SRIMAD BHAGAWAD GITA CHAPTER 13(Gita 13)
https://youtu.be/sPDVmtpCWQE
SRIMAD BHAGAWAD GITA CHAPTER 13
अथ त्रयोदशोஉध्यायः ।
श्रीभगवानुवाच ।
इदं शरीरं कौन्तेय क्षेत्रमित्यभिधीयते ।
एतद्यो वेत्ति तं प्राहुः क्षेत्रज्ञ इति तद्विदः ॥ 1 ॥
इदं शरीरं कौन्तेय क्षेत्रमित्यभिधीयते ।
एतद्यो वेत्ति तं प्राहुः क्षेत्रज्ञ इति तद्विदः ॥ 1 ॥
क्षेत्रज्ञं चापि मां विद्धि सर्वक्षेत्रेषु भारत ।
क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञयोर्ज्ञानं यत्तज्ज्ञानं मतं मम ॥ 2 ॥
क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञयोर्ज्ञानं यत्तज्ज्ञानं मतं मम ॥ 2 ॥
तत्क्षेत्रं यच्च यादृक्च यद्विकारि यतश्च यत् ।
स च यो यत्प्रभावश्च तत्समासेन मे शृणु ॥ 3 ॥
स च यो यत्प्रभावश्च तत्समासेन मे शृणु ॥ 3 ॥
ऋषिभिर्बहुधा गीतं छन्दोभिर्विविधैः पृथक् ।
ब्रह्मसूत्रपदैश्चैव हेतुमद्भिर्विनिश्चितैः ॥ 4 ॥
ब्रह्मसूत्रपदैश्चैव हेतुमद्भिर्विनिश्चितैः ॥ 4 ॥
महाभूतान्यहङ्कारो बुद्धिरव्यक्तमेव च ।
इन्द्रियाणि दशैकं च पञ्च चेन्द्रियगोचराः ॥ 5 ॥
इन्द्रियाणि दशैकं च पञ्च चेन्द्रियगोचराः ॥ 5 ॥
इच्छा द्वेषः सुखं दुःखं सङ्घातश्चेतना धृतिः ।
एतत्क्षेत्रं समासेन सविकारमुदाहृतम् ॥ 6 ॥
एतत्क्षेत्रं समासेन सविकारमुदाहृतम् ॥ 6 ॥
अमानित्वमदम्भित्वमहिंसा क्षान्तिरार्जवम् ।
आचार्योपासनं शौचं स्थैर्यमात्मविनिग्रहः ॥ 7 ॥
आचार्योपासनं शौचं स्थैर्यमात्मविनिग्रहः ॥ 7 ॥
इन्द्रियार्थेषु वैराग्यमनहङ्कार एव च ।
जन्ममृत्युजराव्याधिदुःखदोषानुदर्शनम् ॥ 8 ॥
जन्ममृत्युजराव्याधिदुःखदोषानुदर्शनम् ॥ 8 ॥
असक्तिरनभिष्वङ्गः पुत्रदारगृहादिषु ।
नित्यं च समचित्तत्वमिष्टानिष्टोपपत्तिषु ॥ 9 ॥
नित्यं च समचित्तत्वमिष्टानिष्टोपपत्तिषु ॥ 9 ॥
मयि चानन्ययोगेन भक्तिरव्यभिचारिणी ।
विविक्तदेशसेवित्वमरतिर्जनसंसदि ॥ 10 ॥
विविक्तदेशसेवित्वमरतिर्जनसंसदि ॥ 10 ॥
अध्यात्मज्ञाननित्यत्वं तत्त्वज्ञानार्थदर्शनम् ।
एतज्ज्ञानमिति प्रोक्तमज्ञानं यदतोஉन्यथा ॥ 11 ॥
एतज्ज्ञानमिति प्रोक्तमज्ञानं यदतोஉन्यथा ॥ 11 ॥
ज्ञेयं यत्तत्प्रवक्ष्यामि यज्ज्ञात्वामृतमश्नुते ।
अनादिमत्परं ब्रह्म न सत्तन्नासदुच्यते ॥ 12 ॥
अनादिमत्परं ब्रह्म न सत्तन्नासदुच्यते ॥ 12 ॥
सर्वतःपाणिपादं तत्सर्वतोஉक्षिशिरोमुखम् ।
सर्वतःश्रुतिमल्लोके सर्वमावृत्य तिष्ठति ॥ 13 ॥
सर्वतःश्रुतिमल्लोके सर्वमावृत्य तिष्ठति ॥ 13 ॥
सर्वेन्द्रियगुणाभासं सर्वेन्द्रियविवर्जितम् ।
असक्तं सर्वभृच्चैव निर्गुणं गुणभोक्तृ च ॥ 14 ॥
असक्तं सर्वभृच्चैव निर्गुणं गुणभोक्तृ च ॥ 14 ॥
बहिरन्तश्च भूतानामचरं चरमेव च ।
सूक्ष्मत्वात्तदविज्ञेयं दूरस्थं चान्तिके च तत् ॥ 15 ॥
सूक्ष्मत्वात्तदविज्ञेयं दूरस्थं चान्तिके च तत् ॥ 15 ॥
अविभक्तं च भूतेषु विभक्तमिव च स्थितम् ।
भूतभर्तृ च तज्ज्ञेयं ग्रसिष्णु प्रभविष्णु च ॥ 16 ॥
भूतभर्तृ च तज्ज्ञेयं ग्रसिष्णु प्रभविष्णु च ॥ 16 ॥
ज्योतिषामपि तज्ज्योतिस्तमसः परमुच्यते ।
ज्ञानं ज्ञेयं ज्ञानगम्यं हृदि सर्वस्य विष्ठितम् ॥ 17 ॥
ज्ञानं ज्ञेयं ज्ञानगम्यं हृदि सर्वस्य विष्ठितम् ॥ 17 ॥
इति क्षेत्रं तथा ज्ञानं ज्ञेयं चोक्तं समासतः ।
मद्भक्त एतद्विज्ञाय मद्भावायोपपद्यते ॥ 18 ॥
मद्भक्त एतद्विज्ञाय मद्भावायोपपद्यते ॥ 18 ॥
प्रकृतिं पुरुषं चैव विद्ध्यनादि उभावपि ।
विकारांश्च गुणांश्चैव विद्धि प्रकृतिसम्भवान् ॥ 19 ॥
विकारांश्च गुणांश्चैव विद्धि प्रकृतिसम्भवान् ॥ 19 ॥
कार्यकारणकर्तृत्वे हेतुः प्रकृतिरुच्यते ।
पुरुषः सुखदुःखानां भोक्तृत्वे हेतुरुच्यते ॥ 20 ॥
पुरुषः सुखदुःखानां भोक्तृत्वे हेतुरुच्यते ॥ 20 ॥
पुरुषः प्रकृतिस्थो हि भुङ्क्ते प्रकृतिजान्गुणान् ।
कारणं गुणसङ्गोஉस्य सदसद्योनिजन्मसु ॥ 21 ॥
कारणं गुणसङ्गोஉस्य सदसद्योनिजन्मसु ॥ 21 ॥
उपद्रष्टानुमन्ता च भर्ता भोक्ता महेश्वरः ।
परमात्मेति चाप्युक्तो देहेஉस्मिन्पुरुषः परः ॥ 22 ॥
परमात्मेति चाप्युक्तो देहेஉस्मिन्पुरुषः परः ॥ 22 ॥
य एवं वेत्ति पुरुषं प्रकृतिं च गुणैः सह ।
सर्वथा वर्तमानोஉपि न स भूयोஉभिजायते ॥ 23 ॥
सर्वथा वर्तमानोஉपि न स भूयोஉभिजायते ॥ 23 ॥
ध्यानेनात्मनि पश्यन्ति केचिदात्मानमात्मना ।
अन्ये साङ्ख्येन योगेन कर्मयोगेन चापरे ॥ 24 ॥
अन्ये साङ्ख्येन योगेन कर्मयोगेन चापरे ॥ 24 ॥
अन्ये त्वेवमजानन्तः श्रुत्वान्येभ्य उपासते ।
तेஉपि चातितरन्त्येव मृत्युं श्रुतिपरायणाः ॥ 25 ॥
तेஉपि चातितरन्त्येव मृत्युं श्रुतिपरायणाः ॥ 25 ॥
यावत्सञ्जायते किञ्चित्सत्त्वं स्थावरजङ्गमम् ।
क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञसंयोगात्तद्विद्धि भरतर्षभ ॥ 26 ॥
क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञसंयोगात्तद्विद्धि भरतर्षभ ॥ 26 ॥
समं सर्वेषु भूतेषु तिष्ठन्तं परमेश्वरम् ।
विनश्यत्स्वविनश्यन्तं यः पश्यति स पश्यति ॥ 27 ॥
विनश्यत्स्वविनश्यन्तं यः पश्यति स पश्यति ॥ 27 ॥
समं पश्यन्हि सर्वत्र समवस्थितमीश्वरम् ।
न हिनस्त्यात्मनात्मानं ततो याति परां गतिम् ॥ 28 ॥
न हिनस्त्यात्मनात्मानं ततो याति परां गतिम् ॥ 28 ॥
प्रकृत्यैव च कर्माणि क्रियमाणानि सर्वशः ।
यः पश्यति तथात्मानमकर्तारं स पश्यति ॥ 29 ॥
यः पश्यति तथात्मानमकर्तारं स पश्यति ॥ 29 ॥
यदा भूतपृथग्भावमेकस्थमनुपश्यति ।
तत एव च विस्तारं ब्रह्म सम्पद्यते तदा ॥ 30 ॥
तत एव च विस्तारं ब्रह्म सम्पद्यते तदा ॥ 30 ॥
अनादित्वान्निर्गुणत्वात्परमात्मायमव्ययः ।
शरीरस्थोஉपि कौन्तेय न करोति न लिप्यते ॥ 31 ॥
शरीरस्थोஉपि कौन्तेय न करोति न लिप्यते ॥ 31 ॥
यथा सर्वगतं सौक्ष्म्यादाकाशं नोपलिप्यते ।
सर्वत्रावस्थितो देहे तथात्मा नोपलिप्यते ॥ 32 ॥
सर्वत्रावस्थितो देहे तथात्मा नोपलिप्यते ॥ 32 ॥
यथा प्रकाशयत्येकः कृत्स्नं लोकमिमं रविः ।
क्षेत्रं क्षेत्री तथा कृत्स्नं प्रकाशयति भारत ॥ 33 ॥
क्षेत्रं क्षेत्री तथा कृत्स्नं प्रकाशयति भारत ॥ 33 ॥
क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञयोरेवमन्तरं ज्ञानचक्षुषा ।
भूतप्रकृतिमोक्षं च ये विदुर्यान्ति ते परम् ॥ 34 ॥
भूतप्रकृतिमोक्षं च ये विदुर्यान्ति ते परम् ॥ 34 ॥
ॐ तत्सदिति श्रीमद्भगवद्गीतासूपनिषत्सु ब्रह्मविद्यायां योगशास्त्रे श्रीकृष्णार्जुनसंवादे
क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञविभागयोगो नाम त्रयोदशोஉध्यायः ॥13 ॥
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https://youtu.be/N_kChH8UsbsXIII
The Yoga of Distinction Between The Field & the Knower of the Field
Summary of Thirteenth Discourse
In this discourse we have one of the most significant, most illuminating, most inspiring and most mystical portions of the Bhagavad Gita. The Lord gives us a wonderfully revealing insight into the human individual. It is the metaphysics of man, the unknown. The immortal Soul, with its physical embodiment, is the main theme of this discourse. The supreme transcendental Spirit, which is the eternal substratum beyond both, is also described in a wonderful manner. The knower of the Supreme Reality is instantly liberated.
The blessed Lord tells us that the knowledge of the Field and the Knower of the Field is the true knowledge. This highest and the best knowledge grants us divine wisdom and spiritual illumination that lead to divine beatitude. This body is the Field. The Immortal Soul (yourself), dwelling in the body is the Knower of the Field. Verily, it is the Supreme Being who has projected Himself and assumed the form of this Knower of the Field within this body. This self is none other than That. Thus, Lord Krishna explains the mystery of the individual soul dwelling within this mortal body. This knowledge constitutes the main subject matter of all the scriptures and the highest philosophical works.
The five elements, the ego, the mind, intellect and the ten organs, desire and aversion and such factors constitute the Field. Next follows a wonderful summing-up of what constitutes true knowledge. Then follows the declaration of the Supreme Soul, the knowledge of which grants us immortality. That Supreme Reality is the one universal Essence present everywhere. It pervades all. It shines within the inmost chambers of our heart, it is everything, it is the one seer, the witness, the guide, sustainer, experiencer and Lord of all. One who knows this mystery is not bound by activity even in the midst of life. When we perceive this supreme Presence dwelling in all beings we cannot injure anyone. Krishna asks us to see and know the difference between the Field (body or Prakriti) and the Knower of the Field (Spirit or Purusha), and thus reach the Self. This is the teaching and the message of this illuminating discourse.
Arjuna Uvaacha:
Prakritim purusham chaiva kshetram kshetrajnameva cha;
Etadveditumicchaami jnaanam jneyam cha keshava.
Etadveditumicchaami jnaanam jneyam cha keshava.
Arjuna said:
1. I wish to learn about Nature (matter) and the Spirit (soul), the Field and the Knower of the Field, knowledge and that which ought to be known.
Sri Bhagavaan Uvaacha:
Idam shareeram kaunteya kshetramityabhidheeyate;
Etadyo vetti tam praahuh kshetrajna iti tadvidah.
Etadyo vetti tam praahuh kshetrajna iti tadvidah.
The Blessed Lord said:
2. This body, O Arjuna, is called the Field; he who knows it is called the Knower of the Field by those who know of them, that is, by the sages.
Kshetrajnam chaapi maam viddhi sarvakshetreshu bhaarata;
Kshetrakshetrajnayor jnaanam yattat jnaanam matam mama.
Kshetrakshetrajnayor jnaanam yattat jnaanam matam mama.
3. Do thou also know Me as the Knower of the Field in all fields, O Arjuna! Knowledge of both the Field and the Knower of the Field is considered by Me to be the knowledge.
Tat kshetram yaccha yaadrik cha yadvikaari yatashcha yat;
Sa cha yo yatprabhaavashcha tatsamaasena me shrinu.
Sa cha yo yatprabhaavashcha tatsamaasena me shrinu.
4. What the Field is and of what nature, what its modifications are and whence it is, and also who He is and what His powers are—hear all that from Me in brief.
Rishibhirbahudhaa geetam cchandobhirvividhaih prithak;
Brahmasootrapadaishchaiva hetumadbhirvinishchitaih.
Brahmasootrapadaishchaiva hetumadbhirvinishchitaih.
5. Sages have sung in many ways, in various distinctive chants and also in the suggestive words indicative of the Absolute, full of reasoning and decisive.
Mahaabhootaanyahankaaro buddhiravyaktameva cha;
Indriyaani dashaikam cha pancha chendriyagocharaah.
Indriyaani dashaikam cha pancha chendriyagocharaah.
6. The great elements, egoism, intellect and also unmanifested Nature, the ten senses and one, and the five objects of the senses,
COMMENTARY: Great elements: earth, water, fire, air and ether are so called because they pervade all modifications of matter. The ten senses are: the five organs of knowledge (ears, skin, eyes, tongue and nose), and the five organs of action (hand, feet, mouth, anus and generative organ).
The one: this is the mind. The five objects of the senses are sound, touch, form colour, taste and smell.
Icchaa dweshah sukham duhkham sanghaatashchetanaa dhritih;
Etat kshetram samaasena savikaaramudaahritam.
Etat kshetram samaasena savikaaramudaahritam.
7. Desire, hatred, pleasure, pain, the aggregate (the body), fortitude and intelligence—the Field has thus been described briefly with its modifications.
Amaanitwam adambhitwam ahimsaa kshaantiraarjavam;
Aachaaryopaasanam shaucham sthairyamaatmavinigrahah.
Aachaaryopaasanam shaucham sthairyamaatmavinigrahah.
8. Humility, unpretentiousness, non-injury, forgiveness, uprightness, service of the teacher, purity, steadfastness, self-control,
Indriyaartheshu vairaagyamanahankaara eva cha;
Janmamrityujaraavyaadhi duhkhadoshaanu darshanam.
Janmamrityujaraavyaadhi duhkhadoshaanu darshanam.
9. Indifference to the objects of the senses, also absence of egoism, perception of (or reflection on) the evil in birth, death, old age, sickness and pain,
Asaktiranabhishwangah putradaaragrihaadishu;
Nityam cha samachittatwam ishtaanishtopapattishu.
Nityam cha samachittatwam ishtaanishtopapattishu.
10. Non-attachment, non-identification of the Self with son, wife, home and the rest, and constant even-mindedness on the attainment of the desirable and the undesirable,
Mayi chaananyayogena bhaktiravyabhichaarinee;
Viviktadesha sevitwam aratir janasamsadi.
Viviktadesha sevitwam aratir janasamsadi.
11. Unswerving devotion unto Me by the Yoga of non-separation, resort to solitary places, distaste for the society of men,
Adhyaatma jnaana nityatwam tattwa jnaanaartha darshanam;
Etajjnaanamiti proktam ajnaanam yadato’nyathaa.
Etajjnaanamiti proktam ajnaanam yadato’nyathaa.
12. Constancy in Self-knowledge, perception of the end of true knowledge—this is declared to be knowledge, and what is opposed to it is ignorance.
Jneyam yattat pravakshyaami yajjnaatwaa’mritamashnute;
Anaadimatparam brahma na sattannaasaduchyate.
Anaadimatparam brahma na sattannaasaduchyate.
13. I will declare that which has to be known, knowing which one attains to immortality, the beginningless supreme Brahman, called neither being nor non-being.
Sarvatah paanipaadam tat sarvato’kshishiromukham;
Sarvatah shrutimalloke sarvamaavritya tishthati.
