Audio hot-linked from bhagavadgitaclass.com — streamed from upstream, not stored.
Arjuna was inquisitive about prakṛti (nature), puruṣa (the enjoyer), kṣetra (the field), kṣetra-jña (its knower), and knowledge and the object of knowledge. When he inquired about all these, Kṛṣṇa said that this body is called the field and that one who knows this body is called the knower of the field. This body is the field of activity for the conditioned soul. The conditioned soul is entrapped in material existence, and he attempts to lord it over material nature. And so, according to his capacity to dominate material nature, he gets a field of activity. That field of activity is the body. And what is the body? The body is made of senses. The conditioned soul wants to enjoy sense gratification, and, according to his capacity to enjoy sense gratification, he is offered a body, or field of activity. Therefore the body is called kṣetra, or the field of activity for the conditioned soul. Now, the person, who should not identify himself with the body, is called kṣetra-jña, the knower of the field. It is not very difficult to understand the difference between the field and its knower, the body and the knower of the body. Any person can consider that from childhood to old age he undergoes so many changes of body and yet is still one person, remaining. Thus there is a difference between the knower of the field of activities and the actual field of activities. A living conditioned soul can thus understand that he is different from the body. It is described in the beginning – dehino ’smin – that the living entity is within the body and that the body is changing from childhood to boyhood and from boyhood to youth and from youth to old age, and the person who owns the body knows that the body is changing. The owner is distinctly kṣetra-jña. Sometimes we think, “I am happy,” “I am a man,” “I am a woman,” “I am a dog,” “I am a cat.” These are the bodily designations of the knower. But the knower is different from the body. Although we may use many articles – our clothes, etc. – we know that we are different from the things used. Similarly, we also understand by a little contemplation that we are different from the body. I or you or anyone else who owns the body is called kṣetra-jña, the knower of the field of activities, and the body is called kṣetra, the field of activities itself. In the first six chapters of Bhagavad-gītā the knower of the body (the living entity) and the position by which he can understand the Supreme Lord are described. In the middle six chapters of the Bhagavad-gītā the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the relationship between the individual soul and the Supersoul in regard to devotional service are described. The superior position of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the subordinate position of the individual soul are definitely defined in these chapters. The living entities are subordinate under all circumstances, but in their forgetfulness they are suffering. When enlightened by pious activities, they approach the Supreme Lord in different capacities – as the distressed, those in want of money, the inquisitive, and those in search of knowledge. That is also described. Now, starting with the Thirteenth Chapter, how the living entity comes into contact with material nature and how he is delivered by the Supreme Lord through the different methods of fruitive activities, cultivation of knowledge, and the discharge of devotional service are explained. Although the living entity is completely different from the material body, he somehow becomes related. This also is explained.
And Krsna answers:
Arjuna asks 6 questions about the following subject matters;
1. ‘Prakrti’ – Material Nature
2. ‘Purusha’ – The Enjoyer of matter
3. ‘Kshetra’ – Field in which one can act within the material world
4. ‘Kshetra-jna’ – Entity which experiences the field of actions
5. ‘Jnana’ – Knowledge and the process of acquiring knowledge (Explained in Texts 13.3, 13.8 – 13.12 and
13.24 – 13.25)
6. ‘Jneyam’ – Object of knowledge
13.1 प्रकृतिम् the Prakriti (matter)? पुरुषम् the Purusha (Spirit or Soul)? च and? एव even? क्षेत्रम् the field? क्षेत्रज्ञम् the knower of the field? एव even? च and? एतत् this? वेदितुम् to know? इच्छामि (I) wish? ज्ञानम् knowledge? ज्ञेयम् what ought to be known? च and? केशव O Kesava.Commentary In some of the books you will not find this verse. If you include this verse also? the number of verses of the Bhagavad Gita will come to 701. Some commentators look upon this verse as an interpolation.We have come to the beginning of the third section of the Gita. Essentially the same knowledge is taught in this section but there are more details.This discourse on Kshetra (matter) is commenced with a view to determine the essential nature of the possessor of the two Prakritis (Natures)? the lower and the higher? described in chapter VII? verses 4 and 5.In the previous discourse a description of the devotee who is dear to the Lord is given from verse 13 to the end. Now the estion arises What sort of knowledge of Truth should he possess The answer is given in this discourse.Nature is composed of the three alities. It transforms itself into the body? senses and the sensual objects to serve the two purposes of the individual soul? viz.? Bhoga (enjoyment) and Apavarga (liberation).The Gita is divided into three sections illustrative of the three words of the Mahavakya or Great Sentence of the Sama Veda -- TatTvamAsi (That thou art). In accordance with this view the first six chapters deal with the path of action or Karma Yoga and the nature of the thou (TvamPada). The next six chapters explain the path of devotion or Bhakti Yoga and the nature of That (TatPada). The last six chapters treat of the path of knowledge or Jnana Yoga and the nature of the middle term art (AsiPada) which establishes the identity of the individual and the Supreme Soul (Jiva Brahma Aikyam).Arjuna now wishes to know in detail the difference between Prakriti and Purusha (Matter and Spirit). He desires to have a discriminative knowledge of the difference between them.
Imagine a farmer surveying his field at sunrise. The soil, the furrows, the standing crop — all of this is the field. The one who walks its edges, knows what was sown and what has sprouted, is something other than the field itself. The body is that soil; you are the one who walks its edges. Real knowledge begins the moment you stop confusing the two.
When the sage Yājñavalkya prepared to leave home for the forest, he offered to divide his wealth between his two wives. Maitreyī asked the famous question: "If the whole earth were mine, would it make me immortal?" Yājñavalkya said no — wealth can enrich the field, but it cannot touch the knower.
He then taught her that the ātman, the knower within, is what is truly to be heard, reflected upon, and meditated upon. The field changes, decays, and is left behind; the knower remains. The Bṛhad-āraṇyaka preserves this exchange as the seed-teaching that the Gītā here unfolds in technical form.
Source: vedabase.io
While discussing the subject of the body and the knower of the body, the soul and the Supersoul, we shall find three different topics of study: the Lord, the living entity, and matter. In every field of activities, in every body, there are two souls: the individual soul and the Supersoul. Because the Supersoul is the plenary expansion of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa says, “I am also the knower, but I am not the individual knower of the body. I am the superknower. I am present in every body as the Paramātmā, or Supersoul.” One who studies the subject matter of the field of activity and the knower of the field very minutely, in terms of this Bhagavad-gītā, can attain to knowledge. The Lord says, “I am the knower of the field of activities in every individual body.” The individual may be the knower of his own body, but he is not in knowledge of other bodies. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is present as the Supersoul in all bodies, knows everything about all bodies. He knows all the different bodies of all the various species of life. A citizen may know everything about his patch of land, but the king knows not only his palace but all the properties possessed by the individual citizens. Similarly, one may be the proprietor of the body individually, but the Supreme Lord is the proprietor of all bodies. The king is the original proprietor of the kingdom, and the citizen is the secondary proprietor. Similarly, the Supreme Lord is the supreme proprietor of all bodies. The body consists of the senses. The Supreme Lord is Hṛṣīkeśa, which means “the controller of the senses.” He is the original controller of the senses, just as the king is the original controller of all the activities of the state; the citizens are secondary controllers. The Lord says, “I am also the knower.” This means that He is the superknower; the individual soul knows only his particular body. In the Vedic literature, it is stated as follows: kṣetrāṇi hi śarīrāṇi bījaṁ cāpi śubhāśubhe tāni vetti sa yogātmā tataḥ kṣetra-jña ucyate This body is called the kṣetra, and within it dwells the owner of the body and the Supreme Lord, who knows both the body and the owner of the body. Therefore He is called the knower of all fields. The distinction between the field of activities, the knower of activities, and the supreme knower of activities is described as follows. Perfect knowledge of the constitution of the body, the constitution of the individual soul, and the constitution of the Supersoul is known in terms of Vedic literature as jñāna. That is the opinion of Kṛṣṇa. To understand both the soul and the Supersoul as one yet distinct is knowledge. One who does not understand the field of activity and the knower of activity is not in perfect knowledge. One has to understand the position of prakṛti (nature), puruṣa (the enjoyer of nature) and īśvara (the knower who dominates or controls nature and the individual soul). One should not confuse the three in their different capacities. One should not confuse the painter, the painting and the easel. This material world, which is the field of activities, is nature, and the enjoyer of nature is the living entity, and above them both is the supreme controller, the Personality of Godhead. It is stated in the Vedic language (in the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 1.12), bhoktā bhogyaṁ preritāraṁ ca matvā/ sarvaṁ proktaṁ tri-vidhaṁ brahmam etat. There are three Brahman conceptions: prakṛti is Brahman as the field of activities, and the jīva (individual soul) is also Brahman and is trying to control material nature, and the controller of both of them is also Brahman, but He is the factual controller. In this chapter it will also be explained that out of the two knowers, one is fallible and the other is infallible. One is superior and the other is subordinate. One who understands the two knowers of the field to be one and the same contradicts the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who states here very clearly, “I am also the knower of the field of activity.” One who misunderstands a rope to be a serpent is not in knowledge. There are different kinds of bodies, and there are different owners of the bodies. Because each individual soul has his individual capacity for lording it over material nature, there are different bodies. But the Supreme also is present in them as the controller. The word ca is significant, for it indicates the total number of bodies. That is the opinion of Śrīla Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa. Kṛṣṇa is the Supersoul present in each and every body apart from the individual soul. And Kṛṣṇa explicitly says here that real knowledge is to know that the Supersoul is the controller of both the field of activities and the finite enjoyer.
