adhishthaanam tathaa kartaa karanam cha prithagvidham |
vividhaashcha prithakcheshtaa daivam chaivaatra panchamam || 14 ||
 
The foundation, the doer and several instruments, and the various movements of several types, as well as the divinity, the fifth in these.
 
adhishthaanam : foundation
tathaa : and also
kartaa : doer
karanam : instruments
cha : and
prithagvidham : several
vividhaahaa : types
cha : and
prithak : various
cheshtaa : movements
daivam : divinity
cha : and
eva : also
atra : in these
panchamam : fifth
 
Nowadays robots are quite common, and are being used for cleaning home floors as well. For a robot to perform any action, there are at least three factors at work. First is the body of the robot, which will determine things like how fast or how powerful actions can be performed. Second is the instruments of the robot, such as its sensors, its hands, its wheels and so on. Third is the power system of the robot, which typically is electricity but could also be diesel or steam.
 
Shri Krishna says that whenever a human being performs an action, the same three factors come into play. The size of our body, the state of our instruments (organs of action and organs of sense) and our power system (our praana, our energy and health), each factor is responsible for the fate of our action. But there has to be something that differentiates us from robots, and therefore, two additional factors are mentioned: the kartaa or the doer, and the daivam or divinity.
 
The fourth component known as the kartaa, the doer, also known as the sense of agency, is nothing but the notion of finitude within us, what we normally term as the “I”. When our intellect plans an action, we say, “I am thinking” instead of saying “the intellect is thinking”. When our hand is performing the action, we say “I am sweeping the floor” instead of “the hand is sweeping the floor”. When our eyes perceive an obstacle, we say “I see a wall” instead of “the eyes see a wall”. Seen in this manner, the sense of “I” is quite illusory. For now, we can say that it is the motive behind performance of action that identifies with a certain aspect of the mind or body, a certain upaadhi.
 
The fifth component of any action is the daivam, the divinity. Unless Ishvara supports an action, it will not result in success. Or we can say that the world, or the universe as a whole, also has a part in determining the outcome of an action. Despite everything executed perfectly at the individual level, it still has to align with the action at the universal level.