Sarvatah shrutimalloke sarvamaavritya tishthati.
14. With hands and feet everywhere, with eyes, heads and mouths everywhere, with ears everywhere, He exists in the worlds, enveloping all.
Sarvendriyagunaabhaasam sarvendriyavivarjitam;
Asaktam sarvabhricchaiva nirgunam gunabhoktru cha.
Asaktam sarvabhricchaiva nirgunam gunabhoktru cha.
15. Shining by the functions of all the senses, yet without the senses; unattached, yet supporting all; devoid of qualities, yet their experiencer,
Bahirantashcha bhootaanaam acharam charameva cha;
Sookshmatwaat tadavijneyam doorastham chaantike cha tat.
Sookshmatwaat tadavijneyam doorastham chaantike cha tat.
16. Without and within (all) beings, the unmoving and also the moving; because of His subtlety, unknowable; and near and far away is That.
Avibhaktam cha bhooteshu vibhaktamiva cha sthitam;
Bhootabhartru cha tajjneyam grasishnu prabhavishnu cha.
Bhootabhartru cha tajjneyam grasishnu prabhavishnu cha.
17. And undivided, yet He exists as if divided in beings; He is to be known as the supporter of beings; He devours and He generates also.
Jyotishaamapi tajjyotistamasah paramuchyate;
Jnaanam jneyam jnaanagamyam hridi sarvasya vishthitam.
Jnaanam jneyam jnaanagamyam hridi sarvasya vishthitam.
18. That, the Light of all lights, is beyond darkness; it is said to be knowledge, the Knowable and the goal of knowledge, seated in the hearts of all.
Iti kshetram tathaa jnaanam jneyam choktam samaasatah;
Madbhakta etadvijnaaya madbhaavaayopapadyate.
Madbhakta etadvijnaaya madbhaavaayopapadyate.
19. Thus the Field as well as knowledge and the Knowable have been briefly stated. My devotee, knowing this, enters into My Being.
Prakritim purusham chaiva viddhyaanaadee ubhaavapi;
Vikaaraamshcha gunaamshchaiva viddhi prakritisambhavaan.
Vikaaraamshcha gunaamshchaiva viddhi prakritisambhavaan.
20. Know thou that Nature and Spirit are beginningless; and know also that all modifications and qualities are born of Nature.
Kaaryakaaranakartrutwe hetuh prakritiruchyate;
Purushah sukhaduhkhaanaam bhoktritwe heturuchyate.
Purushah sukhaduhkhaanaam bhoktritwe heturuchyate.
21. In the production of the effect and the cause, Nature (matter) is said to be the cause; in the experience of pleasure and pain, the soul is said to be the cause.
Purushah prakritistho hi bhungkte prakritijaan gunaan;
Kaaranam gunasango’sya sadasadyoni janmasu.
Kaaranam gunasango’sya sadasadyoni janmasu.
22. The soul seated in Nature experiences the qualities born of Nature; attachment to the qualities is the cause of his birth in good and evil wombs.
Upadrashtaanumantaa cha bhartaa bhoktaa maheshwarah;
Paramaatmeti chaapyukto dehe’smin purushah parah.
Paramaatmeti chaapyukto dehe’smin purushah parah.
23. The Supreme Soul in this body is also called the spectator, the permitter, the supporter, the enjoyer, the great Lord and the Supreme Self.
Ya evam vetti purusham prakritim cha gunaih saha;
Sarvathaa vartamaano’pi na sa bhooyo’bhijaayate.
Sarvathaa vartamaano’pi na sa bhooyo’bhijaayate.
24. He who thus knows Spirit and Matter, together with the qualities, in whatever condition he may be, he is not reborn.
Dhyaanenaatmani pashyanti kechidaatmaanamaatmanaa;
Anye saankhyena yogena karmayogena chaapare.
Anye saankhyena yogena karmayogena chaapare.
25. Some by meditation behold the Self in the Self by the Self, others by the Yoga of knowledge, and others by the Yoga of action.
Anye twevamajaanantah shrutwaanyebhya upaasate;
Te’pi chaatitarantyeva mrityum shrutiparaayanaah.
Te’pi chaatitarantyeva mrityum shrutiparaayanaah.
26. Others also, not knowing thus, worship, having heard of it from others; they, too, cross beyond death, regarding what they have heard as the supreme refuge.
Yaavat sanjaayate kinchit sattwam sthaavarajangamam;
Kshetrakshetrajnasamyogaat tadviddhi bharatarshabha.
Kshetrakshetrajnasamyogaat tadviddhi bharatarshabha.
27. Wherever a being is born, whether it be unmoving or moving, know thou, O best of the Bharatas (Arjuna), that it is from the union between the Field and its Knower.
Samam sarveshu bhooteshu tishthantam parameshwaram;
Vinashyatswavinashyantam yah pashyati sa pashyati.
Vinashyatswavinashyantam yah pashyati sa pashyati.
28. He sees, who sees the Supreme Lord, existing equally in all beings, the unperishing within the perishing.
COMMENTARY: Birth is the root cause of the modifications of change, growth, decay and death. The other changes of state manifest after the birth of the body. But the Lord is changeless and He is birthless, decayless and deathless.
Samam pashyan hi sarvatra samavasthitameeshwaram;
Na hinastyaatmanaa’tmaanam tato yaati paraam gatim.
Na hinastyaatmanaa’tmaanam tato yaati paraam gatim.
29. Because he who sees the same Lord dwelling equally everywhere does not destroy the Self by the self, he goes to the highest goal.
Prakrityaiva cha karmaani kriyamaanaani sarvashah;
Yah pashyati tathaa’tmaanam akartaaram sa pashyati.
Yah pashyati tathaa’tmaanam akartaaram sa pashyati.
30. He sees, who sees that all actions are performed by Nature alone and that the Self is actionless.
Yadaa bhootaprithagbhaavam ekastham anupashyati;
Tata eva cha vistaaram brahma sampadyate tadaa.
Tata eva cha vistaaram brahma sampadyate tadaa.
31. When a man sees the whole variety of beings as resting in the One, and spreading forth from That alone, he then becomes Brahman.
COMMENTARY: A man attains to unity with the Supreme when he knows or realises through intuition that all these manifold forms are rooted in the One. Like waves in water, like rays in the sun, so also all forms are rooted in the One.
Anaaditwaan nirgunatwaat paramaatmaayam avyayah;
Shareerastho’pi kaunteya na karoti na lipyate.
Shareerastho’pi kaunteya na karoti na lipyate.
32. Being without beginning and devoid of (any) qualities, the Supreme Self, imperishable, though dwelling in the body, O Arjuna, neither acts nor is tainted!
Yathaa sarvagatam saukshmyaadaakaasham nopalipyate;
Sarvatraavasthito dehe tathaatmaa nopalipyate.
Sarvatraavasthito dehe tathaatmaa nopalipyate.
33. As the all-pervading ether is not tainted because of its subtlety, so the Self seated everywhere in the body, is not tainted.
Yathaa prakaashayatyekah kritsnam lokamimam ravih;
Kshetram kshetree tathaa kritsnam prakaashayati bhaarata.
Kshetram kshetree tathaa kritsnam prakaashayati bhaarata.
34. Just as the one sun illumines the whole world, so also the Lord of the Field (the Supreme Self) illumines the whole Field, O Arjuna!
Kshetrakshetrajnayor evam antaram jnaanachakshushaa;
Bhootaprakritimoksham cha ye vidur yaanti te param.
Bhootaprakritimoksham cha ye vidur yaanti te param.
35. They who, through the eye of knowledge, perceive the distinction between the Field and its Knower, and also the liberation from the Nature of being, they go to the Supreme.
COMMENTARY: They who know through the eye of intuition opened by meditation and the instructions of the Guru and the scriptures, that the Field is insentient, the doer, changing and finite, and that the Knower of the Field is pure Consciousness, the non-doer, unchanging and infinite, and who also perceive the non-existence of Nature, ignorance, the Unmanifested, the material cause of being,—they attain the Supreme.
Hari Om Tat Sat
Iti Srimad Bhagavadgeetaasoopanishatsu Brahmavidyaayaam
Yogashaastre Sri Krishnaarjunasamvaade
Kshetrakshetrajnavibhaagayogo Naama Trayodasho’dhyaayah
Iti Srimad Bhagavadgeetaasoopanishatsu Brahmavidyaayaam
Yogashaastre Sri Krishnaarjunasamvaade
Kshetrakshetrajnavibhaagayogo Naama Trayodasho’dhyaayah
Thus in the Upanishads of the glorious Bhagavad Gita, the science of the Eternal, the scripture of Yoga, the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, ends the thirteenth discourse entitled:
“The Yoga of the Distinction Between The Field and the Knower of the Field”
Swami Sivananda.
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Commentary on the Bhagavadgita
by Swami Krishnananda
Discourse 38: The Thirteenth Chapter Begins – Consciousness and Matter
From the Thirteenth Chapter onwards, a new perspective is placed before us. A kind of unity of purpose was seen in the first six chapters. It is said that another kind of unity of purpose is seen from the Seventh to the Twelfth Chapters. Now the last six chapters, from the Thirteenth onwards, have a different purpose altogether.
There is an emphasis on the discipline of the individual in the first six chapters. In the next six chapters—from the Seventh to the Eleventh particularly, and even the Twelfth—there is a special emphasis on the glory of God, the nature of creation, and the majesty of the devotees of God. These are the subjects of the middle six chapters. Now we have traversed both these—the individual, and the cosmic. In the first six chapters we have the individual, and in the next six chapters we have the cosmic. Now a more detailed touching up of essentials that are already stated briefly in the earlier chapters is taken up for discussion in the coming chapters.
There is a belief among commentators of the Bhagavadgita that the great Upanishadic statement ‘tat tvam asi’ has something to do with this threefold classification of the chapters of the Gita. The individual is tvam—‘thou’. This ‘thou’, or individual, is taken up for an intensified form of study in the first six chapters. Tat means ‘That’—the Supreme. The nature of ‘That’ is taken up for study in the next six chapters. Asi means ‘art’; ‘thou That art’. The unification of the ‘thou’ and the ‘That’, the methodology of attaining the unity between the individual and the Universal, in all its details, is supposed to be delineated in the coming chapters, from the Thirteenth onwards.
Sri Krishna himself starts speaking, without any question from Arjuna. Idaṁ śarīraṁ kaunteya kṣetram ityabhidhīyate (13.1): “This body, this particular tabernacle, this physical embodiment of the human being, is technically called kṣetra, or the field where some activity takes place. A field is an area where something happens.
While this body, which is physical in nature, is a field of operation, there must be somebody who carries on this operation in the field. The field is the body; but the knower of this body is the operator behind it. This body is, no doubt, the vehicle of action, but there is somebody who is conscious that there is a body which is to be used for the purpose of some activity. This body is an instrument of action in this world, but this body cannot act by itself. It is inert, constituted of the five inert elements—earth, water, fire, air and ether. Inert instruments cannot act by themselves. Even a car cannot move unless there is a driver. So is the case with this body. Unless there is prana and an intelligence that drives the prana in respect of the bodily limbs, there will be no activity.
So while this body may be called kṣetra, or field, the one who knows this field is and is conscious of it, operates through it—lives in it, indwells it, and handles it in a different manner—such a principle is called kṣetrajña. Jña means knower, and kṣetra is, of course, field, so kṣetrajña means ‘the knower of the field’. Hence, this body is the kṣetra, the field, and the one who knows this field is the kṣetrajña.
Consciousness and matter constitute the subject of this chapter. The so-called field—this body or anything that is material—is an unconscious presentation that is usually called matter. That which knows matter is consciousness. Throughout the history of philosophy, there has been a lot of controversy on the theme as to what is the relationship between consciousness and matter, and this controversy has not subsided even today. How do we connect consciousness with matter?
The knower of the field knows the field. Consciousness has no characteristic of matter, and matter does not have the characteristic of consciousness. Consciousness does not move, whereas matter is always in a state of flux and agitation. Therefore, they are dissimilar in their character. Objectivity is the character of the body and matter, whereas subjectivity is the nature of consciousness. They are totally opposed to each other. So how can that which is pure subject come in contact with that which is pure object? How would we solve this great issue of what the relationship between two terrible contraries is? They cannot have any kind of connection, yet they seem to be working together in some way for the purpose of effecting some aim, which seems to be the very process of evolution.
The Sankhya doctrine gives a very humorous analogy to explain how consciousness, which is intelligent, works together with matter, which is unintelligent. Consciousness has eyes but no legs. It cannot move. It is universal existence. Therefore, it can see because it is intelligence, but it cannot move because it has no legs. Prakriti has legs; it can move. But it has no eyes; it cannot see. It has no consciousness. Now, suppose there are two persons going on a journey: one who can see but cannot walk, and another who can walk but cannot see. They make an arrangement between themselves. The blind person who can walk carries on his shoulder the legless person who can see. So the carried person sees and directs the path, and the legged one moves. This is how consciousness and matter work together, says Sankhya in a humorous analogy. But that analogy does not explain matters, because the two persons are independent of each other. The seeing person and the walking person are not one person. Therefore, consciousness and matter cannot become one unit. Unless there is a blend of the two, it will be difficult to explain perception of any kind. This subject has been taken up in the Vedanta Shastra as an improvement on the dualistic doctrine of the Sankhya, which carries on its philosophy with its eyed-one and legged-one combination.
Kṣetrajña iti tadvidaḥ: “Arjuna, I am the knower of the field.” The Lord says, “I am the Pure Consciousness that knows all things and operates these material forces; and I am not merely in one body. When I refer to the body, you may be thinking of some particular body, this body or that body, and there is a consciousness in each body. That may be so, that consciousness is inherently present in every body, within each person, but that is not the point.” Sarvakṣetreṣu bhārata: “I am present as the kṣetrajña, or the knower of the field, in all the fields. That is, all individuals whatsoever—right from Brahma, the Creator, down to the atom—are indwelt by Me, and I know all things as the Omniscient Knower.”
In a sense, it means that the kṣetra is the entire physical universe. The whole of creation can be considered as the kṣetra, or the field of action; and Omniscient Intelligence that is operating in terms of this material manifestation is the kṣetrajña. Therefore, the question of the relationship between God and creation, consciousness and matter, kṣetrajña and kṣetra, purusha and prakriti—all mean, finally, one and the same thing.
Kṣetrajñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarvakṣetreṣu bhārata, kṣetrakṣetrajñayor jñānaṁ yat taj jñānaṁ mataṁ mama (13.2): “This is real knowledge. I consider this to be supreme and real knowledge.” What is that knowledge? It is the knowledge of kṣetra and kṣetrajña. If we can know the actual relationship between God and the world, soul and body, consciousness and matter, knower and the known—if this can be clear to us, we have known everything. This knowledge is the highest knowledge.
Tat kṣetraṁ yac ca yādṛk ca yadvikāri yataś ca yat, sa ca yo yatprabhāvaś ca tat samāsena me śṛṇu(13.3): “I shall now briefly tell you what this kṣetra is—this field that is being referred to. Its nature, its characteristics, its modifications, from where it originates, how it exists, and what its powers are, all these I shall tell you just now.”
Ṛṣibhiḥ (13.4): “This knowledge about which I am speaking has been sung in all its glory in the Upanishads, the Vedas, and the Brahma Sutras by great rishis with their logical arguments. Vasishtha gloriously describes this in all varieties of arguments in the Yoga Vasishtha. Rishis also sing of this knowledge in the Upanishads and the Vedas, and the Brahma Sutras are filled with logical pros and cons establishing the nature of this knowledge.”
mahābhūtānyahaṅkāro buddhir avyaktam eva ca
indriyāṇi daśaikaṁ ca pañca cendriyagocarāḥ (13.5)
icchā dveṣaḥ sukhaṁ duḥkhaṁ saṅghātaś cetanā dhṛtiḥ
etat kṣetraṁ samāsena savikāram udāhṛtam (13.6)
It was mentioned that this body is the kṣetra, and the knower of this body is the kṣetrajña. Also, because of the fact that this kṣetrajña is the knower not only of any particular body but of all bodies, it is proper for us to conclude that the whole universe is the field, or the kṣetra, and the Supreme Purusha, God Almighty, is the kṣetrajña. Kṣetrajñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarvakṣetreṣu bhārata: “I am the kṣetrajña in sarvakṣetra—in all the kṣetras. All living beings constitute physical embodiment; and in every such physical embodiment, I am present as the knower thereof.”
Hence, in an individual sense, we may consider the kṣetra as a material manifestation in the form of this body, and the kṣetrajña as the inner Atman; or in a cosmical sense, we may say the entire universe is the kṣetra, the field of action of the one purusha, the one consciousness, which is the kṣetrajña in the cosmic sense. What are the inner constituents of this cosmic kṣetra, and also of the individual kṣetra?
This field, which is basically material in nature, objective in character, is constituted of certain substances. What is this world made of in its physical form, and what is the individual made of in his individual form, the personal kṣetra? The cosmic kṣetra rises from the lowest material realm of the earth up to Ishvara. The whole thing is the realm of the kṣetra and the kṣetrajña. Mahabhuta is the name given to the five gross elements—earth, water, fire, air, and sky or ether—known in Sanskrit as prithvi, apa, tejo, vayu, akasha. These are the things visible to our eyes because they are physically manifest as gross objects of sense; but there are internal realities transcending the five elements, the inner kṣetrajña, which cannot be seen with the eyes.