It has been said that the jīva is the knower of the field because of his knowledge of his body. But the Paramātmā also is the knower of the field because He knows all bodies completely. “Know that I, the Paramātmā situated as the monitor in all the bodies, am the knower of the field. Each jīva has knowledge of his particular body, but not of all bodies. But I, though one person, have knowledge of all bodies completely.” This distinction should be understood. What is knowledge? Knowledge of the jīva and Paramātmā, both knowers of the field, along with knowledge of the field, is called knowledge according to Me. Explaining this verse in a different way, saying that there is only one jīva in existence, one knower of the field, [Note: This is the case in Māyāvāda philosophy. Baladeva in his commentary explains and defeats this interpretation.] cannot be accepted, since that opinion is contradicted by the later statement uttamaḥ puruṣas tv anyaḥ paramātmety udāhṛtaḥ: but there is another supreme person called the Paramātmā. (15.17)
The Lord has spoken of the jīva as the “knower of the field,” since he has knowledge about the body. Now the Lord says that the paramātmā is also the knower of the field. O Bhārata, know that I alone am the knower of the field in all fields (bodies.) The word api indicates exclusivity. The jīvas know their own individual bodies as means of enjoyment and liberation, as citizens know the field they own and cultivate. But I alone, the Lord of all, know all these fields (bodies) which must be supported by Me for their very existence. Thus I am the knower of all fields, like a king. Smṛti states that the Lord of all, being the lord of all the fields, is the knower of aḷl the fields: kṣetrāṇi hi śarīrāṇi bījaṁ cāpi śubhāśubhe tāni vetti sa yogātmā tataḥ kṣetrajṣa ucyate The Supreme Lord, yogātmā, knows these bodies as fields and as the source of piety and sin. He is called the knower of the field. Mahābhārata 12.339.6 What is knowledge? I consider knowledge to be the ability to distinguish between the two knowers of the field—the jīva and the Lord— and relation of these two with the field (prakṛti or the body). What is other than this I consider ignorance. The following should be understood in this regard. Though prakṛti, jīva and the Lord combine together, there is no mixture of their respective qualities as the enjoyed, the enjoyer and the controller, as would happen in a dyed cloth. Thus the writer of Vedānta says na tu dṛṣṭānta-bhāvāt: the Lord is not tainted by the material world, as there are examples showing this. (Vedānta Sūtra 2.9) The śrutis also speak of the distinction of qualities between the items: pṛthag ātmānaṁ preritāraṁ ca matvā juṣṭas tatas tenāmṛtatvam eti Knowing himself to be different from He who inspires actions, invoking the pleasure of the Lord, that person attains liberation. Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 1.6 jṣājṣau dvāv ajāv īśānīśānāv ajā hy ekā bhoktṛ-bhogārtha-yuktā One is omniscient, the other ignorant. One is the controller, the other is controlled. Both are without birth. The unborn prakṛti is associated with the jīva for his enjoyment. Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 1.9 kṣaraṁ pradhānam amṛtākṣaraṁ haraḥ kṣarātmānāv īśate deva ekaḥ The pradhāna is mutable. The jīva (hara—taker of prakṛti) is immutable, being eternal. The one Lord controls the pradhāna and the jīva. Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 1.10 bhoktā bhogyaṁ preritāraṁ ca matvā sarvaṁ proktaṁ trividhaṁ brahmam etat This brahman has been described as three: the enjoyer, the object of enjoyment and the inspirer. Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 1.12 ajām ekām lohita-śukla-kṛṣṇāṁ bahvīḥ prajāḥ sṛjamānāṁ sarūpāḥ ajo hy eko juṣamāṇo’nuśete jahāty enāṁ bhukta-bhogāṁ ajo’nyaḥ The unborn is situated with the one unborn prakṛti which is red, white and black and which produces many entities of similar form. One jīva enjoys and associates closely with those forms, while another jīva, having enjoyed, gives up those objects of enjoyment. Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 4.5 pradhāna-kṣetrajṣa-patir guṇeśaḥ He is the master of matter and jīva, endowed with all good qualities. Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.16 From these verses it should understood that the Lord maintains distinction from matter and jīva (kṣetra and kṣetra jṣa), indicated by the words kṣara and akṣara, even though He associates with them. As will be shown by verses like dvāv imau puruṣau (BG 15.16), real knowledge means understanding the separate existence of the Lord, jīva and prakṛti, though they mix together. Those who advocate existence of only one ātmā (such as Śaṅkara) make the following claim. Taking the identity of knower of the field previously defined as the jīva with the Lord by grammatical identity of case (kṣetera jṣam = mām, know that the knower of the field (jīva) is I), they say that when the Lord says “Know that I am the knower of all fields,” it means “Know that I am the jīva. The jīva and the Lord are the same.” Even the Supreme Lord, by ignorance, takes Himself to be a knower of the field, a jīva, just as a person in error takes a rope to be a snake. In order to dispel that illusion of being a mere jīva, this statement of oneness is made by the Lord, the highest authority of truth. By the statement “I, Supreme Brahman, am the jīva” the error of thinking Himself to be an individual jīva (different from other jīvas and the Lord) is destroyed, just as illusion of a snake is destroyed by saying “this rope is not a snake.” That argument is rejected, because of the impossibility of teaching anything in this way. [Note: If the Lord is in ignorance how can He teach? If he is beyond duality, then He has no other object to whom He can teach.] One should consult the commentary on dehino’smin (BG 2.13) for the explanation. In this manner, another interpretation is apt. The word ca indicates “all fields.” Know that I alone am the field as a whole and knower of the field in all bodies. Know that the field and knower of the field are not different from Me since I pervade everything and everything is dependent on Me for its manifestation and continued existence. Thus I consider knowledge as knowing Me to be the field and knower of the field as I am one with them by maintaining and pervading them both. This I consider knowledge. Other ideas are not.
Three questions have been answered. The first one: What is ksetra? and then: What is ksetrajna?. One kind is the soul and the other kind is the Supersoul. What is the difference between the soul and the Supersoul? The Supersoul knows all bodies, all fields. He is like the King who knows what is going on in everyone's field. But the soul only knows what is going on in his own field, his own body. What is jnana? ‑ To know the difference between the field and the knower of the field, specially the Supersoul. To know about the body, the soul and the Supersoul ‑ this is knowledge. We have already come in contact with this point in Chapter Five (a more jnana type of chapter), where we have understood the difference between these three aspects: the soul, the Supersoul and the body. If one knows that he is not this body, he is enlightened ‑ this is jnana, coming from the mo goodness ‑ but this is not enough. In order to bring one to the platform of brahma‑bhuta, one needs knowledge of the Supersoul ‑ the Supreme Lord. Also the living entity knows only his own body but imperfectly. And the Supersoul knows all bodies and perfectly. Srila Prabhupada says in his Purport: "Perfect knowledge of the constitution of the body, the constitution of the individual soul, and the constitution of the Supersoul is known in terms of Vedic literature as jnana. That is the opinion of Krsna. To understand both the soul and the Supersoul as one yet distinct is knowledge. One who does not understand the field of activity and the knower of activity is not in perfect knowledge. One has to understand the position of prakrti (nature), purusa (the enjoyer of nature) and isvara (the knower who dominates or controls nature and the individual soul). One should not confuse the three in their different capacities." Srila Prabhupada in his Purport is actually giving the answers to questions 1 and 2, because he is saying what is prakrti and what is purusa. And he is explainning the two kinds of purusas.
The body, in this chapter, is often referred to as a kṣetra, a field. Just as different crops grow in a
farmer’s field according to the seeds he has planted, a living entity’s happiness and distress similarly
grow in his body—his field of activities—according to his previous actions. The living entity, as the
kṣetra-jña, knows his own body, but Kṛṣṇa says that another kṣetra-jña knows all bodies. That
kṣetra-jña is the Supersoul. A farmer, like the soul, knows all about his own field, but the king, like
the Supersoul in everyone’s heart, is the ultimate controller and knower of each and every field in
his kingdom. In addition, the soul can only imperfectly know his own body; the Supersoul has com-
plete and perfect knowledge of all bodies.
Kṛṣṇa in this verse has defined knowledge (jñāna) as knowing the body, the soul and the Supersoul.
He will complete His description of knowledge in texts 8–12 and 24–37, by explaining the process
of achieving knowledge.
Kṛṣṇa already discussed this point in Chapter Five: The living entity’s realization that “I am not this
body” constitutes enlightenment. Such enlightenment, however, born of the mode of goodness, is
insufficient for liberation. When his knowledge increases to include knowledge of the Supersoul, he
becomes liberated. Thus to come to the brahma-bhūta (liberated) platform, one needs to know the
Supersoul.
Śaìkarācārya and other impersonalists have commented extensively on this verse. They say that
the word ca means: “You should know that he who is the knower within the body is also (ca) Me.
i.e., the soul is the same as the Supersoul.” Were that true, however, Kṛṣṇa would be contradicting
His own statements in Chapter Fifteen wherein He clearly makes distinctions between the soul and
the Supersoul. If the soul and the Supersoul are factually one, as Māyāvādīs claim, how could one
aspect of the “one,” which is by definition undifferentiated, give knowledge to the other aspect of
the “one”? How could the other aspect be lacking? How could something undifferentiated even
possess an aspect? If both were “one,” absolutely no differentiation (even in terms of knowing and
not knowing) could exist.
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains:
This body, equipped with senses, is the facility for material contact and is the so-called field
because it is the ground on which the tree of material existence grows. The jīva who knows it is
called the kṣetra-jña, both in his condition of bondage, wherein he identifies himself with the body
(thinking in terms of “I” and “mine”), and in his liberated condition, in which he does not indentify
with the body (or conceptions of “I” and “mine”).
Like a farmer, the kṣetra-jña is also the enjoyer of the fruits of the tree in his field, as de-
scribed by the Personality of Godhead: “The village vultures eat one fruit of this tree, while the for-
est swans eat another. One who, by the grace of worshipable souls, understands this tree,
composed of māyā and appearing in many forms, is an actual knower of the Vedas.” This verse
means: Vultures, who live outside a village, are called vultures (ghṛdhra) because they “seize”
[sense gratification], and they are like the conditioned jīvas, who eat one fruit of this tree—misery.
Even if they attain heaven, their experience is ultimately miserable. The swans living in the forest,
however, are like liberated jīvas. They eat the fruit of happiness. The complete enjoyment of libera-
tion is derived from their experience.
Bhagavad Gita Notes
Thus the one tree of material existence appears in many forms, as the means of attaining
hell, heaven and liberation. Because it is born from the Lord’s external energy, it is called māyā-
mayam. By the grace of the worshipable spiritual masters, one is made to understand this tree.
Those who are in knowledge of the kṣetra and kṣetra-jña actually know the Vedas.
Śrīla Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa explains: “This body is percieved by ignorant persons as different kinds
of selves: ‘I am a demigod,’ ‘I am a human,’ ‘I am stout’ and so on. Nonetheless, one who knows
that in all conditions (sleeping, sitting, etc.) the body is separate from the self and is the means of
the self’s enjoyment and liberation—that person, distinct as the knower of the body, which is his
object of knowledge—is called the kṣetra-jña by experts in knowledge of the factual identity of the
field and the knower of the field.”
