Question: BG 14-19 mentions that in all activities no other performer is at work other than the three modes. BG 13-21 similarly calls nature to be the cause of all material causes and effects. I have difficulty understanding this. Does it mean that inert matter is the cause, or does it refer to the controlling deities in charge of different departments of nature?
Answer by Romapada Swami: Material nature consists of the three modes. The material nature or the material energy works under the direction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna.
Because the living entity is partially independent, he may not be willing to serve the Lord, but may try to become as independent as the Lord is and thus comes under the influence of material energy, i.e. he becomes a conditioned soul. In such a conditioned state of consciousness the soul desires to enjoy and exploit the material energy for his personal sense gratification. Material nature is agitated by those desires and endeavors of the soul (with the sanction of the Supersoul), according to guna and karma.
In BG 5.14 it also stated that “The embodied spirit, master of the city of his body, does not create activities, nor does he induce people to act, nor does he create the fruits of action. All this is enacted by the modes of material nature.” Material nature is creating the fruits of all material activities, not the soul.
We have the capacity to perform work and to make various endeavors (BG 18.15), yet material nature creates results. Remember: material nature works under Krishna’s direction (BG 9.10)