The kṣetrajña cannot be known or seen, because the kṣetrajña is the knower of the field. Therefore, the knower cannot be known. The various functions, in a series of ascents and descents, of this kṣetrajña in a cosmical sense are mentioned here as ahamkara, buddhi and avyakta. Mahābhūtāny ahaṁkāro buddhir avyaktam eva ca refers to the well-known Sankhya categories of prakriti, mahat, ahamkara, and the five elements. The ahamkara, buddhi and avyakta mentioned here as internal to the five elements correspond exactly to the Sankhya principle of ahamkara, mahat tattva and avyakta prakriti; or in another style, we may say that ahamkara corresponds to Virat, buddhi corresponds to Hiranyagarbha, and avyakta corresponds to Ishvara. Ishvara, Hiranyagarbha, Virat, the five elements, and the tanmatras—known as sabda, sparsa, rupa, rasa, gandha—constitute the entire cosmos.
What are the constituents of the individual? That is now mentioned. Indriyāṇi daśaikaṁ ca pañca cendriyagocarāḥ: There are five organs of perception, and five organs of action. Śrotraṁ cakṣuḥ sparśanaṁ ca rasanaṁ ghrāṇam eva ca (15.9) is told to us later on. The ear and the other sense organs of knowledge, plus the organs of action—vak, pani, pada, payu and upastha—constitute ten: five sensations producing knowledge or perception, and five organs that perform action. These are ten in number. If we also add mind as the chief perceiving faculty, it becomes eleven. Hence, dasa ekam—indriyāṇi daśaikaṁ ca: dasa and eka becomes ekadasa, eleven. Thus, there are eleven cognitive and perceptive faculties in the individual. The mind being the chief of them, it rules over all the senses, including the ten mentioned.
In addition to that, we have the five objects of perception: sound is the object of the ear, or organ of hearing, touch is the object of the tactile sense, colour is the object of the sense of seeing, taste is the object of the sense of the tongue, and smell is the object of the sense of the nose. Pañca cendriyagocarāḥ: Five objects of sensory cognition, together with the mind and the ten sense organs, constitute the substance of the individual microcosm. The macrocosm was mentioned earlier as consisting of the five elements, plus ahamkara, buddhi and avyakta. Now the microcosm is mentioned as pindanda, and the macrocosm is brahmanda. This pindanda, or the individual constitution, is made up of these things only: the five objects of perception, the ten sense organs, and the mind.
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From the Thirteenth Chapter onwards, a new perspective is placed before us. A kind of unity of purpose was seen in the first six chapters. It is said that another kind of unity of purpose is seen from the Seventh to the Twelfth Chapters. Now the last six chapters, from the Thirteenth onwards, have a different purpose altogether.
There is an emphasis on the discipline of the individual in the first six chapters. In the next six chapters—from the Seventh to the Eleventh particularly, and even the Twelfth—there is a special emphasis on the glory of God, the nature of creation, and the majesty of the devotees of God. These are the subjects of the middle six chapters. Now we have traversed both these—the individual, and the cosmic. In the first six chapters we have the individual, and in the next six chapters we have the cosmic. Now a more detailed touching up of essentials that are already stated briefly in the earlier chapters is taken up for discussion in the coming chapters.
There is a belief among commentators of the Bhagavadgita that the great Upanishadic statement ‘tat tvam asi’ has something to do with this threefold classification of the chapters of the Gita. The individual is tvam—‘thou’. This ‘thou’, or individual, is taken up for an intensified form of study in the first six chapters. Tat means ‘That’—the Supreme. The nature of ‘That’ is taken up for study in the next six chapters. Asi means ‘art’; ‘thou That art’. The unification of the ‘thou’ and the ‘That’, the methodology of attaining the unity between the individual and the Universal, in all its details, is supposed to be delineated in the coming chapters, from the Thirteenth onwards.
Sri Krishna himself starts speaking, without any question from Arjuna. Idaṁ śarīraṁ kaunteya kṣetram ityabhidhīyate (13.1): “This body, this particular tabernacle, this physical embodiment of the human being, is technically called kṣetra, or the field where some activity takes place. A field is an area where something happens.
While this body, which is physical in nature, is a field of operation, there must be somebody who carries on this operation in the field. The field is the body; but the knower of this body is the operator behind it. This body is, no doubt, the vehicle of action, but there is somebody who is conscious that there is a body which is to be used for the purpose of some activity. This body is an instrument of action in this world, but this body cannot act by itself. It is inert, constituted of the five inert elements—earth, water, fire, air and ether. Inert instruments cannot act by themselves. Even a car cannot move unless there is a driver. So is the case with this body. Unless there is prana and an intelligence that drives the prana in respect of the bodily limbs, there will be no activity.
So while this body may be called kṣetra, or field, the one who knows this field is and is conscious of it, operates through it—lives in it, indwells it, and handles it in a different manner—such a principle is called kṣetrajña. Jña means knower, and kṣetra is, of course, field, so kṣetrajña means ‘the knower of the field’. Hence, this body is the kṣetra, the field, and the one who knows this field is the kṣetrajña.
Consciousness and matter constitute the subject of this chapter. The so-called field—this body or anything that is material—is an unconscious presentation that is usually called matter. That which knows matter is consciousness. Throughout the history of philosophy, there has been a lot of controversy on the theme as to what is the relationship between consciousness and matter, and this controversy has not subsided even today. How do we connect consciousness with matter?
The knower of the field knows the field. Consciousness has no characteristic of matter, and matter does not have the characteristic of consciousness. Consciousness does not move, whereas matter is always in a state of flux and agitation. Therefore, they are dissimilar in their character. Objectivity is the character of the body and matter, whereas subjectivity is the nature of consciousness. They are totally opposed to each other. So how can that which is pure subject come in contact with that which is pure object? How would we solve this great issue of what the relationship between two terrible contraries is? They cannot have any kind of connection, yet they seem to be working together in some way for the purpose of effecting some aim, which seems to be the very process of evolution.
The Sankhya doctrine gives a very humorous analogy to explain how consciousness, which is intelligent, works together with matter, which is unintelligent. Consciousness has eyes but no legs. It cannot move. It is universal existence. Therefore, it can see because it is intelligence, but it cannot move because it has no legs. Prakriti has legs; it can move. But it has no eyes; it cannot see. It has no consciousness. Now, suppose there are two persons going on a journey: one who can see but cannot walk, and another who can walk but cannot see. They make an arrangement between themselves. The blind person who can walk carries on his shoulder the legless person who can see. So the carried person sees and directs the path, and the legged one moves. This is how consciousness and matter work together, says Sankhya in a humorous analogy. But that analogy does not explain matters, because the two persons are independent of each other. The seeing person and the walking person are not one person. Therefore, consciousness and matter cannot become one unit. Unless there is a blend of the two, it will be difficult to explain perception of any kind. This subject has been taken up in the Vedanta Shastra as an improvement on the dualistic doctrine of the Sankhya, which carries on its philosophy with its eyed-one and legged-one combination.
Kṣetrajña iti tadvidaḥ: “Arjuna, I am the knower of the field.” The Lord says, “I am the Pure Consciousness that knows all things and operates these material forces; and I am not merely in one body. When I refer to the body, you may be thinking of some particular body, this body or that body, and there is a consciousness in each body. That may be so, that consciousness is inherently present in every body, within each person, but that is not the point.” Sarvakṣetreṣu bhārata: “I am present as the kṣetrajña, or the knower of the field, in all the fields. That is, all individuals whatsoever—right from Brahma, the Creator, down to the atom—are indwelt by Me, and I know all things as the Omniscient Knower.”
In a sense, it means that the kṣetra is the entire physical universe. The whole of creation can be considered as the kṣetra, or the field of action; and Omniscient Intelligence that is operating in terms of this material manifestation is the kṣetrajña. Therefore, the question of the relationship between God and creation, consciousness and matter, kṣetrajña and kṣetra, purusha and prakriti—all mean, finally, one and the same thing.
Kṣetrajñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarvakṣetreṣu bhārata, kṣetrakṣetrajñayor jñānaṁ yat taj jñānaṁ mataṁ mama (13.2): “This is real knowledge. I consider this to be supreme and real knowledge.” What is that knowledge? It is the knowledge of kṣetra and kṣetrajña. If we can know the actual relationship between God and the world, soul and body, consciousness and matter, knower and the known—if this can be clear to us, we have known everything. This knowledge is the highest knowledge.
Tat kṣetraṁ yac ca yādṛk ca yadvikāri yataś ca yat, sa ca yo yatprabhāvaś ca tat samāsena me śṛṇu(13.3): “I shall now briefly tell you what this kṣetra is—this field that is being referred to. Its nature, its characteristics, its modifications, from where it originates, how it exists, and what its powers are, all these I shall tell you just now.”
Ṛṣibhiḥ (13.4): “This knowledge about which I am speaking has been sung in all its glory in the Upanishads, the Vedas, and the Brahma Sutras by great rishis with their logical arguments. Vasishtha gloriously describes this in all varieties of arguments in the Yoga Vasishtha. Rishis also sing of this knowledge in the Upanishads and the Vedas, and the Brahma Sutras are filled with logical pros and cons establishing the nature of this knowledge.”
mahābhūtānyahaṅkāro buddhir avyaktam eva ca
indriyāṇi daśaikaṁ ca pañca cendriyagocarāḥ (13.5)
icchā dveṣaḥ sukhaṁ duḥkhaṁ saṅghātaś cetanā dhṛtiḥ
etat kṣetraṁ samāsena savikāram udāhṛtam (13.6)
indriyāṇi daśaikaṁ ca pañca cendriyagocarāḥ (13.5)
icchā dveṣaḥ sukhaṁ duḥkhaṁ saṅghātaś cetanā dhṛtiḥ
etat kṣetraṁ samāsena savikāram udāhṛtam (13.6)
It was mentioned that this body is the kṣetra, and the knower of this body is the kṣetrajña. Also, because of the fact that this kṣetrajña is the knower not only of any particular body but of all bodies, it is proper for us to conclude that the whole universe is the field, or the kṣetra, and the Supreme Purusha, God Almighty, is the kṣetrajña. Kṣetrajñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarvakṣetreṣu bhārata: “I am the kṣetrajña in sarvakṣetra—in all the kṣetras. All living beings constitute physical embodiment; and in every such physical embodiment, I am present as the knower thereof.”
Hence, in an individual sense, we may consider the kṣetra as a material manifestation in the form of this body, and the kṣetrajña as the inner Atman; or in a cosmical sense, we may say the entire universe is the kṣetra, the field of action of the one purusha, the one consciousness, which is the kṣetrajña in the cosmic sense. What are the inner constituents of this cosmic kṣetra, and also of the individual kṣetra?
This field, which is basically material in nature, objective in character, is constituted of certain substances. What is this world made of in its physical form, and what is the individual made of in his individual form, the personal kṣetra? The cosmic kṣetra rises from the lowest material realm of the earth up to Ishvara. The whole thing is the realm of the kṣetra and the kṣetrajña. Mahabhuta is the name given to the five gross elements—earth, water, fire, air, and sky or ether—known in Sanskrit as prithvi, apa, tejo, vayu, akasha. These are the things visible to our eyes because they are physically manifest as gross objects of sense; but there are internal realities transcending the five elements, the inner kṣetrajña, which cannot be seen with the eyes.
The kṣetrajña cannot be known or seen, because the kṣetrajña is the knower of the field. Therefore, the knower cannot be known. The various functions, in a series of ascents and descents, of this kṣetrajña in a cosmical sense are mentioned here as ahamkara, buddhi and avyakta. Mahābhūtāny ahaṁkāro buddhir avyaktam eva ca refers to the well-known Sankhya categories of prakriti, mahat, ahamkara, and the five elements. The ahamkara, buddhi and avyakta mentioned here as internal to the five elements correspond exactly to the Sankhya principle of ahamkara, mahat tattva and avyakta prakriti; or in another style, we may say that ahamkara corresponds to Virat, buddhi corresponds to Hiranyagarbha, and avyakta corresponds to Ishvara. Ishvara, Hiranyagarbha, Virat, the five elements, and the tanmatras—known as sabda, sparsa, rupa, rasa, gandha—constitute the entire cosmos.
What are the constituents of the individual? That is now mentioned. Indriyāṇi daśaikaṁ ca pañca cendriyagocarāḥ: There are five organs of perception, and five organs of action. Śrotraṁ cakṣuḥ sparśanaṁ ca rasanaṁ ghrāṇam eva ca (15.9) is told to us later on. The ear and the other sense organs of knowledge, plus the organs of action—vak, pani, pada, payu and upastha—constitute ten: five sensations producing knowledge or perception, and five organs that perform action. These are ten in number. If we also add mind as the chief perceiving faculty, it becomes eleven. Hence, dasa ekam—indriyāṇi daśaikaṁ ca: dasa and eka becomes ekadasa, eleven. Thus, there are eleven cognitive and perceptive faculties in the individual. The mind being the chief of them, it rules over all the senses, including the ten mentioned.
In addition to that, we have the five objects of perception: sound is the object of the ear, or organ of hearing, touch is the object of the tactile sense, colour is the object of the sense of seeing, taste is the object of the sense of the tongue, and smell is the object of the sense of the nose. Pañca cendriyagocarāḥ: Five objects of sensory cognition, together with the mind and the ten sense organs, constitute the substance of the individual microcosm. The macrocosm was mentioned earlier as consisting of the five elements, plus ahamkara, buddhi and avyakta. Now the microcosm is mentioned as pindanda, and the macrocosm is brahmanda. This pindanda, or the individual constitution, is made up of these things only: the five objects of perception, the ten sense organs, and the mind.
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Discourse 39: The Thirteenth Chapter Continues – The Field and the Knower of the Field
Discourse 40: The Thirteenth Chapter Concludes – Understanding Purusha and Prakriti
In the Thirteenth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita, we have covered the theme which touched upon the kṣetra and the kṣetrajña, individually as well as cosmically, and the relationship between the individual and the cosmic. We also went through the list of virtues, qualities that characterise a spiritual seeker—amānitvam, adambhitvam, etc. Then there was a grand description of the Supreme Brahman—anādimat paraṃ brahma (13.12): The Supreme Absolute pervades all things, existing everywhere, and also existing as the heart and the soul and the self of everybody.
Iti kṣetraṁ tathā jñānaṁ jñeyaṁ coktaṁ samāsataḥ (13.18): “So now I have told you everything that is required to be known: the object which is the kṣetra, the pure Universal Subject that is the jneya, paramatman, Brahman, and the knowledge—amanitvam, adabhitvam, etc. Briefly I have told you of kṣetra, jnana, and jneya. After knowing this thoroughly and establishing oneself in the practice of these great truths delineated in the verses mentioned, one gets established in Me.” Madbhakta etad vijñāya madbhāvāyopapadyate: “One becomes fit for entry into Me after having known this in Truth—known it not merely as scriptural knowledge, not as linguistic or verbal knowledge, but knowledge that has become part and parcel of one’s own being.”
This great knowledge, which is the subject of the first sixteen or seventeen verses, is the quintessence of every kind of wisdom; and the life of a person has to be a manifestation of this wisdom. This knowledge is not something that is understood by the intellect. It is something that has become an insight into the nature of truth, and the whole personality scintillates with the radiance of this knowledge.
Here, in the context of spiritual experience, knowing and being are one and the same, whereas in ordinary secular knowledge, in the arts and the sciences, being is different from knowing. A professor of philosophy has his knowledge in the books and in the college, but his personal life has no connection with this knowledge. His being is different from the knowledge that he has got; but here, that is not the case. The being of a person is identical with the knowledge of that person, so that one can say the person himself or herself is knowledge. After having known this in this fashion, one becomes fit for entry into God’s Being: madbhakta etad vijñāya madbhāvāyopapadyate.
The verse that follows is controversial. Prakṛtiṁ puruṣaṁ caiva viddhyanādī ubhāvapi, vikārāṁś ca guṇāṁś caiva viddhi prakṛtisambhavān (13.19). The literal translation of this verse is: Know that prakritiand purusha are beginningless, and their modifications and their qualities originate, manifest, from prakriti.
The doctrine of the classical Sankhya says that prakriti and purusha are beginningless and infinite in their nature. They cannot merge into each other. The doctrine of the Bhagavadgita does not regard prakriti and purusha as totally independent contending parties; and that they are aspects of the Supreme Purusha, or Purushottama, will be told to us in the Fifteenth Chapter. While commenting on the meaning of this verse, Sankaracharya does not seem to be very eager to say anything specific to clear our doubts. He simply says that prakriti and purusha should be there always to limit the operation of God; otherwise, there will be an infinite operation of God. He does not feel that there is any meaning in an infinite operation because creation would be perpetually going on and never come to an end, inasmuch as God is infinite; therefore, there would be only creation for ever and ever. There would be no cessation for action proceeding from that which is there always. But creation is a limited manifestation. We cannot say that the world is infinite, or even that the universe is infinite. “The limitation required for the manifestation of a universe calls for the limiting principles of prakriti and purusha.” Saying this much, Sankaracharya keeps quiet.
Regarding this commentary, I feel that there is some difficulty in entirely accepting what Sankaracharya says, because it implies that God does not properly understand what creation is; therefore He requires a police guard to restrain Him so that He may not go on creating infinitely. That meaning does not seem to be applicable, and it is not satisfying. Others feel that the point made out here that prakriti and purusha are beginningless should be taken in the sense of the infinity of God’s powers. In the West, there was a philosopher called Spinoza. Just as the transcending principle is referred to as Purushottama in the Fifteenth Chapter of the Gita, Spinoza uses the word ‘substance’ to designate the Absolute Reality; and the qualities of this substance are like the two wings of a bird. Space and time, extension and duration, are regarded as the operative media of this Supreme Substance. If we are to take the verses that come in the Fifteenth Chapter literally, it is possible to consider purusha as akshara and prakriti as kshara, and Purushottama transcends both kshara and akshara. I am not going into that subject now. It comes in the Fifteenth Chapter.
