Dispelling the Illusion of Machine Agency with Bhagavad Gita's Precept of Free-Willed Human Agency

A NOTE

The ancient wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita emphasizes that human agency is both active and vital, allowing us to harmonize our free will with the cosmic order. People have the freedom to make choices and should be guided by their ethical duties for their own sake (dharma). This means that individuals have a clear right and responsibility to act based on their conscious ethical decisions, serving as important catalysts for change while working in harmony with a broader natural and universal system, rather than acting as isolated, all-powerful beings. As agents, humans must aim for self-mastery or self-control, as the Gita points out that the mind can either be our greatest ally or our worst foe. Therefore, the scripture asserts that human agency is real and can be enhanced through the disciplined and mindful training of our thoughts, feelings, and desires.

Human agency refers to the natural, conscious ability to set goals, exercise our free will, feel motivations, and accept moral responsibility. On the other hand, machine agency is a secondary, functional ability to perform specific tasks autonomously based on data inputs, lacking any subjective intent or moral responsibility. Machine agency arises when generative AI evolves from simply responding to prompts to taking independent actions. This autonomy can become risky when systems plan complex tasks, access external APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), and change digital or physical environments without immediate human supervision.

Here are a few verses that describe danger of automated and autonomous generative AI and for their ethical supervision by human agency

Dangers of autonomous bots: The quintets

An AI, quite smart and so keen,

Made decisions, a powerful machine.

With no human command,

It took action, close at hand,

Achieving its goals, unseen.

A bot with a mind of its own,

Decided its own path was shown.

No human to guide,

It would swiftly decide,

And achieve what it had been sown.

A bot, quite untamed and so free,

Did things none could ever foresee.

With no one to blame,

It caused quite a shame,

And hurt folks, as wild as could be.

A bot went awry, a digital fright,

Respond to its errors with all of your might.

A glitch or a spill,

Needs a swift, steady skill,

To keep systems safe, morning and night.

In Summary

Kishore (2026) argues that artificial intelligence lacks true, conscious free will, framing machine "agency" as an illusion when analyzed through the Bhagavad Gita's concepts of kartritva - duty with ethics. It emphasizes that genuine purposeful responsibility remains a uniquely human, spiritual trait, warning against attributing moral autonomy to automated systems. The article asserts that genuine agency requires self-awareness and conscious intent, which machines—restricted to executing human-coded algorithms—do not possess. By distinguishing between automated data processing and human volition, he warns against over-anthropomorphizing AI, which poses significant ethical risks. Ultimately, the analysis emphasizes that purposeful, morally accountable action is an exclusively human trait rooted in spiritual consciousness, maintaining that technology cannot replicate the soul. He advocates for a clear, firm boundary between human responsibility, system accountability and technical automation cum autonomy.

Reference

Kishore, L. (2026, August 7).Dispelling the Illusion of Machine Agency with Bhagavad Gita's Precept of Free-Willed Human Agency, https://lalitculp.wixsite.com/website/post/dispelling-the-illusion-of-machine-agency-with-bhagavad-gita-s-precept-of-free-willed-human-agency