In plain words
All actions are performed entirely by the guṇas of Prakṛti. One whose self is deluded by ahaṅkāra thinks, ‘I am the doer.’
Word for word
Actions are done in every way by the guṇas of prakṛti; one deluded in himself by ahaṅkāra thinks 'I am the doer'.
प्रकृतेः क्रियमाणानि गुणैः कर्माणि सर्वशःअहङ्कारविमूढात्मा कर्ताऽहमिति मन्यते
Other commentaries
The commentators
▸Bhagavadgītābhāṣyam
अविद्वानज्ञः कथं कर्मसु सज्जते इत्याह —
प्रकृतेः प्रकृतिः प्रधानं सत्त्वरजस्तमसां गुणानां साम्यावस्था तस्याः प्रकृतेः गुणैः विकारैः कार्यकरणरूपैः क्रियमाणानि कर्माणि लौकिकानि शास्त्रीयाणि च सर्वशः सर्वप्रकारैः अहङ्कारविमूढात्मा कार्यकरणसङ्घातात्मप्रत्ययः अहङ्कारः तेन विविधं नानाविधं मूढः आत्मा अन्तःकरणं यस्य सः अयं कार्यकरणधर्मा कार्यकरणाभिमानी अविद्यया कर्माणि आत्मनि मन्यमानः तत्तत्कर्मणाम् अहं कर्ता इति मन्यते ॥ २७ ॥
In plain words
And the one who does not know — the ignorant person — how does he get caught in action? To this, he says:
Prakṛti is simply the balanced stillness of its three strands — sattva, rajas, tamas — before they stir into motion. And it is those very strands, transformed into this body and these senses, that carry out every action, worldly or sacred, in every possible way. But a person whose mind has been fooled by ego — and ego is nothing but the mistaken idea that you are this bundle of body and senses — that person, thoroughly confused in a hundred different directions, comes to think of himself as made of body and senses, comes to identify with them completely. And so, out of sheer ignorance, placing action onto the Self where it was never actually happening, he looks at each thing he does and thinks, 'I am the one doing this.' It's only a thought. It was never true.
Close to the Sanskrit
How does the unknowing one, the ignorant one, become attached in actions? — thus, he says:
Of prakṛti — prakṛti, that is, the Principal, is the state of equilibrium of the guṇas sattva, rajas, and tamas. By the guṇas of that prakṛti, by their modifications in the form of the body and sense-organs, actions are being performed, worldly and scriptural, in every way, by all kinds [of instruments]. One whose mind is deluded by egoism — egoism being the notion that identifies the self with the aggregate of body and senses — by that, this one, whose inner faculty, that is, whose mind, is deluded in various, manifold ways, having the nature of the body and senses, identifying himself with the body and senses, through ignorance thinking of actions as located in the Self, thinks, of each and every such action, 'I am the doer.'