The only way we can escape unnecessary entanglement in the jumble of words explaining this verse is by understanding prakriti and purusha to be two properties, as it were, of the Supreme Being. On the one hand, the spatial extension of the Supreme Being is prakriti; on the other hand, it is omniscience acting, which is purusha. There seems to be a sound explanation because the Vedanta doctrine also holds that the process of creation begins with Ishvara and becomes more and more perspicacious from Hiranyagarbha and Virat onwards. That is, the infinite Brahman limits itself in a particular manner, not by force of the operation of something external, but by its own deliberate will. It wills, and that will is called Ishvara. This will is a delimitation imposed by itself on itself. That is, it contemplates the particular type of universe that is to be manifested.
Infinity does not contemplate infinity. It contemplates a limited manifestation, because the characteristic of limitation in creation arises on account of the fact that the universe to be created has some relevance to the jivas who are going to inhabit that universe—the jivas who lay in a sleeping condition in the previous cycle at the time of dissolution—and the universe is created merely as a field for experience by these endless number of jivas who were withdrawn into prakriti at the time of dissolution of the previous cycle. When they germinate into action at the commencement of the new creation, they have to be provided with an atmosphere commensurate with their potencies. That is to say, an individual who can have the experience of the manifestation of his or her or its potencies on earth, or in the world, cannot be taken to heaven because there the experience will not be possible; or those who are to experience their potencies in a realm like heaven should not be brought to the earth, inasmuch as the nature of the world is exactly in a state of harmony with the inhabitants thereof, and not with the inhabitants of other realms. In this light, creation does not seem to be an unnecessary action of God. It is a very necessary manifestation of a big field of experience where it is possible for the jivas inhabiting that universe to fructify their karmas and enjoy or suffer as the consequences their deeds.
Hence, this delimitation of Brahman in the form of Ishvara as a Central Will is a Universal delimitation. It is not a limitation exercised by a prakriti outside, unless of course we call this will itself as prakriti. The consciousness that is of Ishvara may be regarded as the Supreme Purusha of the Sankhya, and the objective principle which is the will contemplating a possible universe may be considered as prakriti—in which case, prakriti and purusha are not two different wings, but are something like the soul and the body. We cannot distinguish between the soul and the body. The soul contemplates the body and manifests itself in accordance with its own potential desire, and we cannot say that the body is compelling the soul to act in a particular manner. The question of compulsion does not arise, because the body is manifest exactly according to the needs of the soul as manifest in the sukshma sarira.
Prakriti and purusha may be said to be anadi, or beginningless, if we are to go according to the original doctrine of the Bhagavadgita, which does not expect us to think of purusha and prakriti as two different things but as potencies, powers, or manners of working of God Himself—Ishvara, Purushottama. On the one hand, prakriti is extension, space-time; and on the other hand, there is purusha, or consciousness. Consciousness and extension constitute the principle of the immanence of God in the universe. I am going a little ahead of the ordinary commentaries on this verse, which are very brief—not to contradict them, but to elucidate them a little more. My intuitive insight, as it were, makes me feel that prakriti and purusha can be beginningless in the same sense as God is beginningless, because of the fact that they are powers of God: vikārāñś ca guṇāṁś caiva viddhi prakṛtisaṁbhavān.
Kārya kāraṇa kartṛtve hetuḥ prakṛtir ucyate (13.20): Prakriti is the cause of the origin of the causal chain. The cause-and-effect relationship is operative only in the realm of prakriti, whereas pain and pleasure are experienced by purusha: purushah sukha-duhkhanam bhoktrtve hetur uchyate. The contact of purusha with prakriti is the reason behind the experience of pleasure and pain. Experience is not possible unless there is consciousness, and consciousness is available only in the purusha. Purusha is inactive consciousness, whereas prakriti is blind activity. They somehow get juxtaposed, and it appears as if there is conscious activity. When we walk, when we do anything, it appears that we are consciously acting. Actually, there is no conscious action. Action is always unconscious because it is connected with the movement of the gunas of prakriti, who have no self-consciousness. But the purusha does not act; it is conscious. So there is a peculiar jumble—a juxtaposition of the consciousness that does not act with the prakriti, which acts but does not know—and this results in the appearance of conscious activity. For instance, we seem to be doing something consciously. This ‘seeming to be doing consciously’ is due to a mix-up of the purusha and prakriti principles in us—our body being the prakriti, and our Atman being the purusha.
Puruṣaḥ prakṛtistho hi bhuṅkte prakṛtijān guṇān, kāraṇaṁ guṇasaṅgo’sya sadasadyonijanmasu (13.21): Purusha located, or lodged, in the prakriti appears to enjoy the qualities of prakriti. When water moves, the sun that is reflected in it also appears to move. When the water is stable, the reflection of the sun in it appears to be stable; and if the water is turbid, the reflection appears to be turbid. But really, the sun, which is the cause of this reflection in the water, is not affected in any way whatsoever. The sun does not shake, and does not get turbid. Similarly, this contact of consciousness with matter—purusha with prakriti—makes it appear that there is enjoyment, and that there is an agency in action. Purusha does not enjoy, because it itself is bliss; but the sorrow that is the fate of the purusha seems to be the outcome of its contact with prakriti.
Here again, we have to bring the analogy of the Sankhya that a pure crystal appears to be coloured, or disfigured, by the colour of the object that is brought near it. Thus, one enjoys and one suffers. Really, consciousness does not enjoy and does not suffer. But the movements of prakriti in this manner or that manner—as sattva or rajas or tamas—makes the consciousness, the purusha, feel as if it is transparent and happy when it is in contact with the sattva of prakriti; it is disturbed, agitated, angry and passionate when it appears to be reflecting through the rajoguna of prakriti; and it is very slothful, lethargic and static when it is in contact with the tamasic quality of prakriti.
Puruṣaḥ prakṛtistho hi bhuṅkte prakṛtijān guṇān, kāraṇaṁ guṇasaṅgo’sya: The reason for this so-called enjoyment and suffering of the purusha is its contact with the gunas of prakriti—sattva, rajas, tamas. And, as I mentioned, the threefold contact brings about a threefold experience: pleasurable, unpleasurable or static. Because of repeated contact and getting habituated to this kind of contact with sattva, rajas and tamas, the purusha—as it were, indescribably though—forgets its original universality, and develops a tendency to get involved in the fulfilment of its own limited desires, the limitation being caused by the rajoguna prakriti with which it also comes in contact. Just as a lion cub that is lost may end up in a flock of sheep, and may bleat like a sheep though it is actually a lion, the universal Purusha bleats like an individual on account of its contact with the distracting qualities of rajas and tamas, and it is born in various species. Kāraṇaṁ guṇasaṅgo’sya sadasadyonijanmasu: It can be born as celestials in heaven, it can be born as gandharvas, yakshas, kinnaras, it can be born as human beings, and it can be born as animals or even as plants, trees and stone. But there is a Universal Witness behind all this drama that is taking place. What is that Witness?
Upadraṣṭānumantā ca bhartā bhoktā maheśvaraḥ, paramātmeti cāpyukto dehesmin puruṣaḥ paraḥ(13.22): In spite of all this drama of involvement—the joy and sorrow of birth in various species of yonis—there is hope. Just as the witness in waking consciousness is unaffected even by the suffering and enjoyment in dream, there is a Supreme Witness who remains unaffected by our experiences in waking consciousness. We have all kinds of experiences in the dream world: birth and death, joy and sorrow, and every kind of thing conceivable in this world. Notwithstanding the fact of this drama that is taking place in the dream world, the consciousness of waking seems to be there as an upadraṣṭa—as a witness thereof. Though it does not seem to be operative in the light of the mind’s involvement in the dream world, actually the fact that there is a witnessing consciousness transcending the dream world can be known when we wake up from dream and find ourselves totally unaffected by the events of the dream world. This will happen to us when we attain liberation in Paramatma—the Supreme Purusha, the transcendent witness of all these dream-like experiences of the struggle of life through the contact of the gunas of prakriti.
Ya evaṁ vetti puruṣaṁ (13.23): Whoever knows this Supreme Purusha in this manner as described in this chapter, together with the dramatic performances of prakriti, prakṛtiṁ ca guṇaiḥ saha: let him live in any manner he likes. He is a liberated person. Sarvathā vartamāno’pi na sa bhūyo’bhijāyate: Because of knowing this, that person will not be reborn. Again I have to emphasise, knowing does not mean reading the Gita and intellectually comprehending the linguistic meaning or the dictionary meaning of the word, but imbibing the spirit of the teaching, and making it part and parcel of our very blood and veins. Such a person who has this knowledge which is identical with being can behave in any way—sarvathā vartamānopi—but there will be no rebirth, because no karma accrues to that person.
Now there is a reference, as a kind of diversion, as it were, to the methods of practice. How are we to come in contact with this Supreme Being? Varieties of sadhana are mentioned in different places in the Bhagavadgita, and some of the diversities of sadhana are stated in the Fourth Chapter: daivam evāpare yajñaṁ yoginaḥ paryupāsate, brahmāgnāvapare yajñaṁ yajñenaivopajuvhati (4.25), etc. Here also there is a brief statement of the varieties of spiritual practice, or sadhana.
Some people try to behold the Supreme Being by meditation, pure and simple. Dhyānenātmani paśyanti kecid ātmānam ātmanā (13.24): By intense concentration on the pure Self, some people try to behold the Self in the self. That is, they behold the Universal Self in their own self, and they behold their own self in the Universal Self. Similar to that is this statement: yo māṁ paśyati sarvatra sarvaṁ ca mayi paśyati (6.30). Ᾱtmānam ātmanā janati: By the self, the Self is known. The higher Self is known through the lower self. The lower self merges itself in the higher Self. It is in that manner that the Self is known through the self, by the self, by intense meditation on the nature of the higher Self.
Dhyānenātmani paśyanti kecid ātmānam ātmanā, anye sāṅkhyena yogena: There are others who contemplate on the categories of the manifestation of the world as delineated in the Sankhya; that is also a way of sadhana. The twenty-four categories of creation mentioned in the Sankhya doctrine reveal the fact that our individuality is also constituted of the same universal categories and, therefore, we do not stand independently as persons by ourselves. Thus, our personality-consciousness and ego-consciousness automatically vanish even by contemplation on the twenty-four tattvas of the Sankhya. Hence, some attain the state of perfection by the Sankhya category also, and by the methods of yoga practice as described to us in the Sutras of Patanjali or any other yoga, such as mantra yoga, dhyana yoga, laya yoga, japa yoga, kundalini yoga. There are all kinds of yogas. As yoga is mentioned together with Sankhya, we may appreciate that the yoga referred to here is almost similar to the ashtanga yoga of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and to samapatti, or samadhi, which is based on the Sankhya categories themselves. Karmayogena cāpare: There are some, like Raja Janaka, who attained perfection through action, because actually they do not perform any action.
Brahmārpaṇaṁ brahma havir brahmāgnau brahmaṇā hutam, brahmaiva tena gantavyaṁ brahmakarmasamādhinā (4.24): The performer of the action, the deed that is performed, and the process of the action are all like the waters of the ocean rumbling within themselves and, therefore, nobody does any action. Even when a person is intensely active, actually no action is taking place; that is the nature of the supreme karma yogin. By that karma yoga, which is also a method of contemplation and dhyana, one can attain God.
Anye tvevam ajānantaḥ śrutvānyebhya upāsate (13.25): There are others who cannot do these things. They cannot meditate; they cannot contemplate the Self by the self; they cannot meditate on the categories of Sankhya; they cannot engage themselves in the ashtanga yoga of Patanjali; they cannot do karma yoga. What should they do? The compassionate Lord says: “They also reach Me, who merely listen to My glories and the glories of this knowledge in satsanga.” Anye tvevam ajānantaḥ śrutvānyebhya upāsate: Not knowing the difficult techniques of practice that have been mentioned, they can attain perfection by only hearing—srutva. Satsanga is a very potent method of self-purification. If the satsanga is properly conducted and we are honest in our participation in that satsanga, that satsanga itself will be sufficient not only for purification of the self, but it will even act as a supreme meditation itself. We will be in ecstasy at that time. As Tulsidas says, “Binu satsanga viveka na hoi”: Without satsanga, discrimination does not dawn. Anye tvevam ajānantaḥ śrutvānyebhya upāsate: By merely hearing the glories through satsanga, people also attain perfection. Te’pi cātitarantyeva mṛtyuṁ śrutiparāyaṇāḥ. Therefore, all of you will attain moksha. You will not be reborn, because at least you have heard what is being said. God is very compassionate. He will not harass you with hard disciplines. Listen, hear, and absorb this knowledge that you have heard into yourself. You will cross over the realm of death—mrtyum atitaranti.
Yāvat sañjāyate kiṁcit sattvaṁ sthāvarajaṅgamam, kṣetrakṣetrajñasaṁyogāt tad viddhi bharatarṣabha(13.26): All the manifestation, living or non-living, is due to a combination of kṣetra and kṣetrajña, a manifold type of contact of purusha with prakriti in various degrees of ascent and descent. In the higher realms of celestials where existence is transparent, the contact of purusha with prakriti is rarefied. Existence becomes more and more gross as the rajasic and tamasic qualities of prakritibecome more predominant. Sattva is supposed to be predominant in the heavenly regions; rajasicqualities are predominant in the human realm, and tamas is predominant in the nether regions. But whatever be the contact through sattva or rajas or tamas—experiences either in heaven, in this mortal world or in the lower realm—every experience is a result of the contact of purusha with prakriti in various ways. Kṣetrakṣetrajñasaṁyogāt tad viddhi bharatarṣabha: Anything that is born has significance as an individual only because both purusha and prakriti are set together in some proportion.
Samaṁ sarveṣu bhūteṣu tiṣṭhantaṁ parameśvaram, vinaśyatsvavinaśyantaṁ yaḥ paśyati sa paśyati(13.27): Again we are brought back to the transcendent existence of an equally distributed consciousness—not a little purusha coming in contact with prakriti, but something transcending the contact of purusha with prakriti. Upadrashta, anumanta and paramatma were mentioned earlier, and something similar is repeated in this verse. Samaṁ sarveṣu bhūteṣu tiṣṭhantaṁ: That Being is equally present in all as the Self of all. It is the Self of the ant and the elephant and the human being and the god. The distinction among them is due to the appearance of their subtle bodies and gross bodies, but the life that is behind the subtle and gross bodies is common—as sunlight is common and appears to be coloured or distorted according to the nature of the glasses that we put on. Samaṁ sarveṣu bhūteṣu tiṣṭhantaṁ parameśvaram: The Supreme Lord exists in an equilibrated fashion everywhere.
Vinaśyatsvavinaśyantaṁ: Deathless in the midst of dying individuals. People die, everything perishes, and all things get destroyed. Yaḥ paśyati sa paśyati: But in the midst of this destruction taking place perennially, perpetually, right from creation—in the midst of this flux and destruction and movement—there is an unmoving Eternity. Whoever knows that, really knows the truth. We should not get involved in the fluxation of prakriti, but should withdraw our consciousness to that transcendent element which witnesses this drama of prakriti: vinaśyatsvavinaśyantaṁ yaḥ paśyati sa paśyati.
Samaṁ paśyan hi sarvatra samavasthitam īśvaram, na hinastyātmanātmānaṁ tato yāti parāṁ gatim(13.28): Mostly we kill the Self with the self—hinastyātmanātmānaṁ. A kind of atma hatya is going on when the Self is forgotten and only objects are remembered. Only external things are in that person’s memory; the Self is completely obliterated from experience. That state of affairs—where the consciousness of the Self being there is completely obscured by intense concentration on objects outside—is called spiritual suicide; it is killing the Self with the self. That is, we do not know that we are existing at all as the Self. We know that there is a world outside, we are busy with things outside, but we are not busy with our Self. But having known the equally distributed consciousness of the Paramatman, equally distributed Eternity—knowing this, seeing this, beholding it, and contemplating it, one will not be subject to this otherwise common experience of Self-destruction; and knowing this, one attains to the Supreme State, yāti parāṁ gatim.
Now the Lord refers once again to the kartrtva and akartrtva aspects of the human individual in relation to prakriti’s modes—sattva, rajas and tamas.
Prakṛtyaiva ca karmāṇi kriyamāṇāni sarvaśaḥ, yaḥ paśyati tathātmānam akartāraṁ sa paśyati (13.29): One will automatically know, without any difficulty at all in knowing this fact, that one is not the doer of any action, provided that one clearly sees that all activity is an activity of the three gunas of prakriti, and that the consciousness of activity is different from activity itself. We have somehow or the other mixed up consciousness and motion (movement) together. By a mixing up of these two elements by a process called tadatmiya abhyasa—which means the superimposition of one thing on the other in the reverse order, or vice versa—consciousness is made to appear as active, and activity is made to appear as conscious. So we ‘consciously do something’.
The whole point is, ‘consciously doing something’ is a misnomer. Consciousness cannot do anything, and doing cannot be conscious. So, if this knowledge arises in a person that activity is only the movement of prakriti with its three gunas, and the consciousness thereof is totally independent of the gunas, they will not ever feel that they are the doer of action. That is, their consciousness will always be in a state of witness, or detachment, from the process of action. But our body and our consciousness are so intimate that we cannot distinguish one from the other. That is why we feel that we are doing things, while really there is no such thing.
When a red-hot iron rod is placed before us, we do not see the iron rod; we see only fire, though the fire and the iron rod are two different things. And when we touch it, what are we touching? Are we touching the fire, or are we touching the iron rod? We may say that the iron rod burns. The iron rod does not burn; it is the fire that burns. Yet the two have been superimposed on each other in such a way that the rod looks like fire, and the fire appears to have the shape of a lengthy rod. The fire does not have the shape of the rod, and the rod has no heat; but yet, we mix up two aspects and say that the long rod is hot. In a similar manner, we make a mistake in our own selves by imagining this body is conscious.