13.3 क्षेत्रज्ञम् the knower of the field? च and? अपि also? माम् Me? विद्धि know? सर्वक्षेत्रेषु in all fields? भारत O descendant of Bharata (Arjuna)? क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञयोः of the field and of the knower of the field? ज्ञानम्,knowledge? यत् which? तत् that? ज्ञानम् knowledge? मतम् is considered to be? मम My.Commentary The fields are different but the knower of the field is one. The individual souls (Jivatmas) are different but the Supreme Soul (Paramatma) is one. Wherever there is mind? there are lifreath? egoism and the individual consciousness or reflected intelligence side by side. He who has the sense of duality will take birth again and again. This delusion of dulaity can only be removed by knowledge of the identity of the individual soul and the Absolute. I am happy? I am miserable? I am the doer of this action? and I am the enjoyer of this experience -- these are the experiences of all human beings. Therefore the individual soul is bound to Samsara and is subject to pleasure and pain? and the individual souls are in different bodies. But? the Supreme Soul is free from pleasure and pain. It is not bound to Samsara. It is eternally free. It is one without a second.If there is only one individual soul in all bodies? all should have the same experience at the same time. If Rama suffers from abdominal colic? Krishna also should experience the pain at the same time. If John experiences joy? Jacob also should have a similar experience. If Choudhury is stung by a scorpion? Banerjee also should suffer from the pain. But this is not the case. When Rama suffers? Krishna rejoices. When John is jubilan? Jacob is depressed. When Choudhury suffers from the sting of a scorpion? Banerjee is enjoying his breakfast. Fields are different? bodies are different? minds are different and the individual souls are different from each other. But the knower in all these fields is one. Pleasure and pain are the Dharmas (functions) of the mind only. The individual soul is in essence identical with the Supreme Soul.The knower of the field or the Self is not affected by pleasure and pain? virtue and vice. He is the silent witness only. Pleasure and pain are the functions of the mind. They are ascribed to the Self through ignorance. The ignorant man regards the physical body as the Self. He is swayed by the two currents of likes and dislikes? he does virtuous and vicious actions and reaps the fruits of these actions? viz.? pleasure and pain? and takes birth again and again. But the sage who knows that the Kshetrajna or the knower of the field or the Self is distinct from the body is not swayed by likes and dislikes. He identifies himself with the pure? eternal? Absolute or the Supreme Self and is always happy and actionless? though he performs actions for the welfare of humanity.The disease of Timira (partial blindness) which causes perception of what is contrary to truth pertains to the eye but not to the man who perceives. If the disease is removed by proper treatment he perceives things in their true light. Even so ignorance? doubt? pleasure and pain? virtue and vice? likes and dislikes? false perceptions as well as their cause belong to the instrument (the mind) but not to the silent witness? the knower of the field? the Self.In the state of liberation wherein there is annihilation of the mind? there is no ignorance and the play of the two currents of likes and dislikes does not exist there. If false perception? ignorance? pleasure and pain? doubt? bondage? delusion? sorrow? etc.? were the essential properties of the Self? just as heat is the essential property of fire? they could not be got rid of at any time. But there have been sages of Selfrealisation in the past like Sankara? Dattatreya? Jada Bharata and Yajnavalkya who possessed extraordinary supersensual or intuitional knowledge? who were free from false perception? doubt? fear? delusion? sorrow? etc. They were not conscious of Samsara but they had perfect awareness of the Self. Therefore? we will have to conclude that the Self is ever free? pure? perfect? eternal and that ignorance inheres in the instrument (the mind) and not in the Self.Ignorance born of Tamas acts as a veil and prevents man from knowing his essential nature as,the ExistenceKnowledgeBliss Absolute. It causes perception of what is ite the contrary of truth and causes doubt or nonperception of truth. As soon as knowledge of the Self dawns these three forms of ignorance vanish in toto. Therefore these three forms of ignorance are not the attributes of the Self. They belong to the mind? the organ or the instrument. Mind is only an effect or a product of ignorance.The wheel of Samsara or the worldprocess rotates on account of ignorance. It exists only for the ignorant man who perceives the world as it appears to him.There is no Samsara for a liberated sage. Any disease of the eye cannot in any way effect the sun (the dity presiding over the eye). The breaking of the pot will not in any way affect the ether or space in the pot. The water of the mirage cannot render the earth moist. Even so ignorance and its effecs cannot in the least affect the pure? subtle? attributeless? formless? limbless? partless and selfluminous Kshetrajna or the Self. Ignorance does not touch the Self. (Cf.X.20XIII.32XVIII.61)
A single sun stands in the sky, yet every pot of water on every roof of the city holds its reflection. The pots differ, the reflections differ in clarity, but the sun is one. Kṛṣṇa, the Supersoul, is that one sun, knowing every body from within as His own field of light.
Lord Kapila, born to Devahūti, taught His mother that the Paramātmā dwells in every heart as witness — distinct from the individual soul, yet accompanying it like a second bird on the same tree. The Bhāgavatam preserves this teaching in the Third Canto.
Devahūti, hearing this, wept — not from sorrow, but from the recognition that the Lord she had been searching for had been seated within her all along. Kṛṣṇa's words here echo Kapila's: "Know Me also as the knower in every body."
Source: vedabase.io
The Lord is describing the field of activities and the knower of the field of activities in their constitutional positions. One has to know how this body is constituted, the materials of which this body is made, under whose control this body is working, how the changes are taking place, wherefrom the changes are coming, what the causes are, what the reasons are, what the ultimate goal of the individual soul is, and what the actual form of the individual soul is. One should also know the distinction between the individual living soul and the Supersoul, their different influences, their potentials, etc. One just has to understand this Bhagavad-gītā directly from the description given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and all this will be clarified. But one should be careful not to consider the Supreme Personality of Godhead in every body to be one with the individual soul, the jīva. This is something like equating the potent and the impotent.
Now the Lord begins to elaborate on what He has said previously in abbreviated form. Hear from Me in brief of what the body consists (yac ca)— a conglomeration of five gross elements, prāṇa, senses and other things; what qualities it exhibits (yadṛk)— such as desire and hatred; what its transformations are (yad-vikāri)—into desirable or undesirable things; from what it arises (yataḥ)—from the combination of matter and soul; by what it is distinguished (yat)—by differences among various moving or non-moving bodies; and who (yaḥ) is he (sa)—the knower of the field—the jīva and the Paramātmā. The neuter form singular yat and tat are used instead of the masculine, though jīva, Paramātmā and the field are referred to, by the rule of grammar napuṁsakam anapuṁsakennaikavac ca (Aṣṭādhyāyī, Pāṇini 1.2.69). If there is a group of items with the same base of various genders including neuter, the neuter gender can be used to indicate all of them. This operation is called eka-śeṣa (single remainder).
What the Lord said in abbreviated form He now discusses in detail. Hear from Me briefly about the body (kṣetram), its basic components or dravya (yac ca), what it gives shelter to, its contents (yādṛk), its transformations (yad vikāri), the purpose of its appearance (yataḥ), its svarūpa (yat), and the knower of the field—the jīva and the Lord (sa ca), their svarūpas and energies (yat prabhāvaḥ). Neuter case (yat and tat) is used for the items by the rule napuṁsakam anapuṁsakenaikav cāsyānyatrasyām (Pāṇini 1.2.69). If there is a group of items of various genders including neuter with the same base, the neuter gender can be used to indicate all of them.
Krishna proposes to explain 5 points about the field of activity (Ksetra)
1. How the body is constituted (Explained in Text 13.6 and 13.7)
2. What changes the body undergoes (Text 13.7 and 13.20)
3. How, when and where the body is produced (Text 13.6, 13.21, 13.22 and 13.30)
4. Identity of the knower of the field of activities (Text 13.14-13.18 and 13.23)
5. The influence of the knower (Texts 13.14 – 13.18)
(a) Best way to solve these issues mentioned in translation
(b) Two knowers and their differences
(c) Definition of “knowledge”
(d) Refutation of ‘’Soul and Supersoul as the same’’ –
(e) Understand the position of Prakriti (nature), Purusha (enjoyer of nature) and Ishvara (The
Supreme Knower)
13.4 तत् that? क्षेत्रम् field? यत् which? च and? यादृक् what like? च and? यद्विकारि what its modifications? यतः whence? च and? यत् what? सः He? च and? यः who? यत्प्रभावः what His powers? च and? तत् that? समासेन in brief? मे from Me? श्रृणु hear.Commentary I will tell you? O Arjuna? what the field is? why the body is called the field? what are its modifications or changes in other words what transformations it undergoes? what are its properties? what effects arise in it from what causes? to whom it belongs? whether it is cultivated or whether it grows wild.That field refers to the field mentioned in verse 1.Who He is Who is that knower of the field What are His powers (Prabhavas are powers such as the power of seeing? hearing? etc.) which originate from the limiting adjuncts (such as the eys? the ears? etc.) Do thou hear My speech which describes succinctly the real nature of the field and the knower of the field in all these specific aspects.O Arjuna? I am ite sure that thou wilt clearly comprehend the truth on hearing My speech.The body is the field. The ten senses represent the ten bulls. The bulls work unceasingly day and night through the field of the objects of the senses. The mind is the supervisor. The individual soul is the tenant. The five vital airs (Pranas) are the five labourers. The Primordial Nature is the mistress of the field. This field is Her property. She Herself watches over the field vigilantly. She is endowed with the three alities. Rajas sows the seed Sattva guards it Tamas reaps the harvest. On the threshing floor or MahatTattva (the cosmic mind) with the help of the ox called time? She -- Primordial Nature -- thrashes out the corn. If the individual soul does evil actions? it sows the seeds of sin? manures with evil? reaps a crop of sin? and undergoes the pains of Samsara? viz.? birth? decay? old age? sickness? and the three kinds of afflictions. If it does virtuous actions it sows the good seeds of virtue and reaps a crop of happiness.Lord Krishna now speaks very highly in the following verse of the true nature of the field and the knower of the field in order to create interest in the hearer.
Before an apprentice can be trusted with a temple's carving, the master walks him slowly around the stone — naming each angle, each grain, each fault. Kṛṣṇa does the same here: He announces a survey of the field and asks Arjuna to listen carefully. Skip the survey and every later cut will go wrong.
