Gita 5.13

Sadhak: "This metaphor is striking—the body as a city with nine gates. But I don't feel like a sovereign in my body. I feel more like a victim of whatever comes through the gates. A loud noise startles me, a bad smell disgusts me, an attractive sight pulls me. Where is my mastery?"

Guru: "You've identified the exact confusion that keeps you bound. You experience yourself as the one being startled, disgusted, attracted—but are you? When a loud noise happens, there is the sound, there is the startle reaction in the nervous system, and there is awareness of both. Which of these are you?"

Sadhak: "Well... I suppose I'm the one who is aware of the startle. The startle happens to me."

Guru: "Does it happen 'to' you, or does it happen 'in' awareness? The startle is a phenomenon appearing in consciousness, like a ripple on water. Are you the ripple or the water? Better yet—are you even the water, or are you that which knows the water and its ripples?"

Sadhak: "That's subtle. You're suggesting I'm not even the mind that gets startled, but some awareness prior to mind?"

Guru: "The verse calls this awareness 'dehī'—the embodied one. It dwells in the city but is not the city. It uses the gates but is not the gates. What enters through your eyes affects the visual cortex, triggers memories, generates emotions—all of this is the city's activity. But there is a silent knowing of all this activity. Have you ever noticed that which notices?"

Sadhak: "I'm trying... but whenever I try to notice the noticer, I just find more thoughts."

Guru: "And who notices those thoughts? You see, you cannot objectify the ultimate subject. Every time you try to see it, you find only objects—thoughts, sensations, perceptions. But the very fact that you can notice 'more thoughts' reveals something that is not those thoughts. That ungraspable awareness is your true position—the sovereign's throne."

Sadhak: "So the teaching is asking me to identify with this awareness rather than with the body-mind?"

Guru: "Not 'identify with' as if claiming a new identity. It's more accurate to say: recognize what you have always been. The sovereign doesn't become sovereign through a ceremony—they simply remember they always were. The city's activities never touched their essential nature. When you say 'I was startled,' you're speaking imprecisely. Startle happened. You—the witnessing awareness—merely observed it."

Sadhak: "This seems like it could lead to detachment from life, becoming cold and uninvolved."

Guru: "Does the verse say the dehī is cold or uninvolved? It says 'sukham āste'—sits happily! The witness is not absent or disconnected; the witness is present and serene. The city continues to bustle, the gates continue to function, life continues to flow. But the sovereign is at peace because they're not confused about who they are. They don't mistake themselves for the traffic at the gates. This is the deepest happiness—not the happiness of getting what you want through the gates, but the happiness of resting in your true nature."

Sadhak: "And the phrase 'neither doing nor causing to be done'—does this mean I stop acting?"

Guru: "Look around. Does the sun stop shining when it realizes it's not the rays? The body will continue to act according to its nature, its karma, its conditioning. Actions will happen. But you—the witness—were never the doer. You merely assumed you were. This teaching isn't asking you to stop action; it's revealing that you never started it. The relief is immense: you can stop pretending to be the one managing all this. The city runs itself. The sovereign merely witnesses—and is happy."