The body cannot be conscious. Consciousness is different from the body; therefore, when there is bodily action—which is nothing but the action of prakriti, because the body is made up of prakriti’sthree gunas—we begin to imagine, “I am doing something. And because I feel that I am doing something, I also expect a result to follow from that action, and I must enjoy the result of that action. I am doing the action and, therefore, the fruit of that action should come to me.” Hence, karma phala comes as a recompense for the feeling that one is doing. But one who knows that prakriti alone does things, and activity is a part of prakriti’s nature, and the knower of that is different from the activity—such a person remains as akarta, a non-doer. Prakṛtyaiva ca karmāṇi kriyamāṇāni sarvaśaḥ, yaḥ paśyati tathātmānam akartāraṁ sa paśyati.
Yadā bhūtapṛthagbhāvam ekastham anupaśyati, tata eva ca vistāraṁ brahma sampadyate tadā (13.30): We have attained the Supreme Brahman the moment we are able to see with our own eyes the interconnection of the varieties of creation in front of us and their rootedness in a single sea of force which is Brahman. That is to say, we see only wood in all the trees, we see only water in all the ripples and waves, we see only gold in all the ornaments; and, in a similar manner, we see only Brahman in all the names and forms. Yadā bhūtapṛthagbhāvam ekastham anupaśyati means that one is able to see the variety of creation as rooted in the One. There may be millions and millions of varieties of living beings or inanimate things, but this multiform creation will not affect us in any way because they are the various limbs of the one root that is universally spread out everywhere. If we can visualise things in this manner, we have attained Brahman at once. Yadā bhūtapṛthagbhāvam ekastham anupaśyati, tata eva ca vistāraṁ brahma sampadyate tadā: The cosmic all-pervading Brahman is realised at once by entertaining this vision of everything diverse being in rooted in one Universal Existence.
Anāditvān nirguṇatvāt paramātmāyam avyayaḥ, śarīrastho’pi kaunteya na karoti na lipyate (13.31): This Brahman, the Universal Atman, has no beginning. Anāditvān: It has no qualities of any kind as we know qualities here. Nirguṇatvāt paramātmāyam avyayaḥ: It is imperishable because it is indestructible. Such Paramatman, the Supreme Self, though existing in this body as the deepest self in us, does not involve itself in any contamination of the gunas of prakriti. Na karoti na lipyate: He neither does anything, nor is He contaminated by the fruits of action.
The kutastha chaitanya, or the witness consciousness in us, is the true self in us. That remains uncontaminated by anything that takes place, just as space inside a vessel cannot become affected by things that we pour into the vessel. If we pour something fragrant into the vessel, the space inside it does not become fragrant; or if we put something bitter into the vessel, the space inside it does not become bitter. It is the content that has the quality; space itself has no quality. In a similar manner, the content—which is the physical, the astral and the causal bodies—has the characteristics of action and the enjoyment of the fruits of action; but the witness, which is the light of the sun in the sky, as it were, is untarnished by anything that may happen to this body in all these three phases.
Though this kutastha chaitanya, this Atman, is responsible for all the activities through this body, it is not in any way contaminated by the activities carried on through the sariras—anandamaya, vijnanamaya, manomaya, pranamaya and annamaya. The physical sheath, the subtle astral sheath and the casual sheath are involved in movement, action and the desire for the fruit of action. Their activity is impossible unless the light of the kutastha, the Atman, is shed on them. In the same manner, nothing in this world can live or act unless the sun shines in the sky. We are alive today because the sun is in the sky. No plant, no living being can survive if the sun in the sky does not blaze forth heat energy. Yet the sun is not in any way responsible for what is happening in the world. Though without it nothing can happen, it is not responsible for anything that is happening. In a similar manner, just because the kutastha, the Self inside, is responsible for the movement of the three bodies in us, it is not connected vitally in any way. It stands above the turmoil of the action of the three bodies, just as the sun transcends all the events taking place in the world. Anāditvān nirguṇatvāt paramātmāyam avyayaḥ, śarīrastho’pi kaunteya na karoti na lipyate.
Yathā sarvagataṁ saukṣmyād ākāśaṁ nopalipyate (13.32): Just as space is not contaminated by anything that may be inside it, the all-pervading Being, which is the Supreme Atman, is not in any way affected either by what the body does or by what happens in external society, because it is so subtle. The subtlest reality is consciousness, and all things that are external to it, of which it is conscious, are gross. Everything in the world is gross; therefore, consciousness—which is the subtlest of being—cannot actually get involved in anything in this world, the two being dissimilar in nature. The subtle cannot enter into the gross, and the gross cannot affect the subtle. Because of the subtlety of the Supreme Being and its all-pervading nature—sarvatrāvasthita—it is not affected by anything that takes place in creation, either by evolution or involution. Yathā sarvagataṁ saukṣmyād ākāśaṁ nopalipyate, sarvatrāvasthito dehe tathātmā nopalipyate .
Yathā prakāśayatyekaḥ kṛtsnaṁ lokam imaṁ raviḥ, kṣetraṁ kṣetrī tathā kṛtsnaṁ prakāśayati bhārata(13.33): As the sun in the sky illumines the whole world, so does this kṣetrajña purusha, this Atman pervading all things, illumine all bodies. Self-consciousness and the desire to survive are implanted in all species in creation by the operation of this all-pervading Universal Consciousness. Consciousness is eternal. That is why there is an instinct in everyone not to die. It is the consciousness inside that is actually responsible for our fear of death, and for our desire to lengthen our life as much as possible. It is an empirical, externalised, distorted form of the eternity of the Self. We do not want to perish, because the deepest Self in us cannot perish. But because we have mixed up the eternity in us with the three koshas, including the physical body, we make the mistake of perpetuating this body and wanting to exist as individuals for all time to come. Actually, this instinct for survival and the longing to exist always arise not from the body, but from the Atman inside, which is invisible to us. Its very existence is obliterated from our activity and perception, which is conditioned by the sense organs which always move in an externalised direction. The mind and senses cannot know that there is an Atman at all and, therefore, we are caught up. Yathā prakāśayaty ekaḥ kṛtsnaṁ lokam imaṁ raviḥ, kṣetraṁ kṣetrī tathā kṛtsnaṁ prakāśayati bhārata.
The Thirteenth Chapter is very important. Just as the Third Chapter sums up the principles of karma yoga, the Sixth Chapter sums up the principles of raja yoga, and the Eleventh Chapter sums up the principles of bhakti yoga, the Thirteenth Chapter sums up the principles of jnana yoga. Hence, we must read at least these four chapters. To know what karma yoga is, we should read the Third Chapter; to know what bhakti yoga is, we should read the Eleventh Chapter; to know what raja yoga is, we should read the Sixth Chapter; and to know what jnana yoga is, we should read the Thirteenth Chapter.
Whoever understands this teaching given in the Thirteenth Chapter will not return to this world. Kṣetrakṣetrajñayor evam antaraṁ jñānacakṣuṣā, bhūtaprakṛtimokṣaṁ ca ye vidur yānti te param (13.34): Those who are able to distinguish between kṣetrajña and kṣetra, between purusha and prakriti, between the Self and its object, and between consciousness and matter shall attain the Supreme Abode. If this distinction is clear before us, we will be totally unattached to everything in this world, and we will not be reborn into this world of prakriti, this world of the three gunas. We will attain the Supreme Abode—param. With this we conclude the great, glorious Thirteenth Chapter.
This classification of the kṣetra and the kṣetrajña into two categories, the macrocosmic and the microcosmic, requires an elucidation of the means of contact of the microcosmic with the macrocosmic. How does the individual kṣetra, with its own individual kṣetrajña, come in contact with the external macrocosmic field and the knower of the field? In other words, how do we come in contact with anything at all? How do we know any object in the world, and how are we affected by the perception of objects?
Icchā dveṣaḥ sukhaṁ duḥkhaṁ saṁghātaś cetanā dhṛtiḥ (13.6). This process of the individual contacting the external and getting affected by it takes place in the following manner: by desire, icchā; by hatred, dveṣa; by a longing for pleasure, sukha; by the desire to avoid pain, duḥkha; and by the desire to further maintain this conglomeration of the physical body, saṁghāta. Saṁghāta is a composite structure made up of various elements, which we study in anatomy and physiology, and they have to be maintained in a proper order so that they may not get dismembered. If the bone moves in one direction and the flesh moves in another direction, we will not be human beings. They have to be put together by a cement of cohesion. That cohering, compact presentation of the otherwise individual ingredients is called saṁghāta, this physical body. This physical body is not one indivisible unit. It is made up of little units—which may be called cells, or whatever name we give them—and if they get dismembered, they decay. When the prana is withdrawn from the body, it decomposes; then the inner components of the body reduce themselves to their original form and become one with the five elements.
Consciousness is the individual capacity to know the objects of the world through the body; that is called chetana here. Dhṛti is the determination of the individual to maintain itself through the ahamkara tattva, or the ego.
So, how many things are mentioned in the individual’s case? Icchā dveṣaḥ sukhaṁ duḥkhaṁ saṁghātaś cetanā dhṛtiḥ. We have a determination to maintain ourselves as a physical personality. We move earth and heaven to see that we are not destroyed or endangered in any way whatsoever. We protect ourselves, and for that purpose we decide to take certain steps, and we apply the faculty of determination: “I shall maintain myself in this physical body only”; and we do every blessed thing, whatever is possible, for that purpose. The consciousness that is at the back of even this determining faculty is the chetana. Saṁghāta, as explained, is nothing but this composite structure of different elements that make up the body, and it is simultaneously associated with longing for pleasure and hatred for pain. Icchā, dveṣa—love and hatred—go together with the asking for pleasure and avoidance of pain.
These are the inner components of the individual kṣetra, the microcosm; and the chetana mentioned here may be identified with the individual kṣetrajña. One who knows the individual body and identifies with the individual body is kṣetrajña in the individualised sense. But the other one that is mentioned corresponds to the Cosmic kṣetrajña, who is represented in these different degrees of His own manifestation—known as prakriti, mahat and ahamkara, or Ishvara, Hiranyagarbha and Virat. So, in these two verses, in two verses only, the entire cosmic structure and the individual structure are summed up: mahābhūtānyahaṅkāro buddhir avyaktam eva ca, indriyāṇi daśaikaṁ ca pañca cendriyagocarāḥ; icchā dveṣaḥ sukhaṁ duḥkhaṁ saṁghātaś cetanā dhṛtiḥ, etat kṣetraṁ (13.5-6): “This is the kṣetra in brief—samāsena savikāram udāhṛtam. Briefly I have mentioned what the kṣetra is, both from the universal point of view and from the individual point of view, with all the modifications thereof.”
This is the knowledge which is briefly mentioned in two verses, but is so hard to comprehend. Our minds cannot always remember that we are individuals coming in contact with the universal structure of the kṣetra and kṣetrajña through icchā, dveṣa, sukha, duḥkha, etc. We are not aware of this in our daily life. We are so ego-ridden that we just take for granted that everything is as it appears on the surface to the sense organs. We think that we are here, totally independent, and the world is there, totally independent, and that we have practically no connection with the world. We do not know that a connection is established every minute by the consciousness of perception.
How do we maintain this awareness of our relatedness to the world through the consciousness of cognition through the sense organs and the mind? For that, a series of disciplines is stated in the coming verses. These are very famous verses, which are worth committing to memory. We have already seen sthitaprajna lakshana in the Second Chapter, bhagavad bhakta lakshana in the Twelfth Chapter, and gunatita lakshana in the Thirteenth Chapter; and now, here, we have the lakshana of a seeker. Who is a good seeker?
amānitvam adambhitvam ahiṁsā kṣāntir ārjavam
ācāryopāsanaṁ śaucaṁ sthairyam ātmavinigrahaḥ (13.7)
indriyārtheṣu vairāgyam anahaṅkāra eva ca
janmamṛtyujarāvyādhiduḥkhadoṣānudarśanam (13.8)
asaktir anabhiṣvaṅgaḥ putradāragṛhādiṣu
nityaṁ ca samacittatvam iṣṭāniṣṭopapattiṣu (13.9)
mayi cānanyayogena bhaktir avyabhicāriṇī
viviktadeśasevitvam aratir janasaṁsadi (13.10)
adhyātmajñānanityatvaṁ tattvajñānārthadarśanam
etaj jñānam iti proktam ajñānaṁ yad ato’nyathā (13.11)
All these things mentioned here in these verses are called knowledge. Etaj jñānam iti proktam: “I consider these virtues I have mentioned as real knowledge.” Ajñānaṁ yad atonyathā: “Whatever is the opposite of what I have said here is ignorance.”
A student of yoga, a spiritual seeker, is humble. He does not expect respect from anybody, but offers respect to everyone. Tṛṇād api su-nīcena taror iva sahiṣṇunā amāninā māna-dena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (C.C., Adi lila, 17.31): Only he can take the name of God, Hari, who wants not respect from anybody, but respects everyone, and is humbler than a blade of grass. If grass is trampled on, it simply bends; it does not resist. We should be humbler than a blade of grass—tṛṇād api su-nīcena. If we chop off the branches of a tree, it does not curse us. Even if we cut off a large part of the tree, it again shoots up tendrils and leaves. It is very tolerant. Thus, the devotee should be as tolerant as a tree and as humble as a blade of grass, giving respect to everybody and wanting respect from nobody—amānitvam.
Adambhitvam: There is no show on the part of a spiritual seeker. He never demonstrates himself as a seeker of God, a lover of God, a spiritual seeker. He looks like anybody else in the world. There is nothing special or anything particular that we can cognise in that person. He hides his knowledge and his sadhana. It is said the sadhana that we perform, the mantra that we chant, and the Guru whom we worship should not be revealed to anyone. We should not boast about who our Guru is. It should be known only to us, and to the Guru. We should not announce to the public who our Guru is; we should not tell people what mantra japa we are doing, and our sadhana technique also should not be revealed to other people. If we have an experience in our sadhana, that also should not be told to anybody except our Guru. Adambhitvam means there is no demonstration of ahamkara. “I have attained samadhi; I was there in that state for three hours.” We should not go on saying these things.
Ahimsa, non-violence, is something well known to us. All beings should feel fearlessness towards us. Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate (10.8): “May all be fearless towards me” is the pratijna, or the vow, that we take. “Let nothing, let no one, be afraid of me.” Kṣāntiḥ is forgiveness. If somebody does something wrong to us, we should not do the same to them. We forgive them because, after all, everybody is susceptible to making some mistake or the other. Here is a short poem: “There is so much bad in the best of us, and so much good in the worst of us, that it ill-behoves any of us to find fault with the rest of us.” So, be forgiving. Ᾱrjava: We should be honest and straightforward, and not hide anything. We should not think one thing, say another thing, and do something else. Kāyena vācā manasa (S.B. 11.2.36): There should be harmony; otherwise, there will be non-alignment of personality. Ᾱcāryopāsanaṁ: We should always be humble and worshipful before our teacher, who imparts knowledge to us. We should not show our greatness or our ego before the teacher, or the Guru. Let him be worshipped as the veritable manifestation of God Himself. Śaucaṁ means physical purity, both inwardly as well as outwardly. Sthairyam is the decision that we have taken to achieve God-realisation in this birth, and not in a future birth. Ᾱtmavinigrahaḥ is self-restraint, the control of the senses and the mind.
Indriyārtheṣu vairāgyam is distaste for the objects of sense. Neither do we want to hear anything, nor do we want to taste anything, nor do we want anything at all that the senses usually consider as very delighting. There is nothing in this world which can delight us. Therefore, we should be rid of longing for the objects of sense. Anahaṁkāra: We should not project our ego in any way whatsoever, nor go on thinking how we were born into this world, how we have grown up, how we will become old and leave this body one day. Is this world—where everything decays, decomposes, and turns to dust—a haven of pleasure and joy? How can anyone pat himself on the back and say that he is well off in this world?
Therefore, janmamṛtyujarāvyādhiduḥkhadoṣānudarśanam. We should think of the way in which we were born into this world—a very, very unpleasant way indeed in which we were born. The process of dying, the going from this world, is also very unpleasant indeed. Old age is unpleasant, sickness is unpleasant; all kinds of sorrow which we have to encounter daily, and the defects of sense objects, these are to be contemplated upon every day. These truths of life—janmamṛtyujarāvyādhiduḥkhadoṣā—should be brooded upon every day.
There is a defect in every sense object. It looks honey-coated and tasty, but inside there is a poison which will kill us. Na viṣam viṣam iti āhuḥ brahmasvam viṣam ucya te: Ordinary poison cannot be considered as dangerous as the poison of sense objects, because ordinary poison—scorpion or even snake venom—will destroy us only once, but the vishaya chintana, the contemplation of sense objects, will kill us in several births. Therefore, these kinds of sorrows should be borne in mind, and we should not be entangled in them.
Asaktiḥ: Therefore, we should be detached from things, and live an individual life. We should be alone to ourselves and not mix socially, as these people are not necessary for us. Anabhiṣvaṅgaḥ: We should not seek contact with anybody. We should not look for people to chat with. There should be no contact. We do not need friends. Putradāragṛhādiṣu: Also, we should not be attached to our family members—such as son or daughter, husband or wife, property or house. If we are householders, we have some duty to perform as a trustee of an institution, not attaching ourselves to anything, but doing our duty very meticulously. We may live at home, but we should detach ourselves, knowing well that one day or the other we will leave, and also knowing that one day or the other they will leave us. Hence, attachment is unfounded and unwarranted.
Asaktir anabhiṣvaṅgaḥ putradāragṛhādiṣu, nityaṁ ca samacittatvam iṣṭāniṣṭopapattiṣu: Whether pleasant things or unpleasant things come—whether good news comes that makes us feel happy, or there is something which makes us very unhappy—we should keep our mind in a state of balance, and not be tilted either to this side or that side.
Mayi cānanyayogena bhaktir avyabhicāriṇī: Finally, we should resort to God only. Avyabhicharini bhaktiis ekabhakti, which means wanting only one, and not wanting anything else. If we want another thing simultaneously, it is vyabhicharini bhakti. Here is avyabhicharini bhakti, where we do not want anything else except that one thing. “May that devotion be fixed on Me.” And what kind of fixing is it? Ananyogena: “With an undivided assiduity of concentration, may you be devoted to Me with a devotion that has no second.”