Source: vedabase.io
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is the highest authority in explaining this knowledge. Still, as a matter of course, learned scholars and standard authorities always give evidence from previous authorities. Kṛṣṇa is explaining this most controversial point regarding the duality and nonduality of the soul and the Supersoul by referring to a scripture, the Vedānta, which is accepted as authority. First He says, “This is according to different sages.” As far as the sages are concerned, besides Himself, Vyāsadeva (the author of the Vedānta-sūtra ) is a great sage, and in the Vedānta-sūtra duality is perfectly explained. And Vyāsadeva’s father, Parāśara, is also a great sage, and he writes in his books of religiosity, aham tvaṁ ca tathānye.… “we – you, I and the various other living entities – are all transcendental, although in material bodies. Now we are fallen into the ways of the three modes of material nature according to our different karma. As such, some are on higher levels, and some are in the lower nature. The higher and lower natures exist due to ignorance and are being manifested in an infinite number of living entities. But the Supersoul, which is infallible, is uncontaminated by the three qualities of nature and is transcendental.” Similarly, in the original Vedas, a distinction between the soul, the Supersoul and the body is made, especially in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad. There are many great sages who have explained this, and Parāśara is considered principal among them. The word chandobhiḥ refers to the various Vedic literatures. The Taittirīya Upaniṣad, for example, which is a branch of the Yajur Veda, describes nature, the living entity and the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As stated before, kṣetra is the field of activities, and there are two kinds of kṣetra-jña: the individual living entity and the supreme living entity. As stated in the Taittirīya Upaniṣad (2.5), brahma pucchaṁ pratiṣṭhā. There is a manifestation of the Supreme Lord’s energy known as anna-maya, dependence upon food for existence. This is a materialistic realization of the Supreme. Then, in prāṇa-maya, after realizing the Supreme Absolute Truth in food, one can realize the Absolute Truth in the living symptoms or life forms. In jñāna-maya, realization extends beyond the living symptoms to the point of thinking, feeling and willing. Then there is Brahman realization, called vijñāna-maya, in which the living entity’s mind and life symptoms are distinguished from the living entity himself. The next and supreme stage is ānanda-maya, realization of the all-blissful nature. Thus there are five stages of Brahman realization, which are called brahma puccham. Out of these, the first three – anna-maya, prāṇa-maya and jñāna-maya – involve the fields of activities of the living entities. Transcendental to all these fields of activities is the Supreme Lord, who is called ānanda-maya. The Vedānta-sūtra also describes the Supreme by saying, ānanda-mayo ’bhyāsāt: the Supreme Personality of Godhead is by nature full of joy. To enjoy His transcendental bliss, He expands into vijñāna-maya, prāṇa-maya, jñāna-maya and anna-maya. In the field of activities the living entity is considered to be the enjoyer, and different from him is the ānanda-maya. That means that if the living entity decides to enjoy in dovetailing himself with the ānanda-maya, then he becomes perfect. This is the real picture of the Supreme Lord as the supreme knower of the field, the living entity as the subordinate knower, and the nature of the field of activities. One has to search for this truth in the Vedānta-sūtra, or Brahma-sūtra. It is mentioned here that the codes of the Brahma-sūtra are very nicely arranged according to cause and effect. Some of the sūtras, or aphorisms, are na viyad aśruteḥ (2.3.2), nātmā śruteḥ (2.3.18), and parāt tu tac-chruteḥ (2.3.40). The first aphorism indicates the field of activities, the second indicates the living entity, and the third indicates the Supreme Lord, the summum bonum among all the manifestations of various entities.
“You are describing this briefly. Who then has described this in detail?” It has been described by ṛṣis such as Vasiṣṭha in the scriptures dealing with yoga, by the Vedas (chandobhih) and by the words of the Brahma Sūtras. The Brahma Sūtras, through their words (padaiḥ) such as athāto brahma jijṣāsa (Vedānta-sūtra 1.1) make known (padyate) Brahman. But what type of words are they? They are words of logic (hetumadbhir), which are very decisive (viśeṣataḥ niścitaiḥ). Examples are as follows: īkṣater nāśabdam Brahman is not inexpressible by words, because it is seen that it is conveyed through the words in the Vedas. Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.5 ānandamayo ’bhyāsāt The word ānandamaya refers to para brahman because of the repeated use of the word brahman in relation to it. Vedānta-sūtra 1.1.13
In this verse, the nature of the field is described. Mahābhūtāni refers to ether, air, fire, water and earth. Ahaṅkāra refers to false ego, the cause of the mahābhūtas. Buddhi refers to mahat-tattva, composed of vijṣāna, the cause of ahaṅkāra. Avyakta refers to prakṛti, the cause of mahat-tattva. Indriyāṇi refers to the ten senses: eye, ear, nose, skin, tongue, hands, feet, genital, anus and voice. Eka refers to the mind. The five indriya-gocarā are the sense objects—sound, touch, form, taste and smell. The field is made of these twenty four elements. [Note: Yac ca of verse 3, “what is the field composed of,” has been described here.] Saṅghāta is the body, evolving from the twenty four elements. Icchā, dveṣa, sukha and duḥkha are well known. Cetanā is the mental function constituted of knowledge. Dhṛti is perseverance. Icchā and other qualities mentioned in this verse are qualities of the mind not the soul, and thus they are included in the field. [Note: This does not mean, however, that the soul does not have qualities such as perseverance.] These are representative of saṅkalpa and other qualities mentioned in the śruti (not being an exhaustive list of the qualities of the mind): kāmaḥ saṅkalpo vicikitsā śraddhā dhṛtir hrīr dhīr bhīr ity etat sarvaṁ mana eva Desire, determination, uncertainty, faith, lack of faith, perseverance, lack of perseverance, humility, intelligence, and fear are all products of the mind. Bṛhad Āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.5.3 By this list, the qualities of the field which was previously promised by the word yadṛk in verse 3 have been shown. This field which has six transformations (savikāra), such as birth and growth, [Note: The six transformations are birth, growth, maintenance, maturity, decline and death.] has thus been briefly described (udāhṛtam).
The two knowers of the field, the jīva and Paramātmā, which are to be known by distinguishing them from the field just mentioned will be described in detail. The twenty factors to be used for gaining that knowledge are first mentioned in five verses. Of these, eighteen are common to both the devotees and the jṣānīs. However the devotees zealously engage in the one element mentioned in the eleventh verse, mayi cānanya-yogena bhaktir avyabhicāriṇī. The other seventeen items manifest automatically for those who engage in that one item. The bhaktas do not devote effort to the seventeen items individually. This is the tradition. The last two items are especially for the jṣānīs. The meaning of the items such as amānitva is clear, therefore no comments are given.
Śauca refers to both internal and external cleanliness. The smṛti says: śaucaṁ ca dvividhaṁ proktaṁ bāhyam abhyantaraṁ tathā mṛj-jalābhyāṁ smṛtaṁ bāhyaṁ bhāva-śuddhis tathāntaram There are two types of cleanliness described, internal and external. External cleanliness is by water and earth. Internal cleanliness is purity of mind. [Note: There is a similar verse in Śandilya Upaniṣad: śaucaṁ nāma dvividhaṁ bāhyam āntaraṁ ceti tatra mṛj jalābhyāṁ bāhyam manaḥ śuddhir āntaram] Anudarśanam means to observe constantly the detrimental effect of sorrow, caused by birth, death, old age and disease. Asakti means to give up affection for sons and others. Anābhiṣvaṅga means of lack of identification with the happiness and distress of sons and others. Sama-cittatvam means to remain calm in the face of receiving either favorable or unfavorable treatment or events. One should have bhakti, unmixed with karma, jṣāna, tapa or yoga (mayi ananya yogena bhaktir avyabhicāriṇī), unto Me, Śyāmasundara. The word ca here indicates that bhakti may also be performed with a slight mixture of jṣāna or other elements (jṣāna-miśra-bhakti). The first, the unmixed type, will be executed by the devotees. The second type will be executed by the jṣānīs. Some devotees say however that this statement, being in the last six chapters, is for showing that just as ananyā bhakti produces prema, it is also necessary to practice for realization of Paramātmā. And if the sentence refers only to jṣānīs, then the phrase ananya yogena means “by thinking of everything as ātmā.” Avyabhicāriṇī means that one should do it daily. Madhusūdana Sarasvatī says the word avyabhicāriṇī refers to bhakti which cannot be stopped by any means at all. Adhyātma-jṣāna means knowledge related to the ātmā. One should engage oneself in that knowledge constantly. This means that one should be fixed in the purity of the self (adhyātma-jṣāna-nityatvam). One should always keep in mind one’s goal of mokṣa in ones cultivation of knowledge of truth (tattva-jṣānārtha-darśanam). These twenty elements are the common means of attaining knowledge of jīva and Paramātmā. (Jṣānam here refers to the means of knowledge rather than knowledge itself). The additional methods necessary for realizing Paramātmā will be explained later. Doing the opposite of this, such as exhibiting pride instead of lack of pride, is called ignorance.
“You say that You will discuss briefly this knowledge of the field and the knower. By whom has this been discussed in detail?” The nature of the field have described profusely by sages such as Parāśara. ahaṁ tvaṁ ca tathānye bhūtair uhyāma pārthiva guṇa-pravāha-patito bhūta-vargo’pi yāty ayam karma-vaśyā guṇā hy ete sattvādyāḥ pṛthivī-pate avidyā-saṣcitaṁ karma tac cāśeṣeṣu jantuṣu ātmā śuddho’kṣaraḥ śānto nirguṇaḥ prakṛteḥ paraḥ pravṛddhy-apacayau nāsya ekasyākhila-jantuṣu You, I and others are caused by the elements, O king. All living entities, fallen in this flow of material guṇas, proceed through birth and death. They assume the guṇas by karma, and karma is accumulated through ignorance in all the unlimited entities. The pure ātmā is indestructible, peaceful, without those guṇas, superior to prakṛti. It has neither increase nor decrease in all bodies it assumes. Viṣṇu Purāṇa 2.13.69 (As well as by the sages), by all the Vedas (chandobhir) this has been described many times. The Yajur Veda says tasmād vā etasmād ātmana ākāśaḥ sambhūtaḥ: ether arose from the Lord. (Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.1.3) In the section ending brahma pucchaṁ pratiṣṭhā: brahman is the foundation (Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.5.1), the five puruṣas consisting of food, prāṇa, mind, knowledge and bliss are described. The first three (food, prāṇa and mind) are material, comprising the kṣetra. The puruṣa composed of knowledge (vijṣāna māyā purusa) is the jīvātmā, the enjoyer of the kṣetra or body. He is the ksetera jṣa. Different from that, at the end of the sequence, is the ānanda māyā puruṣa, the Supreme Lord, who is also kṣetra jṣa. Thus this truth is to be found in the Vedas. As well, by the statements (padaiḥ) of the Brahmā Sūtras, this has been described many times. na viyad aśruteḥ: ether has no origin because it is not otherwise mentioned. [Note: This sutra begins a discussion on whether material ether has an origin or not. The challenge is raised that it has no origin, but this is defeated by later sutras.] (Vedānta Sūtra. 2.3.1) Such verses describe the kṣetra or body. nātmā śruteḥ: soul has no origin because of scriptural statements to that effect. (Vedānta Sūtra 2.3.18) This describes the jīva. parāt tu tac chruteḥ: the actions of the soul arise from the Supreme Lord according to scripture. (Vedānta Sūtra 2.3.39) This describes the Lord. The rest of the verse is clear. Bg 13.6, Bg 13.7, Bg 13.6-7 Maha>aUTaaNYahªarae buiṬrVYa¢-Maev c ) wiNd]Yaai<a dXaEk&- c PaĀ ceiNd]YaGaaecra" )) 6 )) wC^a Ūez" Sau%& du"%& SaºaTaêeTaNaa Da*iTa" ) WTaT+ae}a& SaMaaSaeNa Saivk-arMaudaôTaMa( )) 7 )) mahā-bhūtāny ahaṅkāro buddhir avyaktam eva ca indriyāṇi daśaikaṁ ca paṣca cendriya-gocarāḥ icchā dveṣaḥ sukhaṁ duḥkhaṁ saṅghātaś cetanā dhṛtiḥ etat kṣetraṁ samāsena sa-vikāram udāhṛtam mahā-bhūtāni—the great elements; ahaṅkāraḥ—false ego; buddhiḥ—intelligence; avyaktam—the unmanifested; eva—certainly; ca—also; indriyāṇi—the senses; daśa-ekam—eleven; ca—also; paṣca—five; ca—also; indriya-go-carāḥ—the objects of the senses; icchā—desire; dveṣaḥ—hatred; sukham—happiness; duḥkham—distress; saṅghātaḥ—the aggregate; cetanā—living symptoms; dhṛtiḥ—conviction; etat—all this; kṣetram—the field of activities; samāsena—in summary; sa—vikāram—with interactions; udāhṛtam—exemplified.
