do - it is not a doer of realization of Truth. The Truth realized state is named Self or Atman or Paramatman or God.
Self is not like a grand old man who cannot work / do and therefore is thinking of God all the time. Self is not a man or woman or animal or a physical object: it is the state or realized truth as against the state of slavery of Gunas. Both exists simultaneously - the first never changes and continues indefinitely while the later changes virtually every moment and transforms and at some stage just disappears. The first is not observable by the senses, the second is an observable phenomenon for the senses.