Mayi cānanyayogena bhaktir avyabhicāriṇī, viviktadeśasevitvam: We should always try to live ekantam—alone—and not in a thoroughfare or a city, where there is a lot of noise and dust. As far as possible, we should try to live in ekantavas, have ekantavas, and be satisfied in ourselves and not require anybody else with us. Viviktadeśasevitvam aratir janasaṁsadi is dislike for crowds of people. If there is a crowd of people, we should leave that place and go somewhere else—sit under a tree. We should not have any kind of taste for organisations, crowds, and the noise of human society. We should be alone to ourselves.
Adhyātmajñānanityatvaṁ: Our daily routine should be working for the acquisition of adhyātmajñāna, the knowledge of the Self. We should work for it day and night. Tattvajñānārthadarśanam: We should aspire for the vision of Truth, and ask for nothing else. Etaj jñānam iti proktam: If we have these qualities, we have knowledge. Ajñānaṁ yad ato’nyathā: If we do not have these qualities, we are ignorant.
It is said that we should aspire for knowledge of Truth: tattvajñānārthadarśanam. What is Truth? Jñeyaṁ yat tat pravakṣyāmi yaj jñātvāmṛtam aśnute, anādimat paraṁ brahma na sat tan nāsad ucyate(13.12): “I shall now tell you what Truth is. That Supreme Brahman is the Ultimate Truth, after knowing which there is attainment of immortality.” Anādimat paraṁ brahma: It has no beginning and no end. It cannot be designated as either existing or as not existing. It cannot be called existing because whenever we think of any existing thing, we want to see it with our eyes or consider it as some object of some sense organ. As it is not the object of any sense organ, we do not consider it to be existing; but neither is it non-existing—because, ultimately, it is the only existence. Na sat tan nāsad ucyate: Therefore, it cannot be regarded as sat, and it cannot be regarded as asat either.
Sarvataḥpāṇipādaṁ (13.13): It is spreading itself everywhere. Everywhere we can find the hands of that Being and feet of that Being. Sarvato’kṣiśiromukham: Everywhere are the eyes of that Being, everywhere are the heads of that Being, and everywhere are the faces of that Being. Sarvataḥśrutimal loke: Everywhere are the ears of that Being. Sarvam āvṛtya tiṣṭhati: It envelops all things.
Sarvendriyaguṇābhāsaṁ sarvendriyavivarjitam (13.14): That which we cognise through the sense organs as objects of sense is also a manifestation of this Brahman, conditioned by the sense organs. But it is free from all sense organs. It can be cast into the mould of sensory perception in the form of objects, but it is not an object, because it has no relationship with any sense organ. Asaktaṁ: It has no relation to anything in the world. Transcendent is the Reality. Sarvabhṛc caiva: Though it is transcendent, it supports everything by also being immanent at the same time. Nirguṇaṁ guṇabhoktṛ ca: It has no quality by itself, because to say that a thing has quality would be to compare it to something else. It is blue, it is red, it is tall, it is short—we cannot say anything about it because all these definitions, all these descriptions, require a comparison of it with something else; and because something else external to it does not exist, it cannot be regarded as having any quality at all. Therefore, it is called nirguna. Guṇabhoktṛ ca: But all qualities reside in it. Though it has no quality by itself, whatever beauty we see, whatever colour we see, whatever sound we hear, whatever sensations we have, everything is on account of its existence. Every kind of statue can be found inside a block of stone, but actually there is no statue at all inside a block of stone.
Bahir antaś ca bhūtānām (13.15): It is everywhere—outside us, as well as inside us, like a pot that is sunk in the ocean has water outside it as well as inside it. This Brahman is flooding us: inwardly as the Atman, and outwardly as Brahman. Bahir antaś ca bhūtānām: Everywhere it is, outside and inside. Acaraṁ: It does not shake or move; and it does not fluctuate like the world of the three gunas. Caram eva ca: It moves, and nobody can move faster than it; and yet it is totally immovable. These are the tremendous contradictory qualities of God. Nobody can be faster than He, nobody can be quicker in action than He, and yet He does nothing; He is stable, remaining in His own abode. Sūkṣmatvāt tad avijñeyaṁ: Because of its subtlety, because it is subtler than even the mind, subtler than even the intellect, it is impossible to know it through these instruments of mind and intellect. Dūrasthaṁ: It is very far. It looks as if it is infinitely far away from us, beyond the stars, because we cannot see it anywhere. We always imagine that the Supreme Being is very far away—many millions of light years away—yet it is very near, in our throat itself. Dūrasthaṁ cāntike ca tat: Nothing can be farther than That, because of its vastness and infinitude; and nothing can be nearer than That, because it is the Selfhood of all beings.
Avibhaktaṁ ca bhūteṣu (13.16): It cannot be divided into parts—some atman here, some atman there. It is one indivisible sea of Selfhood, yet it appears to be divided into little atmans—my atman, your atman, this self, that self, etc. Vibhaktam iva ca sthitam: It looks as if it is cut into pieces of atmanacross many living beings, while actually it is indivisible—like space appearing to be cut into parts when there are vessels containing little spaces. Little spaces are not parts of the universal space. There is only one universal space, though it appears as if they are all divided into many vessels in which we cognise this vast space. Bhūtabhartṛ ca: It is the protector, the supporter, and the benefactor of all living beings. Taj jñeyaṁ: Know that it is this character of the Supreme Being. Grasishnu: It absorbs everything into itself. Prabhaviṣṇu: It releases everything from itself.
Jyotiṣām api taj jyotis (13.17): It is the Light of all lights. Na tad bhāsayate sūryo (15.6): Thousands of suns cannot stand before it. The light of the sun is like darkness before it. Tamasaḥ param: Beyond the darkness of the world shines that supreme radiance of the Absolute. Jñānaṁ jñeyaṁ jñānagamyaṁ: It is knowledge, it is the object of knowledge, and it is also the knower. All three clubbed together is that Eternity which is Brahman, the Absolute. Hṛdi sarvasya viṣṭhitam: It is in our own heart. We should not be afraid that this tremendous description is of something that is very far away. It is in the heart of all.
Iti kṣetraṁ tathā jñānaṁ jñeyaṁ coktaṁ samāsataḥ (13.18): “So I have briefly told you, Arjuna, what is the field as well as what is the knower of the field, cosmically as well as individually.”
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In the Thirteenth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita, we have covered the theme which touched upon the kṣetra and the kṣetrajña, individually as well as cosmically, and the relationship between the individual and the cosmic. We also went through the list of virtues, qualities that characterise a spiritual seeker—amānitvam, adambhitvam, etc. Then there was a grand description of the Supreme Brahman—anādimat paraṃ brahma (13.12): The Supreme Absolute pervades all things, existing everywhere, and also existing as the heart and the soul and the self of everybody.
Iti kṣetraṁ tathā jñānaṁ jñeyaṁ coktaṁ samāsataḥ (13.18): “So now I have told you everything that is required to be known: the object which is the kṣetra, the pure Universal Subject that is the jneya, paramatman, Brahman, and the knowledge—amanitvam, adabhitvam, etc. Briefly I have told you of kṣetra, jnana, and jneya. After knowing this thoroughly and establishing oneself in the practice of these great truths delineated in the verses mentioned, one gets established in Me.” Madbhakta etad vijñāya madbhāvāyopapadyate: “One becomes fit for entry into Me after having known this in Truth—known it not merely as scriptural knowledge, not as linguistic or verbal knowledge, but knowledge that has become part and parcel of one’s own being.”
This great knowledge, which is the subject of the first sixteen or seventeen verses, is the quintessence of every kind of wisdom; and the life of a person has to be a manifestation of this wisdom. This knowledge is not something that is understood by the intellect. It is something that has become an insight into the nature of truth, and the whole personality scintillates with the radiance of this knowledge.
Here, in the context of spiritual experience, knowing and being are one and the same, whereas in ordinary secular knowledge, in the arts and the sciences, being is different from knowing. A professor of philosophy has his knowledge in the books and in the college, but his personal life has no connection with this knowledge. His being is different from the knowledge that he has got; but here, that is not the case. The being of a person is identical with the knowledge of that person, so that one can say the person himself or herself is knowledge. After having known this in this fashion, one becomes fit for entry into God’s Being: madbhakta etad vijñāya madbhāvāyopapadyate.
The verse that follows is controversial. Prakṛtiṁ puruṣaṁ caiva viddhyanādī ubhāvapi, vikārāṁś ca guṇāṁś caiva viddhi prakṛtisambhavān (13.19). The literal translation of this verse is: Know that prakritiand purusha are beginningless, and their modifications and their qualities originate, manifest, from prakriti.
The doctrine of the classical Sankhya says that prakriti and purusha are beginningless and infinite in their nature. They cannot merge into each other. The doctrine of the Bhagavadgita does not regard prakriti and purusha as totally independent contending parties; and that they are aspects of the Supreme Purusha, or Purushottama, will be told to us in the Fifteenth Chapter. While commenting on the meaning of this verse, Sankaracharya does not seem to be very eager to say anything specific to clear our doubts. He simply says that prakriti and purusha should be there always to limit the operation of God; otherwise, there will be an infinite operation of God. He does not feel that there is any meaning in an infinite operation because creation would be perpetually going on and never come to an end, inasmuch as God is infinite; therefore, there would be only creation for ever and ever. There would be no cessation for action proceeding from that which is there always. But creation is a limited manifestation. We cannot say that the world is infinite, or even that the universe is infinite. “The limitation required for the manifestation of a universe calls for the limiting principles of prakriti and purusha.” Saying this much, Sankaracharya keeps quiet.
Regarding this commentary, I feel that there is some difficulty in entirely accepting what Sankaracharya says, because it implies that God does not properly understand what creation is; therefore He requires a police guard to restrain Him so that He may not go on creating infinitely. That meaning does not seem to be applicable, and it is not satisfying. Others feel that the point made out here that prakriti and purusha are beginningless should be taken in the sense of the infinity of God’s powers. In the West, there was a philosopher called Spinoza. Just as the transcending principle is referred to as Purushottama in the Fifteenth Chapter of the Gita, Spinoza uses the word ‘substance’ to designate the Absolute Reality; and the qualities of this substance are like the two wings of a bird. Space and time, extension and duration, are regarded as the operative media of this Supreme Substance. If we are to take the verses that come in the Fifteenth Chapter literally, it is possible to consider purusha as akshara and prakriti as kshara, and Purushottama transcends both kshara and akshara. I am not going into that subject now. It comes in the Fifteenth Chapter.
The only way we can escape unnecessary entanglement in the jumble of words explaining this verse is by understanding prakriti and purusha to be two properties, as it were, of the Supreme Being. On the one hand, the spatial extension of the Supreme Being is prakriti; on the other hand, it is omniscience acting, which is purusha. There seems to be a sound explanation because the Vedanta doctrine also holds that the process of creation begins with Ishvara and becomes more and more perspicacious from Hiranyagarbha and Virat onwards. That is, the infinite Brahman limits itself in a particular manner, not by force of the operation of something external, but by its own deliberate will. It wills, and that will is called Ishvara. This will is a delimitation imposed by itself on itself. That is, it contemplates the particular type of universe that is to be manifested.
Infinity does not contemplate infinity. It contemplates a limited manifestation, because the characteristic of limitation in creation arises on account of the fact that the universe to be created has some relevance to the jivas who are going to inhabit that universe—the jivas who lay in a sleeping condition in the previous cycle at the time of dissolution—and the universe is created merely as a field for experience by these endless number of jivas who were withdrawn into prakriti at the time of dissolution of the previous cycle. When they germinate into action at the commencement of the new creation, they have to be provided with an atmosphere commensurate with their potencies. That is to say, an individual who can have the experience of the manifestation of his or her or its potencies on earth, or in the world, cannot be taken to heaven because there the experience will not be possible; or those who are to experience their potencies in a realm like heaven should not be brought to the earth, inasmuch as the nature of the world is exactly in a state of harmony with the inhabitants thereof, and not with the inhabitants of other realms. In this light, creation does not seem to be an unnecessary action of God. It is a very necessary manifestation of a big field of experience where it is possible for the jivas inhabiting that universe to fructify their karmas and enjoy or suffer as the consequences their deeds.
Hence, this delimitation of Brahman in the form of Ishvara as a Central Will is a Universal delimitation. It is not a limitation exercised by a prakriti outside, unless of course we call this will itself as prakriti. The consciousness that is of Ishvara may be regarded as the Supreme Purusha of the Sankhya, and the objective principle which is the will contemplating a possible universe may be considered as prakriti—in which case, prakriti and purusha are not two different wings, but are something like the soul and the body. We cannot distinguish between the soul and the body. The soul contemplates the body and manifests itself in accordance with its own potential desire, and we cannot say that the body is compelling the soul to act in a particular manner. The question of compulsion does not arise, because the body is manifest exactly according to the needs of the soul as manifest in the sukshma sarira.
Prakriti and purusha may be said to be anadi, or beginningless, if we are to go according to the original doctrine of the Bhagavadgita, which does not expect us to think of purusha and prakriti as two different things but as potencies, powers, or manners of working of God Himself—Ishvara, Purushottama. On the one hand, prakriti is extension, space-time; and on the other hand, there is purusha, or consciousness. Consciousness and extension constitute the principle of the immanence of God in the universe. I am going a little ahead of the ordinary commentaries on this verse, which are very brief—not to contradict them, but to elucidate them a little more. My intuitive insight, as it were, makes me feel that prakriti and purusha can be beginningless in the same sense as God is beginningless, because of the fact that they are powers of God: vikārāñś ca guṇāṁś caiva viddhi prakṛtisaṁbhavān.
Kārya kāraṇa kartṛtve hetuḥ prakṛtir ucyate (13.20): Prakriti is the cause of the origin of the causal chain. The cause-and-effect relationship is operative only in the realm of prakriti, whereas pain and pleasure are experienced by purusha: purushah sukha-duhkhanam bhoktrtve hetur uchyate. The contact of purusha with prakriti is the reason behind the experience of pleasure and pain. Experience is not possible unless there is consciousness, and consciousness is available only in the purusha. Purusha is inactive consciousness, whereas prakriti is blind activity. They somehow get juxtaposed, and it appears as if there is conscious activity. When we walk, when we do anything, it appears that we are consciously acting. Actually, there is no conscious action. Action is always unconscious because it is connected with the movement of the gunas of prakriti, who have no self-consciousness. But the purusha does not act; it is conscious. So there is a peculiar jumble—a juxtaposition of the consciousness that does not act with the prakriti, which acts but does not know—and this results in the appearance of conscious activity. For instance, we seem to be doing something consciously. This ‘seeming to be doing consciously’ is due to a mix-up of the purusha and prakriti principles in us—our body being the prakriti, and our Atman being the purusha.
Puruṣaḥ prakṛtistho hi bhuṅkte prakṛtijān guṇān, kāraṇaṁ guṇasaṅgo’sya sadasadyonijanmasu (13.21): Purusha located, or lodged, in the prakriti appears to enjoy the qualities of prakriti. When water moves, the sun that is reflected in it also appears to move. When the water is stable, the reflection of the sun in it appears to be stable; and if the water is turbid, the reflection appears to be turbid. But really, the sun, which is the cause of this reflection in the water, is not affected in any way whatsoever. The sun does not shake, and does not get turbid. Similarly, this contact of consciousness with matter—purusha with prakriti—makes it appear that there is enjoyment, and that there is an agency in action. Purusha does not enjoy, because it itself is bliss; but the sorrow that is the fate of the purusha seems to be the outcome of its contact with prakriti.
Here again, we have to bring the analogy of the Sankhya that a pure crystal appears to be coloured, or disfigured, by the colour of the object that is brought near it. Thus, one enjoys and one suffers. Really, consciousness does not enjoy and does not suffer. But the movements of prakriti in this manner or that manner—as sattva or rajas or tamas—makes the consciousness, the purusha, feel as if it is transparent and happy when it is in contact with the sattva of prakriti; it is disturbed, agitated, angry and passionate when it appears to be reflecting through the rajoguna of prakriti; and it is very slothful, lethargic and static when it is in contact with the tamasic quality of prakriti.
Puruṣaḥ prakṛtistho hi bhuṅkte prakṛtijān guṇān, kāraṇaṁ guṇasaṅgo’sya: The reason for this so-called enjoyment and suffering of the purusha is its contact with the gunas of prakriti—sattva, rajas, tamas. And, as I mentioned, the threefold contact brings about a threefold experience: pleasurable, unpleasurable or static. Because of repeated contact and getting habituated to this kind of contact with sattva, rajas and tamas, the purusha—as it were, indescribably though—forgets its original universality, and develops a tendency to get involved in the fulfilment of its own limited desires, the limitation being caused by the rajoguna prakriti with which it also comes in contact. Just as a lion cub that is lost may end up in a flock of sheep, and may bleat like a sheep though it is actually a lion, the universal Purusha bleats like an individual on account of its contact with the distracting qualities of rajas and tamas, and it is born in various species. Kāraṇaṁ guṇasaṅgo’sya sadasadyonijanmasu: It can be born as celestials in heaven, it can be born as gandharvas, yakshas, kinnaras, it can be born as human beings, and it can be born as animals or even as plants, trees and stone. But there is a Universal Witness behind all this drama that is taking place. What is that Witness?