What was promised in the first half of verse three is now explained in two verses: a description of the field. Mahābhūtāni refers to the five gross elements; ether, air, fire, water and earth. Ahaṅkara is its cause, called tamasaḥ bhūtādi, the cause of the elements. Buddhi means mahat-tattva, predominated by jṣāna, which is ahaṁkāra’s cause. Avyakta means pradhāna, containing three guṇas. It is maha-tattva’s cause. Indriyāṇi are the ten external senses, the products of aḥaṅkāra in the mode of passion. These are the five knowledge senses and five action senses. Mind, the product of ahaṅkāra in the mode of goodness, is the internal sense. This makes eleven senses. Indriya gocarā refers to the tan mātrās, sense objects—sound, touch, form, taste and smell. They are subtle in form, being situated between the ahaṇkara and the gross elements, and are manifested as qualities of the gross elements (such as sound as the quality of ether, which they produce). They become gross as the objects of perception of the senses. That which is composed of twenty-four elements is known as the field. Desire, hatred, happiness and distress are well known. These are representative of other qualities such as determination (saṅkalpa) which are not mentioned here explicitly. The list given in the verse is not exhaustive. These are all conditions of the mind. The śruti mentions: kāmaḥ saṅkalpo vicikitsā śraddhā dhṛtir hrīr dhīr bhīr etat sarvam mana eva Desire, determination, uncertainty, faith, lack of faith, perseverance, lack of perseverance, humility, intelligence, and fear are all products of the mind. Bṛhad Āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.5.3 Of course, desire and other qualities are also qualities of the ātmā, for the Chāndogya Upaniṣad (8.1.5) describes the ātmā as having qualities of satya saṅkalpa and satya kāma. And the sahasra nāma stotra also says: imam stavam bhagavato viṣṇor vyāsena kīrtitam paṭhed ya icchet puruṣaḥ śreyah prāptum sukhāni ca That jīva who desires to attain the highest good and all types of happiness should read the glorification of Viṣṇu chanted by Vyāsa. Mahābhārata 13.135.141 The Lord will also later say that the ātmā is the cause of happiness and suffering in this world (BG 13.21). Thus, though desire and other qualities belong to the ātmā, they also the qualities of the material mind, since they appear through the instrument of the mind, and therefore are included as components of the field. Saṅghataḥ refers to the material body, a transformation of the elements, which functions as the support (ādhṛṭi) of the jīva (cetana) who endeavors for enjoyment or liberation. [Note: This is the same as Rāmānjua’s explanation.] The elements starting with pradhāna and ending with the five gross elements [Note: Pradhāna, mahat tattva, false ego and the five gross elements.] are the basic components of the field indicated by the word yac ca in verse 3. The senses such as the ear and the sense objects such as sound are what take shelter of the field, an explanation of the word yādṛk. Desire and the other qualities are the effects of the field, transformations, explaining the word yad vikārī. The body or field is a support for the jīva to enable him to strive for enjoyment or liberation. This explains the word yataḥ, the purpose. The body (saṅghata) is the svarūpa (yat) of the field. These are the explanations of the phrases mentioned in verse 3. Thus the field along with it transformations (birth, growth, maintenance, maturity, dwindling and death) has been briefly described (uḍahṛtam). Bg 13.8, Bg 13.9, Bg 13.10, Bg 13.11, Bg 13.12, Bg 13.8-12 AMaaiNaTvMadiM>aTvMaih&Saa +aaiNTaraJaRvMa( ) AacaYaaeRPaaSaNa& XaaEc& SQaEYaRMaaTMaiviNaGa]h" )) 8 )) wiNd]YaaQaeRzu vEraGYaMaNahªar Wv c ) JaNMaMa*TYauJaraVYaaiDadu"%daezaNaudXaRNaMa( )) 9 )) ASai¢-rNai>aZv(r)" Pau}adarGa*haidzu ) iNaTYa& c SaMaictaTviMaíaiNaíaePaPaitazu )) 10 )) MaiYa caNaNYaYaaeGaeNa >ai¢-rVYai>acair<aq ) iviv¢-deXaSaeivTvMariTaJaRNaSa&Said )) 11 )) ADYaaTMajaNaiNaTYaTv& TatvjaNaaQaRdXaRNaMa( ) WTaJjaNaiMaiTa Pa[ae¢-MajaNa& YadTaae_NYaQaa )) 12 )) amānitvam adambhitvam ahiṁsā kṣāntir ārjavam ācāryopāsanaṁ śaucaṁ sthairyam ātma-vinigrahaḥ indriyārtheṣu vairāgyam anahaṅkāra eva ca janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi- duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam asaktir anabhiṣvaṅgaḥ putra-dāra-gṛhādiṣu nityaṁ ca sama-cittatvam iṣṭāniṣṭopapattiṣu mayi cānanya-yogena bhaktir avyabhicāriṇī vivikta-deśa-sevitvam aratir jana-saṁsadi adhyātma-jṣāna-nityatvaṁ tattva-jṣānārtha-darśanam etaj jṣānam iti proktam ajṣānaṁ yad ato 'nyathā amānitvam—humility; adambhitvam—pridelessness; ahiṁsā—nonviolence; kṣāntiḥ—tolerance; ārjavam—simplicity; ācārya-upāsanam—approaching a bona fide spiritual master; śaucam—cleanliness; sthairyam—steadfastness; ātma-vinigrahaḥ—self-control; indriya-artheṣu—in the matter of the senses; vairāgyam—renunciation; anahaṅkāraḥ—being without false egoism; eva—certainly; ca—also; janma—of birth; mṛtyu—death; jarā—old age; vyādhi—and disease; duḥkha—of the distress; doṣa—the fault; anudarśanam—observing; asaktiḥ—being without attachment; anabhiṣvaṅgaḥ—being without association; putra—for son; dāra—wife; gṛha-ādiṣu—home, etc.; nityam—constant; ca—also; sama-cittatvam—equilibrium; iṣṭa—the desirable; aniṣṭa—and undesirable; upapattiṣu—having obtained; mayi—unto Me; ca—also; ananya-yogena—by unalloyed devotional service; bhaktiḥ—devotion; avyabhicāriṇī—without any break; vivikta—to solitary; deśa—places; sevitvam—aspiring; aratiḥ—being without attachment; jana-saṁsadi—to people in general; adhyātma—pertaining to the self; jṣāna—in knowledge; nityatvam—constancy; tattva—jṣāna—of knowledge of the truth; artha—for the object; darśanam—philosophy; etat—all this; jṣānam—knowledge; iti—thus; proktam—declared; ajṣānam—ignorance; yat—that which; ataḥ—from this; anyathā—other.
The Lord will describe in detail the two knowers of the field, who should be the real objects of knowledge, who are distinct from the above mentioned field. But first, in five verses, the Lord describes twenty factors which help in attaining this knowledge. Amānitvā means not expecting good reception or respect. Adambhitva means not performing religious activities to become famous as a religious person. Ahiṁśa means not giving pain to other living entities. Kṣānti means toleration of insult. Ārjava means straightforwardness even to the deceitful. Acāryopāsana means service without motivation to the guru who bestows knowledge. Śauca means internal and external purity. The smṛti [Note: Śrīdhara quotes this verse as a śruti.] says: śaucaṁ ca dvividhaṁ proktaṁ bāhyam abhyantaraṁ tathā mṛj-jalābhyāṁ smṛtaṁ bāhyaṁ bhāva-śuddhis tathāntaram There are two types of cleanliness: external and internal. External cleanliness takes place through rubbing with earth and water, and internal cleanliness by purification of mind. Śandilya Upaniṣad Sthairya means steadiness on the spiritual path. Ātma vinigraha means restraining the mind from sense objects which are obstacles for attaining ātmā. Vairāgya indriyārtheṣu means lack of taste for the sense objects which are obstacles. Anahaṅkara means giving up identification with the body and other material objects. Doṣānudarśana means to contemplate repeatedly the faults of birth and other stages of life which give rise to suffering. Asakti is lack of affection for sons and other persons, as affection is an obstacle for the spiritual goal. Anabhiṣvaṅga means lack of absorption in happiness and distress even when they are present. Sama citta means to be at all times without joy or depression on attaining favorable or unfavorable items. Avyabhicāriṇī bhakti means steady bhakti unto Me, the Supreme Lord in such processes as hearing, with great concentration and service to My devotees (ananya yogena). There should be fondness for solitary places and lack of taste for materialistic assemblies. There should be continuous deliberation on the ātmā (adhyātmā). There should be remembrance in the heart (darśanam) for attaining tattva jṣāna. The tattva or truth is that I am the supreme brahman, as is known from the smṛtis in statements such as the following: vadanti tattva-vidas tattvaṁ yaj jṣānam advayam The knowers of tattva say that tattva means non dual knowledge of brahman, paramātmā and bhagavān. SB 1.2.11 What has been described starting with amānitvā (etat) is the process for realization of tattva (jṣānam) both directly and through transmission from previous authorities, for jṣāṇa means “that by which something is known.” And the opposite of this (anyathā), (meaning pride, pretension, violence, intolerance and the rest) is ignorance, contrary to realization.
