In plain words
One who sees that all actions are performed entirely by Prakṛti and that Ātma is non-doer truly sees.
Word for word
And who sees actions being done in every way by prakṛti alone, and likewise the Self as not the doer, he sees.
प्रकृत्यैव च कर्माणि क्रियमाणानि सर्वशःयः पश्यति तथाऽऽत्मानमकर्तारं स पश्यति
Other commentaries
The commentators
▸Bhagavadgītābhāṣyam
सर्वभूतस्थम् ईश्वरं समं पश्यन् ‘न हिनस्ति आत्मना आत्मानम्’ इति उक्तम् । तत् अनुपपन्नं स्वगुणकर्मवैलक्षण्यभेदभिन्नेषु आत्मसु, इत्येतत् आशङ्क्य आह —
प्रकृत्या प्रकृतिः भगवतः माया त्रिगुणात्मिका, ‘मायां तु प्रकृतिं विद्यात्’(श्वे. उ. ४ । १०) इति मन्त्रवर्णात् , तया प्रकृत्यैव च न अन्येन महदादिकार्यकारणाकारपरिणतया कर्माणि वाङ्मनःकायारभ्याणि क्रियमाणानि निर्वर्त्यमानानि सर्वशः सर्वप्रकारैः यः पश्यति उपलभते, तथा आत्मानं क्षेत्रज्ञम् अकर्तारं सर्वोपाधिविवर्जितं सः पश्यति, सः परमार्थदर्शी इत्यभिप्रायः ; निर्गुणस्य अकर्तुः निर्विशेषस्य आकाशस्येव भेदे प्रमाणानुपपत्तिः इत्यर्थः ॥ २९ ॥
In plain words
It was said: one who sees the Lord standing in every being, and sees him as the same, 'does not injure the Self by the self.' — But that will not hold, if selves are many, each one cut off from the rest by the difference its own qualities and actions make. Anticipating this, he says:
What does the verse mean by 'through prakṛti'? Prakṛti is simply the Lord's own māyā, made up of the three guṇas — as scripture itself says, 'know māyā to be exactly prakṛti.' Now, someone truly sees when he recognizes that it is prakṛti, and prakṛti alone, transformed all the way down into cause and effect starting with the cosmic intellect, that is doing everything — every action carried out through speech, through mind, through body, all of it, entirely, without exception. And that same person sees the Self, the knower of the field, as doing none of it — utterly free of every label ever pinned on it. That is what it means to be a true seer of reality. And here's why this must be so: something with no qualities, no agency, no internal distinctions at all — like space itself — simply offers no basis on which anyone could claim to find divisions within it.
Close to the Sanskrit
Seeing the Lord, who stands in all beings, as the same — 'he does not injure the Self by the self' — thus it was said. That is untenable in the case of selves divided by the division of the difference of their own qualities and actions — having anticipated this, he says:
By prakṛti: prakṛti is the Lord's māyā, consisting of the three guṇas, on the authority of the mantra 'one should indeed know māyā to be prakṛti' (Śvetāśvatara Up. 4.10). Whoever sees, perceives, that it is by that very prakṛti alone, and by nothing else, transformed into the shape of cause and effect beginning with mahat, that all actions initiated through speech, mind, and body are being performed, being accomplished, entirely, in every way; and who likewise sees the Self, the field-knower, as no agent, devoid of every limiting condition — he sees; he is the seer of ultimate reality: this is the purport. For that which is without qualities, without agency, without internal distinction, like space, there is no valid ground for positing any division within it: that is the meaning.