Upadraṣṭānumantā ca bhartā bhoktā maheśvaraḥ, paramātmeti cāpyukto dehesmin puruṣaḥ paraḥ(13.22): In spite of all this drama of involvement—the joy and sorrow of birth in various species of yonis—there is hope. Just as the witness in waking consciousness is unaffected even by the suffering and enjoyment in dream, there is a Supreme Witness who remains unaffected by our experiences in waking consciousness. We have all kinds of experiences in the dream world: birth and death, joy and sorrow, and every kind of thing conceivable in this world. Notwithstanding the fact of this drama that is taking place in the dream world, the consciousness of waking seems to be there as an upadraṣṭa—as a witness thereof. Though it does not seem to be operative in the light of the mind’s involvement in the dream world, actually the fact that there is a witnessing consciousness transcending the dream world can be known when we wake up from dream and find ourselves totally unaffected by the events of the dream world. This will happen to us when we attain liberation in Paramatma—the Supreme Purusha, the transcendent witness of all these dream-like experiences of the struggle of life through the contact of the gunas of prakriti.
Ya evaṁ vetti puruṣaṁ (13.23): Whoever knows this Supreme Purusha in this manner as described in this chapter, together with the dramatic performances of prakriti, prakṛtiṁ ca guṇaiḥ saha: let him live in any manner he likes. He is a liberated person. Sarvathā vartamāno’pi na sa bhūyo’bhijāyate: Because of knowing this, that person will not be reborn. Again I have to emphasise, knowing does not mean reading the Gita and intellectually comprehending the linguistic meaning or the dictionary meaning of the word, but imbibing the spirit of the teaching, and making it part and parcel of our very blood and veins. Such a person who has this knowledge which is identical with being can behave in any way—sarvathā vartamānopi—but there will be no rebirth, because no karma accrues to that person.
Now there is a reference, as a kind of diversion, as it were, to the methods of practice. How are we to come in contact with this Supreme Being? Varieties of sadhana are mentioned in different places in the Bhagavadgita, and some of the diversities of sadhana are stated in the Fourth Chapter: daivam evāpare yajñaṁ yoginaḥ paryupāsate, brahmāgnāvapare yajñaṁ yajñenaivopajuvhati (4.25), etc. Here also there is a brief statement of the varieties of spiritual practice, or sadhana.
Some people try to behold the Supreme Being by meditation, pure and simple. Dhyānenātmani paśyanti kecid ātmānam ātmanā (13.24): By intense concentration on the pure Self, some people try to behold the Self in the self. That is, they behold the Universal Self in their own self, and they behold their own self in the Universal Self. Similar to that is this statement: yo māṁ paśyati sarvatra sarvaṁ ca mayi paśyati (6.30). Ᾱtmānam ātmanā janati: By the self, the Self is known. The higher Self is known through the lower self. The lower self merges itself in the higher Self. It is in that manner that the Self is known through the self, by the self, by intense meditation on the nature of the higher Self.
Dhyānenātmani paśyanti kecid ātmānam ātmanā, anye sāṅkhyena yogena: There are others who contemplate on the categories of the manifestation of the world as delineated in the Sankhya; that is also a way of sadhana. The twenty-four categories of creation mentioned in the Sankhya doctrine reveal the fact that our individuality is also constituted of the same universal categories and, therefore, we do not stand independently as persons by ourselves. Thus, our personality-consciousness and ego-consciousness automatically vanish even by contemplation on the twenty-four tattvas of the Sankhya. Hence, some attain the state of perfection by the Sankhya category also, and by the methods of yoga practice as described to us in the Sutras of Patanjali or any other yoga, such as mantra yoga, dhyana yoga, laya yoga, japa yoga, kundalini yoga. There are all kinds of yogas. As yoga is mentioned together with Sankhya, we may appreciate that the yoga referred to here is almost similar to the ashtanga yoga of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and to samapatti, or samadhi, which is based on the Sankhya categories themselves. Karmayogena cāpare: There are some, like Raja Janaka, who attained perfection through action, because actually they do not perform any action.
Brahmārpaṇaṁ brahma havir brahmāgnau brahmaṇā hutam, brahmaiva tena gantavyaṁ brahmakarmasamādhinā (4.24): The performer of the action, the deed that is performed, and the process of the action are all like the waters of the ocean rumbling within themselves and, therefore, nobody does any action. Even when a person is intensely active, actually no action is taking place; that is the nature of the supreme karma yogin. By that karma yoga, which is also a method of contemplation and dhyana, one can attain God.
Anye tvevam ajānantaḥ śrutvānyebhya upāsate (13.25): There are others who cannot do these things. They cannot meditate; they cannot contemplate the Self by the self; they cannot meditate on the categories of Sankhya; they cannot engage themselves in the ashtanga yoga of Patanjali; they cannot do karma yoga. What should they do? The compassionate Lord says: “They also reach Me, who merely listen to My glories and the glories of this knowledge in satsanga.” Anye tvevam ajānantaḥ śrutvānyebhya upāsate: Not knowing the difficult techniques of practice that have been mentioned, they can attain perfection by only hearing—srutva. Satsanga is a very potent method of self-purification. If the satsanga is properly conducted and we are honest in our participation in that satsanga, that satsanga itself will be sufficient not only for purification of the self, but it will even act as a supreme meditation itself. We will be in ecstasy at that time. As Tulsidas says, “Binu satsanga viveka na hoi”: Without satsanga, discrimination does not dawn. Anye tvevam ajānantaḥ śrutvānyebhya upāsate: By merely hearing the glories through satsanga, people also attain perfection. Te’pi cātitarantyeva mṛtyuṁ śrutiparāyaṇāḥ. Therefore, all of you will attain moksha. You will not be reborn, because at least you have heard what is being said. God is very compassionate. He will not harass you with hard disciplines. Listen, hear, and absorb this knowledge that you have heard into yourself. You will cross over the realm of death—mrtyum atitaranti.
Yāvat sañjāyate kiṁcit sattvaṁ sthāvarajaṅgamam, kṣetrakṣetrajñasaṁyogāt tad viddhi bharatarṣabha(13.26): All the manifestation, living or non-living, is due to a combination of kṣetra and kṣetrajña, a manifold type of contact of purusha with prakriti in various degrees of ascent and descent. In the higher realms of celestials where existence is transparent, the contact of purusha with prakriti is rarefied. Existence becomes more and more gross as the rajasic and tamasic qualities of prakritibecome more predominant. Sattva is supposed to be predominant in the heavenly regions; rajasicqualities are predominant in the human realm, and tamas is predominant in the nether regions. But whatever be the contact through sattva or rajas or tamas—experiences either in heaven, in this mortal world or in the lower realm—every experience is a result of the contact of purusha with prakriti in various ways. Kṣetrakṣetrajñasaṁyogāt tad viddhi bharatarṣabha: Anything that is born has significance as an individual only because both purusha and prakriti are set together in some proportion.
Samaṁ sarveṣu bhūteṣu tiṣṭhantaṁ parameśvaram, vinaśyatsvavinaśyantaṁ yaḥ paśyati sa paśyati(13.27): Again we are brought back to the transcendent existence of an equally distributed consciousness—not a little purusha coming in contact with prakriti, but something transcending the contact of purusha with prakriti. Upadrashta, anumanta and paramatma were mentioned earlier, and something similar is repeated in this verse. Samaṁ sarveṣu bhūteṣu tiṣṭhantaṁ: That Being is equally present in all as the Self of all. It is the Self of the ant and the elephant and the human being and the god. The distinction among them is due to the appearance of their subtle bodies and gross bodies, but the life that is behind the subtle and gross bodies is common—as sunlight is common and appears to be coloured or distorted according to the nature of the glasses that we put on. Samaṁ sarveṣu bhūteṣu tiṣṭhantaṁ parameśvaram: The Supreme Lord exists in an equilibrated fashion everywhere.
Vinaśyatsvavinaśyantaṁ: Deathless in the midst of dying individuals. People die, everything perishes, and all things get destroyed. Yaḥ paśyati sa paśyati: But in the midst of this destruction taking place perennially, perpetually, right from creation—in the midst of this flux and destruction and movement—there is an unmoving Eternity. Whoever knows that, really knows the truth. We should not get involved in the fluxation of prakriti, but should withdraw our consciousness to that transcendent element which witnesses this drama of prakriti: vinaśyatsvavinaśyantaṁ yaḥ paśyati sa paśyati.
Samaṁ paśyan hi sarvatra samavasthitam īśvaram, na hinastyātmanātmānaṁ tato yāti parāṁ gatim(13.28): Mostly we kill the Self with the self—hinastyātmanātmānaṁ. A kind of atma hatya is going on when the Self is forgotten and only objects are remembered. Only external things are in that person’s memory; the Self is completely obliterated from experience. That state of affairs—where the consciousness of the Self being there is completely obscured by intense concentration on objects outside—is called spiritual suicide; it is killing the Self with the self. That is, we do not know that we are existing at all as the Self. We know that there is a world outside, we are busy with things outside, but we are not busy with our Self. But having known the equally distributed consciousness of the Paramatman, equally distributed Eternity—knowing this, seeing this, beholding it, and contemplating it, one will not be subject to this otherwise common experience of Self-destruction; and knowing this, one attains to the Supreme State, yāti parāṁ gatim.
Now the Lord refers once again to the kartrtva and akartrtva aspects of the human individual in relation to prakriti’s modes—sattva, rajas and tamas.
Prakṛtyaiva ca karmāṇi kriyamāṇāni sarvaśaḥ, yaḥ paśyati tathātmānam akartāraṁ sa paśyati (13.29): One will automatically know, without any difficulty at all in knowing this fact, that one is not the doer of any action, provided that one clearly sees that all activity is an activity of the three gunas of prakriti, and that the consciousness of activity is different from activity itself. We have somehow or the other mixed up consciousness and motion (movement) together. By a mixing up of these two elements by a process called tadatmiya abhyasa—which means the superimposition of one thing on the other in the reverse order, or vice versa—consciousness is made to appear as active, and activity is made to appear as conscious. So we ‘consciously do something’.
The whole point is, ‘consciously doing something’ is a misnomer. Consciousness cannot do anything, and doing cannot be conscious. So, if this knowledge arises in a person that activity is only the movement of prakriti with its three gunas, and the consciousness thereof is totally independent of the gunas, they will not ever feel that they are the doer of action. That is, their consciousness will always be in a state of witness, or detachment, from the process of action. But our body and our consciousness are so intimate that we cannot distinguish one from the other. That is why we feel that we are doing things, while really there is no such thing.
When a red-hot iron rod is placed before us, we do not see the iron rod; we see only fire, though the fire and the iron rod are two different things. And when we touch it, what are we touching? Are we touching the fire, or are we touching the iron rod? We may say that the iron rod burns. The iron rod does not burn; it is the fire that burns. Yet the two have been superimposed on each other in such a way that the rod looks like fire, and the fire appears to have the shape of a lengthy rod. The fire does not have the shape of the rod, and the rod has no heat; but yet, we mix up two aspects and say that the long rod is hot. In a similar manner, we make a mistake in our own selves by imagining this body is conscious.
The body cannot be conscious. Consciousness is different from the body; therefore, when there is bodily action—which is nothing but the action of prakriti, because the body is made up of prakriti’sthree gunas—we begin to imagine, “I am doing something. And because I feel that I am doing something, I also expect a result to follow from that action, and I must enjoy the result of that action. I am doing the action and, therefore, the fruit of that action should come to me.” Hence, karma phala comes as a recompense for the feeling that one is doing. But one who knows that prakriti alone does things, and activity is a part of prakriti’s nature, and the knower of that is different from the activity—such a person remains as akarta, a non-doer. Prakṛtyaiva ca karmāṇi kriyamāṇāni sarvaśaḥ, yaḥ paśyati tathātmānam akartāraṁ sa paśyati.
Yadā bhūtapṛthagbhāvam ekastham anupaśyati, tata eva ca vistāraṁ brahma sampadyate tadā (13.30): We have attained the Supreme Brahman the moment we are able to see with our own eyes the interconnection of the varieties of creation in front of us and their rootedness in a single sea of force which is Brahman. That is to say, we see only wood in all the trees, we see only water in all the ripples and waves, we see only gold in all the ornaments; and, in a similar manner, we see only Brahman in all the names and forms. Yadā bhūtapṛthagbhāvam ekastham anupaśyati means that one is able to see the variety of creation as rooted in the One. There may be millions and millions of varieties of living beings or inanimate things, but this multiform creation will not affect us in any way because they are the various limbs of the one root that is universally spread out everywhere. If we can visualise things in this manner, we have attained Brahman at once. Yadā bhūtapṛthagbhāvam ekastham anupaśyati, tata eva ca vistāraṁ brahma sampadyate tadā: The cosmic all-pervading Brahman is realised at once by entertaining this vision of everything diverse being in rooted in one Universal Existence.
Anāditvān nirguṇatvāt paramātmāyam avyayaḥ, śarīrastho’pi kaunteya na karoti na lipyate (13.31): This Brahman, the Universal Atman, has no beginning. Anāditvān: It has no qualities of any kind as we know qualities here. Nirguṇatvāt paramātmāyam avyayaḥ: It is imperishable because it is indestructible. Such Paramatman, the Supreme Self, though existing in this body as the deepest self in us, does not involve itself in any contamination of the gunas of prakriti. Na karoti na lipyate: He neither does anything, nor is He contaminated by the fruits of action.
The kutastha chaitanya, or the witness consciousness in us, is the true self in us. That remains uncontaminated by anything that takes place, just as space inside a vessel cannot become affected by things that we pour into the vessel. If we pour something fragrant into the vessel, the space inside it does not become fragrant; or if we put something bitter into the vessel, the space inside it does not become bitter. It is the content that has the quality; space itself has no quality. In a similar manner, the content—which is the physical, the astral and the causal bodies—has the characteristics of action and the enjoyment of the fruits of action; but the witness, which is the light of the sun in the sky, as it were, is untarnished by anything that may happen to this body in all these three phases.
Though this kutastha chaitanya, this Atman, is responsible for all the activities through this body, it is not in any way contaminated by the activities carried on through the sariras—anandamaya, vijnanamaya, manomaya, pranamaya and annamaya. The physical sheath, the subtle astral sheath and the casual sheath are involved in movement, action and the desire for the fruit of action. Their activity is impossible unless the light of the kutastha, the Atman, is shed on them. In the same manner, nothing in this world can live or act unless the sun shines in the sky. We are alive today because the sun is in the sky. No plant, no living being can survive if the sun in the sky does not blaze forth heat energy. Yet the sun is not in any way responsible for what is happening in the world. Though without it nothing can happen, it is not responsible for anything that is happening. In a similar manner, just because the kutastha, the Self inside, is responsible for the movement of the three bodies in us, it is not connected vitally in any way. It stands above the turmoil of the action of the three bodies, just as the sun transcends all the events taking place in the world. Anāditvān nirguṇatvāt paramātmāyam avyayaḥ, śarīrastho’pi kaunteya na karoti na lipyate.
Yathā sarvagataṁ saukṣmyād ākāśaṁ nopalipyate (13.32): Just as space is not contaminated by anything that may be inside it, the all-pervading Being, which is the Supreme Atman, is not in any way affected either by what the body does or by what happens in external society, because it is so subtle. The subtlest reality is consciousness, and all things that are external to it, of which it is conscious, are gross. Everything in the world is gross; therefore, consciousness—which is the subtlest of being—cannot actually get involved in anything in this world, the two being dissimilar in nature. The subtle cannot enter into the gross, and the gross cannot affect the subtle. Because of the subtlety of the Supreme Being and its all-pervading nature—sarvatrāvasthita—it is not affected by anything that takes place in creation, either by evolution or involution. Yathā sarvagataṁ saukṣmyād ākāśaṁ nopalipyate, sarvatrāvasthito dehe tathātmā nopalipyate .
Yathā prakāśayatyekaḥ kṛtsnaṁ lokam imaṁ raviḥ, kṣetraṁ kṣetrī tathā kṛtsnaṁ prakāśayati bhārata(13.33): As the sun in the sky illumines the whole world, so does this kṣetrajña purusha, this Atman pervading all things, illumine all bodies. Self-consciousness and the desire to survive are implanted in all species in creation by the operation of this all-pervading Universal Consciousness. Consciousness is eternal. That is why there is an instinct in everyone not to die. It is the consciousness inside that is actually responsible for our fear of death, and for our desire to lengthen our life as much as possible. It is an empirical, externalised, distorted form of the eternity of the Self. We do not want to perish, because the deepest Self in us cannot perish. But because we have mixed up the eternity in us with the three koshas, including the physical body, we make the mistake of perpetuating this body and wanting to exist as individuals for all time to come. Actually, this instinct for survival and the longing to exist always arise not from the body, but from the Atman inside, which is invisible to us. Its very existence is obliterated from our activity and perception, which is conditioned by the sense organs which always move in an externalised direction. The mind and senses cannot know that there is an Atman at all and, therefore, we are caught up. Yathā prakāśayaty ekaḥ kṛtsnaṁ lokam imaṁ raviḥ, kṣetraṁ kṣetrī tathā kṛtsnaṁ prakāśayati bhārata.
The Thirteenth Chapter is very important. Just as the Third Chapter sums up the principles of karma yoga, the Sixth Chapter sums up the principles of raja yoga, and the Eleventh Chapter sums up the principles of bhakti yoga, the Thirteenth Chapter sums up the principles of jnana yoga. Hence, we must read at least these four chapters. To know what karma yoga is, we should read the Third Chapter; to know what bhakti yoga is, we should read the Eleventh Chapter; to know what raja yoga is, we should read the Sixth Chapter; and to know what jnana yoga is, we should read the Thirteenth Chapter.
Whoever understands this teaching given in the Thirteenth Chapter will not return to this world. Kṣetrakṣetrajñayor evam antaraṁ jñānacakṣuṣā, bhūtaprakṛtimokṣaṁ ca ye vidur yānti te param (13.34): Those who are able to distinguish between kṣetrajña and kṣetra, between purusha and prakriti, between the Self and its object, and between consciousness and matter shall attain the Supreme Abode. If this distinction is clear before us, we will be totally unattached to everything in this world, and we will not be reborn into this world of prakriti, this world of the three gunas. We will attain the Supreme Abode—param. With this we conclude the great, glorious Thirteenth Chapter.