As if His own opinion was unsufficient, Krsna quotes two kinds of authorities: sadhu and sastra. And He, Himself is taking the role of guru. Srila Prabhupada says in his Purport: "The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, is the highest authority in explaining this knowledge. Still, as a matter of course, learned scholars and standard authorities always give evidence from previous authorities. Krsna is explaining this controversial point regarding the duality and nonduality of the soul and the Supersoul by referring to a scripture, the Vedanta, which is accepted as authority." And then he says: " To enjoy His transcendental bliss, He expands into vijnana‑maya, prana‑maya, jnana‑maya and anna‑maya. In the field of activities the living entity is considered to be the enjoyer, and diff from him is the ananda‑ maya. That means that if the living entity decides to enjoy in dovetailing himself with the ananda‑maya, then he becomes perfect. This is the real pi of the Supreme Lord as the supreme knower of the field, the living entity as the subordinate knower, and the nature of the field of activities. One has to search for this truth in the Vedanta‑sutra, or Brahma‑sutra. It is mentioned here that the codes of the Brahma‑sutra are very nicely arranged according to cause and effect. Some of the sutras, or aphorisms, are na viyad asruteh (2.3.2), natma sruteh (2.3.18), and parat tu tac‑chruteh (2.3.40). The first aphorism indicates the field of activities, the second indicates the living entity, and the third indicates the Supreme Lord, the summum bonum among all the manifestations of various entities." (DS) Although Krsna goes to describe briefly this knowledge, nonethless He is citing where more detailed knowledge can be found ‑ Vedanta Sutra and other Vedic writtings. Srila Prabhupada makes it very clear in the beginning of his Purport, that what actually is confirmed in the duality and non‑ duality of the soul and the Supersoul in the Vedanta sutra. It is confirmed that the soul and the Supersoul are different. There are three types of ksetra:(1) annamaya, (2) pranamaya and (3) jnanamaya. And there are two types of ksetrajna: (1) vijnamaya (the living entity) and (2) anandamaya (the Supreme Lord). Complete knowledge includes annamaya, pranamaya, etc... , which explains the field of activities (the body), the living entity and the Lord. And the verses 8‑12 explain what knowledge means: how the soul gets out of the field of activities. This is called liberation.
Krishna cites the authorities: Summarizing philosophical conclusions of great sages, especially
Vyasdeva’s Vedanta-Sutra
(a) Way of learned scholars and standard authorities
(b) 5 stages of Brahman realization: Brahma puccham pratistha (Taittiriya Upanishad 2.9) –
(c) Relationship of 5 above mentioned stages in terms of kshetra and kshetra-jna
Texts 13.6* – 13.7*
COMMON THEME: This verse indicates that field or body is a non-permanent material thing and ksetra-jna
or knower of the field is different from the field
(a) Components of the fields of activities (Total: 24 in number)
(b) Interactions of gross body – desire, hatred, happiness, distress
(c) Interactions of subtle body – Living symptoms represented by consciousness and convictions
(d) Basis of all this knowledge – Authorities as per Bg. 13.5 Translation
(e) Pradhana
(f) Six changes of the body – Takes birth, grows, stays, by-products, decay and death. Thus Srila
Prabhupada answers the “vikaras” or the changes undergone by the body, as mentioned in
13.5 ऋषिभिः by Rishis? बहुधा in many ways? गीतम् sung? छन्दोभिः in chants? विविधैः various? पृथक् distinctive? ब्रह्मसूत्रपदैः in the suggestive words indicative of Brahman? च and? एव even? हेतुमद्भिः full of reasoning? विनिश्चितैः decisive.Commentary Many sages (such as Vasishtha) have talked about it (the true nature of the field and its knower) since ancient times. The ancient hymns? such as the Rig Veda? have explained this in various ways.The word Brahma Sutras refers to the Vedanta Sutras written by Vyasa or Badarayanacharya in order to reconcile the mutually contradictory passages in the Upanishads. A study of the Brahma Sutras is very necessary in order to comprehend the esoteric significance of the Upanishads. The Braham Sutras are also known by the name Sariraka Sutras because fifteen Sutras in the third Pada of the second chapter deal with the Sarira or Kshetra (body).The true nature of the field and its knower has also been taught in the Brahma Sutras which deal with Brahman such as Atmanyevopasita (only as the Self? let a man meditate on It.) (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad? I.4.7).They are full of reasoning? convincing and decisive. There is no doubt in the words or passages that treat of Brahman.
A traveler walking a long forest path finds that countless others have marked it before him — cairns of stone, notches on trees, faded inscriptions. He need not blaze his own trail; he need only learn to read the marks. The Vedānta is such a path, and the ṛṣis are the markers.
Tradition records that Śrīla Vyāsadeva, the literary incarnation of the Lord, composed the Brahma-sūtra at the foot of the Sarasvatī to compress the meaning of all the Upaniṣads into terse aphorisms. Generations of ācāryas — Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, Madhva, Baladeva — have written commentaries on those same sūtras.
Kṛṣṇa here cites the brahma-sūtra-pada directly. He is not introducing new philosophy; He is gathering the cords of an already-woven rope. The Gītā stands inside the Vedāntic tradition, not outside it.
Source: vedabase.io
From all the authoritative statements of the great sages, the Vedic hymns and the aphorisms of the Vedānta-sūtra, the components of this world can be understood as follows. First there are earth, water, fire, air and ether. These are the five great elements ( mahā-bhūta ). Then there are false ego, intelligence and the unmanifested stage of the three modes of nature. Then there are five senses for acquiring knowledge: the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. Then five working senses: voice, legs, hands, anus and genitals. Then, above the senses, there is the mind, which is within and which can be called the sense within. Therefore, including the mind, there are eleven senses altogether. Then there are the five objects of the senses: smell, taste, form, touch and sound. Now the aggregate of these twenty-four elements is called the field of activity. If one makes an analytical study of these twenty-four subjects, then he can very well understand the field of activity. Then there are desire, hatred, happiness and distress, which are interactions, representations of the five great elements in the gross body. The living symptoms, represented by consciousness, and convictions are the manifestation of the subtle body – mind, ego and intelligence. These subtle elements are included within the field of activities. The five great elements are a gross representation of the false ego, which in turn represents the primal stage of false ego technically called the materialistic conception, or tāmasa-buddhi, intelligence in ignorance. This, further, represents the unmanifested stage of the three modes of material nature. The unmanifested modes of material nature are called pradhāna. One who desires to know the twenty-four elements in detail along with their interactions should study the philosophy in more detail. In Bhagavad-gītā, a summary only is given. The body is the representation of all these factors, and there are changes of the body, which are six in number: the body is born, it grows, it stays, it produces by-products, then it begins to decay, and at the last stage it vanishes. Therefore the field is a nonpermanent material thing. However, the kṣetra-jña, the knower of the field, its proprietor, is different.
The five great elements, false ego, intelligence, the unmanifested, the ten senses and the mind, the five sense objects ‑ these are the 24 elements of Sankhya philosophy which the material world is divided into. Desire, hatred, happiness, distress, the aggregate, the life symptoms and convictions ‑ these are further elements of the field of activities, manifested out of the different reactions of the 24 elements within the body. The 24 elements and its different interactions give birth to these last elements: desire, hatred, etc... (these are qualities of the mind) Srila Prabhupada says in his Purport: " The body is the representation of all these factors, and there are changes of the body, which are six in number: the body is born, it grows, it stays, it produces by‑products, then it begins to decay, and at the last stage it vanishes. Therefore the field is a nonpermanent material thing. However, the ksetra‑jna, the knower of the field, its proprietor, is different." The next verses will describe the process of knowledge more from the point of view of jnana‑yoga then bhakti‑yoga, although there are some elements that are meant for bhakti‑yogis. Some other elements are only meant for jnana‑yogis, but most of the elements are meant for both. What does he get a person who follows the process of knowledge? He will get knowledge of the body, the soul and the Supersoul, by which the ksetrajna will be able to separate himself from the ksetra.
[C. KRSNA'S FURTHER ANSWER TO QUESTION 5: THE PROCESS OF KNOWLEDGE AND LIBERATION ( 13.8‑12) The process by which the knower of the field, the soul, transcends the limitations of his field of activities is called the process of knowledge. This process includes humility and pridelessness, as well as its most important item: accepting the shelter of a bona‑fide spiritual master and practicing unalloyed devotional service under his care. ]
The field of activities for the conditioned soul can be compared to a playground in a backyard sur-
rounded by a big fence. The child playing there has freedom to play as he wishes, but he cannot
extend his activities beyond the allotted field. He is limited by the fence. Similarly, the living entity is
limited by the interactions of his body, mind and karma, which constitute his field of activities. An
earthworm, for example, has a very small field of activities. He cannot read, write, jump or run. He
can simply crawl through the dirt, surface when it rains and crawl back into the soil when the rain
stops. A dog has a relatively larger field of activities, and a human being a still larger one. One’s
kṣetra is based on his karma.
A wealthy child will possess many toys to play with in his backyard, but he is still restricted by the
fence. Although he may be proud of the scope of his playground, and even think himself happy
and free, with his swing and toy car and sandbox, he is nevertheless absorbed only in an insignifi-
cant backyard. He knows nothing of life beyond the fence. Similarly, the living entity, according to
the limitations of the body and mind he has received through his karma, cannot see beyond his lim-
ited field of activities.
Every living entity’s kṣetra is arranged by his karma, through the agency of māyā. Kṛṣṇa therefore is
not partial, because as the Supersoul, the knower of all kṣetras, He simply sanctions the awarding
of each living entity’s field of activities.
Texts 13.8-12
This is a continuation of Kṛṣṇa’s explanation of knowledge. Kṛṣṇa has already defined knowledge as
knowing the field and the two knowers of the field. These verses describe the process of obtaining
jñāna. According to Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, of the twenty items mentioned, seventeen
apply to both the jñānī and the bhakta. The last two, accepting the importance of self-realization
(adyātma-jñāna-nityatvam) and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth (tattva-jñānārtha-
darśanam), are technically only for the jñānī. “Constant and unalloyed devotion to Me” is the sole
Bhagavad Gita Notes
quality specifically for the devotee. All other qualities come to a devotee who exclusively endeavors
for constant, unalloyed devotion.
These twenty items include qualities—such as cleanliness—(which, if developed, are favorable for
spiritual advancement) and elements of the process of advancement such as approaching a bona
fide spiritual master and perceiving the evils of birth, death, disease and old age. Integrated as a
process, these items are the means of acquiring transcendental knoweldge, or an accurate under-
standing of the body, the soul and the Supersoul.
Therefore, taken as a process that carries one to transcendence, these twenty items have nothing
to do with the field of activity and its interactions.
