Bg 4.14

na māṁ karmāṇi limpanti
na me karma-phale spṛhā
iti māṁ yo ’bhijānāti
karmabhir na sa badhyate

Word for word: 

na — never; mām — Me; karmāṇi — all kinds of work; limpanti — do affect; na — nor; me — My; karma–phale — in fruitive action; spṛhā — aspiration; iti — thus; mām — Me; yaḥ — one who; abhijānāti — does know; karmabhiḥ — by the reaction of such work; na — never; saḥ — he; badhyate — becomes entangled.

Translation: 

There is no work that affects Me; nor do I aspire for the fruits of action. One who understands this truth about Me also does not become entangled in the fruitive reactions of work.

 

When we do some work there is outward result and inward emotion like we feel exited, fearful, happy, joy, sorrow about it, so we seek something outside and it affect us inward. Krishna is saying he doesn’t have any affect like that, He do not desire any result as He is complete. In BG 4.13 verse, Krishna has explained that actually he is non doer, how? Because He is not affected internally nor He seek any result externally. Since Krishna is complete He doesn’t desire anything and nothing affects Him. Krishna is transcendental, who understands this such a person is not bound by karma. So once we understand Krishna’s transcendental position then we also become transcendental by gaining that knowledge. Transcendental understanding is not theoretical it is an understanding based on transformation.

A question can come when Krishna is not motivated by any desire why does Krishna act, the answer is He acts out of love, now we may ask that, is love not karma-phale spṛhā?the answer is, No, when we want something material as a result that is karma-phale spṛhā, Krishna doesn’t want any material result, so iti māṁ yo ’bhijānāti
karmabhir na sa badhyate, when one understands this he will not be bounded. Knowledge of Shri Krishna is extra ordinary, as devotees we are not interested in battle of waterloo or so many other historical battles that happened. So why we are interested in the battle of Kurushetra? Because it is connected with Shri Krishna. Why are we interested in Krishna? Because Krishna is not an ordinary person, He is supreme personality of God Head, He is a transcendental person and being a transcendental person He can make us transcendental. So when we come to know Krishna, we become purified and then return to Him.

There are two different things: to know Krishna and to know about Krishna, these two are two different things. Example a child come to a doctor and doctor examines the child, after this does doctor knows the child? No! doctor knows about the child, he doesn’t know the child, to know the child doctor needs to have personal relationship with the child as child’s parent has.

Mother may not be knowing technical parameter like WBC count etc. but she knows the child as she has personal relationship of love with the child.

So either a person knows about God or know God.

By having a clinical approach a person knows about the God, like God appeared in this world, God does this and that. We don’t need just theoretical knowledge but we need transformational knowledge, a theoretical knowledge just stays in head and transformational knowledge changes the direction of our love, we come to know Krishna and not just about Krishna. When we know Krishna, we become purified then we redirect our love to Krishna and we return back to Krishna, so iti māṁ yo ’bhijānāti karmabhir na sa badhyate, such a person who understands that Krishna is not materially motivated is not bound by Karma. 

 

Srila Prabhupad in purport has mentioned: 

nimitta-mātram evāsau
sṛjyānāṁ sarga-karmaṇi
pradhāna-kāraṇī-bhūtā
yato vai sṛjya-śaktayaḥ

“In the material creations, the Lord is only the supreme cause. The immediate cause is material nature, by which the cosmic manifestation is made visible.” 

For example there are three places, at one place lot of rain is happening and it is flooded, other good amount of rain and last one is where there is no rain i.e. drought, so is Lord responsible for all these? No, he is not directly responsible, direct responsibility is the karma of people who are suffering, Lord is overall responsible means He has made law of nature and that way he is responsible. Like a judge is not responsible for the punishment of a criminal it is actually the criminal’s action which is responsible.

Other example is there are two places with proper rains and in one place crops are growing and in other place weeds are growing, why it is so? Because seeds are sown accordingly. 

Another example is of twins one of the twin grows in a very cultured way and other in an uncultured way, why is that difference when parents has shown same love and care for both of them? Because they have different inclinations coming from previous life. So Lord is not responsible as Srila Prabhupad is saying we our self are responsible for our previous deeds. 

Srila Prabhupad Purport: In the Vedānta-sūtra (2.1.34) it is confirmed, vaiṣamya-nairghṛṇye na sāpekṣatvāt: the Lord is never partial to any living entity. The living entity is responsible for his own acts.

Lord Krishna is reciprocal.

Is Krishna partial or impartial? For a force or a principle, neutrality is the ideal. For a person, reciprocity is the ideal.

Example of first part “For a force or a principle, neutrality is the ideal”: In case of the principle of gravity, whatever is dropped it will fall whether it is material or a person, this is neutrality, whereas for a drop of material there is no loss as in comparison to a human body say baby but it is neutral.

But in case of person neutrality is not there, for example if there is a person and someone comes and praise him and he is like stone faced and someone come and chastised him still same expression, for such kind of person it is ok we will appreciate him in one way but it will be very difficult to make relationship with such kind of person, Krishna is not like that.it is continuation of Ye yetha mam prpapandhante…Krishna is reciprocal and that is not being partial. This will be discussed further in 9.29 samoaham serva bhuteshu …. Reciprocity (Being reciprocal) is not partiality but it is personality, if a person is not reciprocal then the personality doesn’t have much meaning. Whatever one will sow he will get, Krishna is not personally involved. He doesn’t have favourites. Shri Krishna is above laws of Karma and he doesn’t interferes with laws of karma.