This classification of the kṣetra and the kṣetrajña into two categories, the macrocosmic and the microcosmic, requires an elucidation of the means of contact of the microcosmic with the macrocosmic. How does the individual kṣetra, with its own individual kṣetrajña, come in contact with the external macrocosmic field and the knower of the field? In other words, how do we come in contact with anything at all? How do we know any object in the world, and how are we affected by the perception of objects?
Icchā dveṣaḥ sukhaṁ duḥkhaṁ saṁghātaś cetanā dhṛtiḥ (13.6). This process of the individual contacting the external and getting affected by it takes place in the following manner: by desire, icchā; by hatred, dveṣa; by a longing for pleasure, sukha; by the desire to avoid pain, duḥkha; and by the desire to further maintain this conglomeration of the physical body, saṁghāta. Saṁghāta is a composite structure made up of various elements, which we study in anatomy and physiology, and they have to be maintained in a proper order so that they may not get dismembered. If the bone moves in one direction and the flesh moves in another direction, we will not be human beings. They have to be put together by a cement of cohesion. That cohering, compact presentation of the otherwise individual ingredients is called saṁghāta, this physical body. This physical body is not one indivisible unit. It is made up of little units—which may be called cells, or whatever name we give them—and if they get dismembered, they decay. When the prana is withdrawn from the body, it decomposes; then the inner components of the body reduce themselves to their original form and become one with the five elements.
Consciousness is the individual capacity to know the objects of the world through the body; that is called chetana here. Dhṛti is the determination of the individual to maintain itself through the ahamkara tattva, or the ego.
So, how many things are mentioned in the individual’s case? Icchā dveṣaḥ sukhaṁ duḥkhaṁ saṁghātaś cetanā dhṛtiḥ. We have a determination to maintain ourselves as a physical personality. We move earth and heaven to see that we are not destroyed or endangered in any way whatsoever. We protect ourselves, and for that purpose we decide to take certain steps, and we apply the faculty of determination: “I shall maintain myself in this physical body only”; and we do every blessed thing, whatever is possible, for that purpose. The consciousness that is at the back of even this determining faculty is the chetana. Saṁghāta, as explained, is nothing but this composite structure of different elements that make up the body, and it is simultaneously associated with longing for pleasure and hatred for pain. Icchā, dveṣa—love and hatred—go together with the asking for pleasure and avoidance of pain.
These are the inner components of the individual kṣetra, the microcosm; and the chetana mentioned here may be identified with the individual kṣetrajña. One who knows the individual body and identifies with the individual body is kṣetrajña in the individualised sense. But the other one that is mentioned corresponds to the Cosmic kṣetrajña, who is represented in these different degrees of His own manifestation—known as prakriti, mahat and ahamkara, or Ishvara, Hiranyagarbha and Virat. So, in these two verses, in two verses only, the entire cosmic structure and the individual structure are summed up: mahābhūtānyahaṅkāro buddhir avyaktam eva ca, indriyāṇi daśaikaṁ ca pañca cendriyagocarāḥ; icchā dveṣaḥ sukhaṁ duḥkhaṁ saṁghātaś cetanā dhṛtiḥ, etat kṣetraṁ (13.5-6): “This is the kṣetra in brief—samāsena savikāram udāhṛtam. Briefly I have mentioned what the kṣetra is, both from the universal point of view and from the individual point of view, with all the modifications thereof.”
This is the knowledge which is briefly mentioned in two verses, but is so hard to comprehend. Our minds cannot always remember that we are individuals coming in contact with the universal structure of the kṣetra and kṣetrajña through icchā, dveṣa, sukha, duḥkha, etc. We are not aware of this in our daily life. We are so ego-ridden that we just take for granted that everything is as it appears on the surface to the sense organs. We think that we are here, totally independent, and the world is there, totally independent, and that we have practically no connection with the world. We do not know that a connection is established every minute by the consciousness of perception.
How do we maintain this awareness of our relatedness to the world through the consciousness of cognition through the sense organs and the mind? For that, a series of disciplines is stated in the coming verses. These are very famous verses, which are worth committing to memory. We have already seen sthitaprajna lakshana in the Second Chapter, bhagavad bhakta lakshana in the Twelfth Chapter, and gunatita lakshana in the Thirteenth Chapter; and now, here, we have the lakshana of a seeker. Who is a good seeker?
amānitvam adambhitvam ahiṁsā kṣāntir ārjavam
ācāryopāsanaṁ śaucaṁ sthairyam ātmavinigrahaḥ (13.7)
indriyārtheṣu vairāgyam anahaṅkāra eva ca
janmamṛtyujarāvyādhiduḥkhadoṣānudarśanam (13.8)
asaktir anabhiṣvaṅgaḥ putradāragṛhādiṣu
nityaṁ ca samacittatvam iṣṭāniṣṭopapattiṣu (13.9)
mayi cānanyayogena bhaktir avyabhicāriṇī
viviktadeśasevitvam aratir janasaṁsadi (13.10)
adhyātmajñānanityatvaṁ tattvajñānārthadarśanam
etaj jñānam iti proktam ajñānaṁ yad ato’nyathā (13.11)
ācāryopāsanaṁ śaucaṁ sthairyam ātmavinigrahaḥ (13.7)
indriyārtheṣu vairāgyam anahaṅkāra eva ca
janmamṛtyujarāvyādhiduḥkhadoṣānudarśanam (13.8)
asaktir anabhiṣvaṅgaḥ putradāragṛhādiṣu
nityaṁ ca samacittatvam iṣṭāniṣṭopapattiṣu (13.9)
mayi cānanyayogena bhaktir avyabhicāriṇī
viviktadeśasevitvam aratir janasaṁsadi (13.10)
adhyātmajñānanityatvaṁ tattvajñānārthadarśanam
etaj jñānam iti proktam ajñānaṁ yad ato’nyathā (13.11)
All these things mentioned here in these verses are called knowledge. Etaj jñānam iti proktam: “I consider these virtues I have mentioned as real knowledge.” Ajñānaṁ yad atonyathā: “Whatever is the opposite of what I have said here is ignorance.”
A student of yoga, a spiritual seeker, is humble. He does not expect respect from anybody, but offers respect to everyone. Tṛṇād api su-nīcena taror iva sahiṣṇunā amāninā māna-dena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ (C.C., Adi lila, 17.31): Only he can take the name of God, Hari, who wants not respect from anybody, but respects everyone, and is humbler than a blade of grass. If grass is trampled on, it simply bends; it does not resist. We should be humbler than a blade of grass—tṛṇād api su-nīcena. If we chop off the branches of a tree, it does not curse us. Even if we cut off a large part of the tree, it again shoots up tendrils and leaves. It is very tolerant. Thus, the devotee should be as tolerant as a tree and as humble as a blade of grass, giving respect to everybody and wanting respect from nobody—amānitvam.
Adambhitvam: There is no show on the part of a spiritual seeker. He never demonstrates himself as a seeker of God, a lover of God, a spiritual seeker. He looks like anybody else in the world. There is nothing special or anything particular that we can cognise in that person. He hides his knowledge and his sadhana. It is said the sadhana that we perform, the mantra that we chant, and the Guru whom we worship should not be revealed to anyone. We should not boast about who our Guru is. It should be known only to us, and to the Guru. We should not announce to the public who our Guru is; we should not tell people what mantra japa we are doing, and our sadhana technique also should not be revealed to other people. If we have an experience in our sadhana, that also should not be told to anybody except our Guru. Adambhitvam means there is no demonstration of ahamkara. “I have attained samadhi; I was there in that state for three hours.” We should not go on saying these things.
Ahimsa, non-violence, is something well known to us. All beings should feel fearlessness towards us. Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate (10.8): “May all be fearless towards me” is the pratijna, or the vow, that we take. “Let nothing, let no one, be afraid of me.” Kṣāntiḥ is forgiveness. If somebody does something wrong to us, we should not do the same to them. We forgive them because, after all, everybody is susceptible to making some mistake or the other. Here is a short poem: “There is so much bad in the best of us, and so much good in the worst of us, that it ill-behoves any of us to find fault with the rest of us.” So, be forgiving. Ᾱrjava: We should be honest and straightforward, and not hide anything. We should not think one thing, say another thing, and do something else. Kāyena vācā manasa (S.B. 11.2.36): There should be harmony; otherwise, there will be non-alignment of personality. Ᾱcāryopāsanaṁ: We should always be humble and worshipful before our teacher, who imparts knowledge to us. We should not show our greatness or our ego before the teacher, or the Guru. Let him be worshipped as the veritable manifestation of God Himself. Śaucaṁ means physical purity, both inwardly as well as outwardly. Sthairyam is the decision that we have taken to achieve God-realisation in this birth, and not in a future birth. Ᾱtmavinigrahaḥ is self-restraint, the control of the senses and the mind.
Indriyārtheṣu vairāgyam is distaste for the objects of sense. Neither do we want to hear anything, nor do we want to taste anything, nor do we want anything at all that the senses usually consider as very delighting. There is nothing in this world which can delight us. Therefore, we should be rid of longing for the objects of sense. Anahaṁkāra: We should not project our ego in any way whatsoever, nor go on thinking how we were born into this world, how we have grown up, how we will become old and leave this body one day. Is this world—where everything decays, decomposes, and turns to dust—a haven of pleasure and joy? How can anyone pat himself on the back and say that he is well off in this world?
Therefore, janmamṛtyujarāvyādhiduḥkhadoṣānudarśanam. We should think of the way in which we were born into this world—a very, very unpleasant way indeed in which we were born. The process of dying, the going from this world, is also very unpleasant indeed. Old age is unpleasant, sickness is unpleasant; all kinds of sorrow which we have to encounter daily, and the defects of sense objects, these are to be contemplated upon every day. These truths of life—janmamṛtyujarāvyādhiduḥkhadoṣā—should be brooded upon every day.
There is a defect in every sense object. It looks honey-coated and tasty, but inside there is a poison which will kill us. Na viṣam viṣam iti āhuḥ brahmasvam viṣam ucya te: Ordinary poison cannot be considered as dangerous as the poison of sense objects, because ordinary poison—scorpion or even snake venom—will destroy us only once, but the vishaya chintana, the contemplation of sense objects, will kill us in several births. Therefore, these kinds of sorrows should be borne in mind, and we should not be entangled in them.
Asaktiḥ: Therefore, we should be detached from things, and live an individual life. We should be alone to ourselves and not mix socially, as these people are not necessary for us. Anabhiṣvaṅgaḥ: We should not seek contact with anybody. We should not look for people to chat with. There should be no contact. We do not need friends. Putradāragṛhādiṣu: Also, we should not be attached to our family members—such as son or daughter, husband or wife, property or house. If we are householders, we have some duty to perform as a trustee of an institution, not attaching ourselves to anything, but doing our duty very meticulously. We may live at home, but we should detach ourselves, knowing well that one day or the other we will leave, and also knowing that one day or the other they will leave us. Hence, attachment is unfounded and unwarranted.
Asaktir anabhiṣvaṅgaḥ putradāragṛhādiṣu, nityaṁ ca samacittatvam iṣṭāniṣṭopapattiṣu: Whether pleasant things or unpleasant things come—whether good news comes that makes us feel happy, or there is something which makes us very unhappy—we should keep our mind in a state of balance, and not be tilted either to this side or that side.
Mayi cānanyayogena bhaktir avyabhicāriṇī: Finally, we should resort to God only. Avyabhicharini bhaktiis ekabhakti, which means wanting only one, and not wanting anything else. If we want another thing simultaneously, it is vyabhicharini bhakti. Here is avyabhicharini bhakti, where we do not want anything else except that one thing. “May that devotion be fixed on Me.” And what kind of fixing is it? Ananyogena: “With an undivided assiduity of concentration, may you be devoted to Me with a devotion that has no second.”
Mayi cānanyayogena bhaktir avyabhicāriṇī, viviktadeśasevitvam: We should always try to live ekantam—alone—and not in a thoroughfare or a city, where there is a lot of noise and dust. As far as possible, we should try to live in ekantavas, have ekantavas, and be satisfied in ourselves and not require anybody else with us. Viviktadeśasevitvam aratir janasaṁsadi is dislike for crowds of people. If there is a crowd of people, we should leave that place and go somewhere else—sit under a tree. We should not have any kind of taste for organisations, crowds, and the noise of human society. We should be alone to ourselves.
Adhyātmajñānanityatvaṁ: Our daily routine should be working for the acquisition of adhyātmajñāna, the knowledge of the Self. We should work for it day and night. Tattvajñānārthadarśanam: We should aspire for the vision of Truth, and ask for nothing else. Etaj jñānam iti proktam: If we have these qualities, we have knowledge. Ajñānaṁ yad ato’nyathā: If we do not have these qualities, we are ignorant.
It is said that we should aspire for knowledge of Truth: tattvajñānārthadarśanam. What is Truth? Jñeyaṁ yat tat pravakṣyāmi yaj jñātvāmṛtam aśnute, anādimat paraṁ brahma na sat tan nāsad ucyate(13.12): “I shall now tell you what Truth is. That Supreme Brahman is the Ultimate Truth, after knowing which there is attainment of immortality.” Anādimat paraṁ brahma: It has no beginning and no end. It cannot be designated as either existing or as not existing. It cannot be called existing because whenever we think of any existing thing, we want to see it with our eyes or consider it as some object of some sense organ. As it is not the object of any sense organ, we do not consider it to be existing; but neither is it non-existing—because, ultimately, it is the only existence. Na sat tan nāsad ucyate: Therefore, it cannot be regarded as sat, and it cannot be regarded as asat either.
Sarvataḥpāṇipādaṁ (13.13): It is spreading itself everywhere. Everywhere we can find the hands of that Being and feet of that Being. Sarvato’kṣiśiromukham: Everywhere are the eyes of that Being, everywhere are the heads of that Being, and everywhere are the faces of that Being. Sarvataḥśrutimal loke: Everywhere are the ears of that Being. Sarvam āvṛtya tiṣṭhati: It envelops all things.
Sarvendriyaguṇābhāsaṁ sarvendriyavivarjitam (13.14): That which we cognise through the sense organs as objects of sense is also a manifestation of this Brahman, conditioned by the sense organs. But it is free from all sense organs. It can be cast into the mould of sensory perception in the form of objects, but it is not an object, because it has no relationship with any sense organ. Asaktaṁ: It has no relation to anything in the world. Transcendent is the Reality. Sarvabhṛc caiva: Though it is transcendent, it supports everything by also being immanent at the same time. Nirguṇaṁ guṇabhoktṛ ca: It has no quality by itself, because to say that a thing has quality would be to compare it to something else. It is blue, it is red, it is tall, it is short—we cannot say anything about it because all these definitions, all these descriptions, require a comparison of it with something else; and because something else external to it does not exist, it cannot be regarded as having any quality at all. Therefore, it is called nirguna. Guṇabhoktṛ ca: But all qualities reside in it. Though it has no quality by itself, whatever beauty we see, whatever colour we see, whatever sound we hear, whatever sensations we have, everything is on account of its existence. Every kind of statue can be found inside a block of stone, but actually there is no statue at all inside a block of stone.
Bahir antaś ca bhūtānām (13.15): It is everywhere—outside us, as well as inside us, like a pot that is sunk in the ocean has water outside it as well as inside it. This Brahman is flooding us: inwardly as the Atman, and outwardly as Brahman. Bahir antaś ca bhūtānām: Everywhere it is, outside and inside. Acaraṁ: It does not shake or move; and it does not fluctuate like the world of the three gunas. Caram eva ca: It moves, and nobody can move faster than it; and yet it is totally immovable. These are the tremendous contradictory qualities of God. Nobody can be faster than He, nobody can be quicker in action than He, and yet He does nothing; He is stable, remaining in His own abode. Sūkṣmatvāt tad avijñeyaṁ: Because of its subtlety, because it is subtler than even the mind, subtler than even the intellect, it is impossible to know it through these instruments of mind and intellect. Dūrasthaṁ: It is very far. It looks as if it is infinitely far away from us, beyond the stars, because we cannot see it anywhere. We always imagine that the Supreme Being is very far away—many millions of light years away—yet it is very near, in our throat itself. Dūrasthaṁ cāntike ca tat: Nothing can be farther than That, because of its vastness and infinitude; and nothing can be nearer than That, because it is the Selfhood of all beings.
Avibhaktaṁ ca bhūteṣu (13.16): It cannot be divided into parts—some atman here, some atman there. It is one indivisible sea of Selfhood, yet it appears to be divided into little atmans—my atman, your atman, this self, that self, etc. Vibhaktam iva ca sthitam: It looks as if it is cut into pieces of atmanacross many living beings, while actually it is indivisible—like space appearing to be cut into parts when there are vessels containing little spaces. Little spaces are not parts of the universal space. There is only one universal space, though it appears as if they are all divided into many vessels in which we cognise this vast space. Bhūtabhartṛ ca: It is the protector, the supporter, and the benefactor of all living beings. Taj jñeyaṁ: Know that it is this character of the Supreme Being. Grasishnu: It absorbs everything into itself. Prabhaviṣṇu: It releases everything from itself.
Jyotiṣām api taj jyotis (13.17): It is the Light of all lights. Na tad bhāsayate sūryo (15.6): Thousands of suns cannot stand before it. The light of the sun is like darkness before it. Tamasaḥ param: Beyond the darkness of the world shines that supreme radiance of the Absolute. Jñānaṁ jñeyaṁ jñānagamyaṁ: It is knowledge, it is the object of knowledge, and it is also the knower. All three clubbed together is that Eternity which is Brahman, the Absolute. Hṛdi sarvasya viṣṭhitam: It is in our own heart. We should not be afraid that this tremendous description is of something that is very far away. It is in the heart of all.
Iti kṣetraṁ tathā jñānaṁ jñeyaṁ coktaṁ samāsataḥ (13.18): “So I have briefly told you, Arjuna, what is the field as well as what is the knower of the field, cosmically as well as individually.”
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