13.6 महाभूतानि the great elements? अहङ्कारः egoism? बुद्धिः intellect? अव्यक्तम् the unmanifested (MulaPrakriti)? एव even? च and? इन्द्रियाणि the senses? दश ten? एकम् one? च and? पञ्च five? च and? इन्द्रियगोचराः objects of the senses.Commentary The field and its modifications are described in this verse. The twentyfour principles of the Sankhya school of philosophy are mentioned here.Great elements Earth? water? fire? air and ether are so called because they pervade all modifications of matter. The elements here referred to are the subtle? not the gross ones.Egoism is the cause of the great elements. It is the selfarrogating principle. Intellect is the cause of egoism. The function of the intellect is determination. Buddhi is the faculty of determination. The cause of the intellect is the Unmanifested (which is the undifferentiated energy of the Lord). (Cf.VII.14 Daivi hyesha gunamayi mama maya duratyaya -- This divine illusion of Mine? caused by the alities? is difficult to cross over.) The above Nature is divided eightfold (Cf.VII.4).The ten senses are the five organs of knowledge (ears? skin? eyes? tongue and nose)? so called because they enable the mind to get knowledge of the external world? and the five organs of action (hands? feet? mouth? anus and the generative organ)? so called because they perform actions.The one This is the mind. This is the eleventh sense whose function is thinking and doubting (Sankalpa and Vikalpa).The five objects of the senses are sound? touch? form (colour)? taste and smell. These are the fivefol pastures of the senses.All the great elements? egoism? intellect? the senses and mind are all absorbed in the Unmanifested at the time of the cosmic dissolution.Mind is Maya. Mind is Avidya (ignorance). Mind is at the root of all activities. It gives strength to desires? fosters fear and builds castles in the air. It confers force on egoism and stimultates,aspirations. Every tendency has its origin in the mind. It augments passions? gives strength to hope and awakens the sense of duality. It increases ignorance and plunges the senses in the ocean of senseobjects. It creates distinctions and differences. It separates? divides and limits. It is a strong wall or an iron barrier that stands between the individual soul and the Absolute. It is this mind that has brought Brahman to the condition of the individual soul. It is the storehouse of error? cravings? doubt? delusion and ignorance. It is an everrevolving wheel that generates thoughts. It is a miraculous thoughtproducing machine. It creates at one moment. It destroys at the next moment.
A cartographer drafting a city map labels every district before he describes any street. Kṛṣṇa here is the cartographer of the body: He names the five elements, the senses, the mind, desire, hatred, happiness, distress — the whole catalog of the field. With this map, the soul can finally tell where it is and where it is not.
Source: vedabase.io
This process of knowledge is sometimes misunderstood by less intelligent men as being the interaction of the field of activity. But actually this is the real process of knowledge. If one accepts this process, then the possibility of approaching the Absolute Truth exists. This is not the interaction of the twenty-four elements, as described before. This is actually the means to get out of the entanglement of those elements. The embodied soul is entrapped by the body, which is a casing made of the twenty-four elements, and the process of knowledge as described here is the means to get out of it. Of all the descriptions of the process of knowledge, the most important point is described in the first line of the eleventh verse. Mayi cānanya-yogena bhaktir avyabhicāriṇī: the process of knowledge terminates in unalloyed devotional service to the Lord. So if one does not approach, or is not able to approach, the transcendental service of the Lord, then the other nineteen items are of no particular value. But if one takes to devotional service in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the other nineteen items automatically develop within him. As stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (5.18.12) , yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcanā sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ. All the good qualities of knowledge develop in one who has attained the stage of devotional service. The principle of accepting a spiritual master, as mentioned in the eighth verse, is essential. Even for one who takes to devotional service, it is most important. Transcendental life begins when one accepts a bona fide spiritual master. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, clearly states here that this process of knowledge is the actual path. Anything speculated beyond this is nonsense. As for the knowledge outlined here, the items may be analyzed as follows. Humility means that one should not be anxious to have the satisfaction of being honored by others. The material conception of life makes us very eager to receive honor from others, but from the point of view of a man in perfect knowledge – who knows that he is not this body – anything, honor or dishonor, pertaining to this body is useless. One should not be hankering after this material deception. People are very anxious to be famous for their religion, and consequently sometimes it is found that without understanding the principles of religion one enters into some group which is not actually following religious principles and then wants to advertise himself as a religious mentor. As for actual advancement in spiritual science, one should have a test to see how far he is progressing. He can judge by these items. Nonviolence is generally taken to mean not killing or destroying the body, but actually nonviolence means not to put others into distress. People in general are trapped by ignorance in the material concept of life, and they perpetually suffer material pains. So unless one elevates people to spiritual knowledge, one is practicing violence. One should try his best to distribute real knowledge to the people, so that they may become enlightened and leave this material entanglement. That is nonviolence. Tolerance means that one should be practiced to bear insult and dishonor from others. If one is engaged in the advancement of spiritual knowledge, there will be so many insults and much dishonor from others. This is expected because material nature is so constituted. Even a boy like Prahlāda, who, only five years old, was engaged in the cultivation of spiritual knowledge, was endangered when his father became antagonistic to his devotion. The father tried to kill him in so many ways, but Prahlāda tolerated him. So there may be many impediments to making advancement in spiritual knowledge, but we should be tolerant and continue our progress with determination. Simplicity means that without diplomacy one should be so straightforward that he can disclose the real truth even to an enemy. As for acceptance of the spiritual master, that is essential, because without the instruction of a bona fide spiritual master one cannot progress in the spiritual science. One should approach the spiritual master with all humility and offer him all services so that he will be pleased to bestow his blessings upon the disciple. Because a bona fide spiritual master is a representative of Kṛṣṇa, if he bestows any blessings upon his disciple, that will make the disciple immediately advanced without the disciple’s following the regulative principles. Or, the regulative principles will be easier for one who has served the spiritual master without reservation. Cleanliness is essential for making advancement in spiritual life. There are two kinds of cleanliness: external and internal. External cleanliness means taking a bath, but for internal cleanliness one has to think of Kṛṣṇa always and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. This process cleans the accumulated dust of past karma from the mind. Steadiness means that one should be very determined to make progress in spiritual life. Without such determination, one cannot make tangible progress. And self-control means that one should not accept anything which is detrimental to the path of spiritual progress. One should become accustomed to this and reject anything which is against the path of spiritual progress. This is real renunciation. The senses are so strong that they are always anxious to have sense gratification. One should not cater to these demands, which are not necessary. The senses should only be gratified to keep the body fit so that one can discharge his duty in advancing in spiritual life. The most important and uncontrollable sense is the tongue. If one can control the tongue, then there is every possibility of controlling the other senses. The function of the tongue is to taste and to vibrate. Therefore, by systematic regulation, the tongue should always be engaged in tasting the remnants of foodstuffs offered to Kṛṣṇa and chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. As far as the eyes are concerned, they should not be allowed to see anything but the beautiful form of Kṛṣṇa. That will control the eyes. Similarly, the ears should be engaged in hearing about Kṛṣṇa and the nose in smelling the flowers offered to Kṛṣṇa. This is the process of devotional service, and it is understood here that Bhagavad-gītā is simply expounding the science of devotional service. Devotional service is the main and sole objective. Unintelligent commentators on the Bhagavad-gītā try to divert the mind of the reader to other subjects, but there is no other subject in Bhagavad-gītā than devotional service. False ego means accepting this body as oneself. When one understands that he is not his body and is spirit soul, he comes to his real ego. Ego is there. False ego is condemned, but not real ego. In the Vedic literature ( Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.4.10) it is said, ahaṁ brahmāsmi: I am Brahman, I am spirit. This “I am,” the sense of self, also exists in the liberated stage of self-realization. This sense of “I am” is ego, but when the sense of “I am” is applied to this false body it is false ego. When the sense of self is applied to reality, that is real ego. There are some philosophers who say we should give up our ego, but we cannot give up our ego, because ego means identity. We ought, of course, to give up the false identification with the body. One should try to understand the distress of accepting birth, death, old age and disease. There are descriptions in various Vedic literatures of birth. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam the world of the unborn, the child’s stay in the womb of the mother, its suffering, etc., are all very graphically described. It should be thoroughly understood that birth is distressful. Because we forget how much distress we have suffered within the womb of the mother, we do not make any solution to the repetition of birth and death. Similarly at the time of death there are all kinds of sufferings, and they are also mentioned in the authoritative scriptures. These should be discussed. And as far as disease and old age are concerned, everyone gets practical experience. No one wants to be diseased, and no one wants to become old, but there is no avoiding these. Unless we have a pessimistic view of this material life, considering the distresses of birth, death, old age and disease, there is no impetus for our making advancement in spiritual life. As for detachment from children, wife and home, it is not meant that one should have no feeling for these. They are natural objects of affection. But when they are not favorable to spiritual progress, then one should not be attached to them. The best process for making the home pleasant is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If one is in full Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he can make his home very happy, because this process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is very easy. One need only chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, accept the remnants of foodstuffs offered to Kṛṣṇa, have some discussion on books like Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and engage oneself in Deity worship. These four things will make one happy. One should train the members of his family in this way. The family members can sit down morning and evening and chant together Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. If one can mold his family life in this way to develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness, following these four principles, then there is no need to change from family life to renounced life. But if it is not congenial, not favorable for spiritual advancement, then family life should be abandoned. One must sacrifice everything to realize or serve Kṛṣṇa, just as Arjuna did. Arjuna did not want to kill his family members, but when he understood that these family members were impediments to his Kṛṣṇa realization, he accepted the instruction of Kṛṣṇa and fought and killed them. In all cases, one should be detached from the happiness and distress of family life, because in this world one can never be fully happy or fully miserable. Happiness and distress are concomitant factors of material life. One should learn to tolerate, as advised in Bhagavad-gītā. One can never restrict the coming and going of happiness and distress, so one should be detached from the materialistic way of life and be automatically equipoised in both cases. Generally, when we get something desirable we are very happy, and when we get something undesirable we are distressed. But if we are actually in the spiritual position these things will not agitate us. To reach that stage, we have to practice unbreakable devotional service. Devotional service to Kṛṣṇa without deviation means engaging oneself in the nine processes of devotional service – chanting, hearing, worshiping, offering respect, etc. – as described in the last verse of the Ninth Chapter. That process should be followed. Naturally, when one is adapted to the spiritual way of life, he will not want to mix with materialistic men. That would go against his grain. One may test himself by seeing how far he is inclined to live in a solitary place, without unwanted association. Naturally a devotee has no taste for unnecessary sporting or cinema-going or enjoying some social function, because he understands that these are simply a waste of time. There are many research scholars and philosophers who study sex life or some other subject, but according to Bhagavad-gītā such research work and philosophical speculation have no value. That is more or less nonsensical. According to Bhagavad-gītā, one should make research, by philosophical discretion, into the nature of the soul. One should make research to understand the self. That is recommended here. As far as self-realization is concerned, it is clearly stated here that bhakti-yoga is especially practical. As soon as there is a question of devotion, one must consider the relationship between the Supersoul and the individual soul. The individual soul and the Supersoul cannot be one, at least not in the bhakti conception, the devotional conception of life. This service of the individual soul to the Supreme Soul is eternal, nityam, as it is clearly stated. So bhakti, or devotional service, is eternal. One should be established in that philosophical conviction. In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.2.11) this is explained. Vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam. “Those who are actually knowers of the Absolute Truth know that the Self is realized in three different phases, as Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān.” Bhagavān is the last word in the realization of the Absolute Truth; therefore one should reach up to that platform of understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead and thus engage in the devotional service of the Lord. That is the perfection of knowledge. Beginning from practicing humility up to the point of realization of the Supreme Truth, the Absolute Personality of Godhead, this process is just like a staircase beginning from the ground floor and going up to the top floor. Now on this staircase there are so many people who have reached the first floor, the second or the third floor, etc., but unless one reaches the top floor, which is the understanding of Kṛṣṇa, he is at a lower stage of knowledge. If anyone wants to compete with God and at the same time make advancement in spiritual knowledge, he will be frustrated. It is clearly stated that without humility, understanding is not truly possible. To think oneself God is most puffed up. Although the living entity is always being kicked by the stringent laws of material nature, he still thinks, “I am God” because of ignorance. The beginning of knowledge, therefore, is amānitva, humility. One should be humble and know that he is subordinate to the Supreme Lord. Due to rebellion against the Supreme Lord, one becomes subordinate to material nature. One must know and be convinced of this truth.
The first 15 qualities that were named, are both for devotees and jnanis. But the quality (16) 'constant and unalloyed devotion to Me' is actually the quality of a pure devotee. The next two (17 and 18), are also good both for devotees and jnanis. The last two (19 and 20), are for jnanis. The process of knowledge has nothing to do with the field of activities. Although as Srila Prabhupada says, 'less intelligent men may be misinterpret this being an interaction of the field of activities', actually it is a system to get out of the misidentification with the field of activities. This i process of real knowledge. In his Purport Srila Prabhupada says: "This process of knowledge is sometimes misunderstood by less intelligent men as being the interaction of the field of activity. But actually this is the real process of knowledge. If one accepts this process, then the possibility of approaching the Absolute Truth exists. This is not the interaction of the twenty‑four elements, as described before. This is actually the means to get out of the entanglement of those elements. The embodied soul is entrapped by the body, which is a casing made of the twenty‑four elements, and the process of knowledge as described here is the means to get out of it." If one adopts this process of knowledge described in these verses, then perfect knowledge comes. Knowledge of the different interactions in the field of activities (as the scientists look for) is not real knowledge. Real knowledge is tho know how to get out of these interactions. Humility is defined here as not being anxious to have the satisfaction of being honnored by others. One is free from this false prestige. Humility does not means timidity. Someone can be very bold and be humble. Sometime people are very timid just because they are affraid of being dishonnored. They are very shy but that doesn't mean that they are humble. Srila Prabhupada said that spiritual life means 'one should be daring and active.'
[D. KRSNA ANSWERS QUESTION 6: THE OBJECT OF KNOWLEDGE (13. 13‑19) 1. The soul can know the Supersoul, who is the object of knowledge and who exists everywhere and pervades everything. The Supersoul has transcendental senses, and He is the source of all of our senses. He is unattached and He maintains all living entities. He is inside and outside, far and near, and beyond our material power to see and know. He is the master of the modes of nature and appears divided although He is one. He is the source of light in the luminous, He is knowledge, and He is the object of knowledge. He is in everyone' heart. (13‑18) ]
(cn\DS) REVIEW: This Chapter describes the process of knowledge to help us to attain devotion. Knowledge that will help to become detached from the material body. Study this world and difference between this world, or matter, and the soul and difference between the soul and the Supersoul; and to discuss how to extract consciousness from the false identity with matter and what is the real object of one's consciousness which is the Supersoul. These subject matters will be discussed in this Chapter. In Section C, the subject discussed was jnanam or the knowledge; and knowledge means the cultivations of certain qualities that help us to separate ourselves from the body. We are interested to the process of knowledge or the process of purifying oneself. The process of knowledge entails the cultivation of certain qualities. The last point discussed in Texts 8‑12 was 'janma‑mrtyu‑jara‑ vyadhi‑dukha‑dosanudarsanam.' 'Anudarsanam' means that one should contemplate again and again that this world is a place of birth, death, desease and old age. If one forgets that he will think that this world is for his enjoyement, which only increases his miseries in this world. Misery or suffering is due to identification with this body. The more one identifies the body, the more he suffers; the more he becomes detached from the body, the happier he becomes. Because it is that attachment which covers the soul which is full of knowledge, full of happiness, and eternity. It is the attachment that covers oneself from the understanding of one's real nature. By cultivation of those qualities mentioned in verses 8‑12, one will become purified.
13.8 अमानित्वम् humility? अदम्भित्वम् unpretentiousness? अहिंसा noninjury? क्षान्तिः forgiveness? आर्जवम् uprightness? आचार्योपासनम् service of the teacher? शौचम् purity? स्थैर्यम् steadiness? आत्मविनिग्रहः selfcontrol.Commentary These are the alities that constitute wisdom or lead to wisdom. These are the attributes of the man whose mind is turned towards the inner wisdom. If these characteristics are seen in a man in their entirety? you can infer that the knowledge of the Self has dawned in him.Humility It is the negation of vanity. It is absence of selfesteem or selfpraise. The basis of pride is the consciousness of possessing something (wealth? knowledge? strength? beauty and virtuous alities) in a larger measure than others. A proud man possesses at least something but a man of vanity possesses nothing and yet he thinks he is superior to others. Vanity is exaggerated pride. A humble man dislikes respect? honour and praise. He shuns fame and distinction. He never shows his knowledge? ability? prowess? etc. He never praises himself.Absence of hypocrisy Hypocrisy is the desire to appear what one is not. A Sannyasi has some virtues and a little theoretical knowledge derived from books. He pretends to be a liberated sage. This is religious hypocrisy. A man in whom this is absent is simple and modest. He never advertises his own virtuous alities in order to get respect? name and worship from others. He will never disclose any meritorious or charitable act done by him. He is free from pedantry. He will never sell his knowledge in order to achieve fame.Ahimsa Noninjuring of any living being in thought? word and deed. He who practises Ahimsa places his feet very carefully on the ground and avoids stepping on any living creature. If he perceives any living creature in front of him he stops and turns to the other side. His heart is full of compassion.Kshanti Forbearance? patience? forgiveness. This is a true symptom of knowledge. The man of wisdom puts up with everything. He is not affected a bit when others injure him. He never retaliates. He bears insult and injury calmly.Arjavam Straightforwardness. The man of wisdom is upright or straightforward. He is free from cunningness or diplomacy? doubledealing or crookedness. He is ite frank? candid or openhearted. He does not hide anything. His thoughts and words agree. He speaks his mind openly to the people. He is as simple as a child in his speech. He has a heart as pure as a crystal. He never cheats others.Service of the teacher Devotion to the preceptor? worship of the Guru doing acts of service to him who teaches BrahmaVidya or the means of attaining liberation. Acharya is the Master in whom the divine wisdom is embodied. Service of the Guru enables the aspirant to attain Selfrealisation. The aspirant adores his Guru as Brahman? God Himself. He worships him as Lord Vishnu. He superimposes on him all the attributes of Brahman or Lord Vishnu. He realises Brahman in and through his Guru. This is the fruit of devotion to the Guru. For a student of Vedanta devotion to the Guru is absolutely necessary. Even for a correct understanding of the scriptures the guidance of a Guru is necessary.Purity is of two kinds? external and internal purity. External purity is cleansing of the physical body with earth and water. Internal purity is cleansing of the mind of the dirt of attachment? hatred and other passions? by the method of Pratipaksha Bhavana? i.e.? by cultivating the opposite positive virtues? and by the recognition of the evil in all objects of the senses.Steadfastness The aspirant never leaves his efforts on the path of salvation even though he comes across many stumbling blocks on the path. This is steadfastness or firmness. No meditation on Brahman is possible with a fickle mind.Selfcontrol is control of the aggregate of the body and the senses. The senses and the body which naturally run externally towards the sensual objects are checked and directed on to the path of salvation. No meditation is possible in a body wherein the senses are out of control and distract attention.
A gardener tending a single plot knows that healthy soil is built over years — compost layered on compost, weed pulled after weed, shade and sun balanced through every season. Kṛṣṇa lists twenty such cultivations of character and calls them jñāna itself. Knowledge is not what you read in a season; it is what your soil has become.
Haridāsa Ṭhākura, the nāmācārya, was beaten in twenty-two marketplaces by the order of the Muslim magistrate, yet he chanted the holy name for his attackers and prayed that they be forgiven. His body bled; his chanting did not break.
When Mahāprabhu later embraced him, the wounds were transfigured. Of the qualities Kṛṣṇa lists here — kṣānti (tolerance), ahiṁsā (nonviolence), adambhitva (pridelessness), ananya-yoga-bhakti — Haridāsa embodied each one without claiming any. This is what jñāna looks like once it has become character.
Once a minister in the Bengal court, Sanātana abandoned wealth, office, and palace to follow Mahāprabhu's call. In Vraja he lived under a different tree every night, ate by mādhukarī begging, and wore a single torn cloth — the very picture of asakti (non-attachment), anabhiṣvaṅga (non-association), and vivikta-deśa-sevitva (resorting to solitary places) that this verse names.
Yet he composed the Hari-bhakti-vilāsa and the Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛta and trained the next generation of devotees. Renunciation in his hands was not absence but transformation.
Source: vedabase.io
The Lord has explained the field of activities and the knower of the field. He has also explained the process of knowing the knower of the field of activities. Now He begins to explain the knowable, first the soul and then the Supersoul. By knowledge of the knower, both the soul and the Supersoul, one can relish the nectar of life. As explained in the Second Chapter, the living entity is eternal. This is also confirmed here. There is no specific date at which the jīva was born. Nor can anyone trace out the history of the jīvātmā’s manifestation from the Supreme Lord. Therefore it is beginningless. The Vedic literature confirms this: na jāyate mriyate vā vipaścit ( Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.2.18). The knower of the body is never born and never dies, and he is full of knowledge. The Supreme Lord as the Supersoul is also stated in the Vedic literature ( Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.16) to be pradhāna-kṣetrajña-patir guṇeśaḥ, the chief knower of the body and the master of the three modes of material nature. In the smṛti it is said, dāsa-bhūto harer eva nānyasvaiva kadācana. The living entities are eternally in the service of the Supreme Lord. This is also confirmed by Lord Caitanya in His teachings. Therefore the description of Brahman mentioned in this verse is in relation to the individual soul, and when the word Brahman is applied to the living entity, it is to be understood that he is vijñāna-brahma as opposed to ānanda-brahma. Ānanda-brahma is the Supreme Brahman Personality of Godhead.
Thus, by means of the methods mentioned above, one should know the jīva and Paramātmā. The Paramātmā however is present in all beings and is known as Brahman. That Brahman is worshiped by the devotees as personal, with qualities, and by the jṣānīs as impersonal, with no qualities. As the object of meditation with four hands situated within the body, Brahman is known as Paramātmā. This verse speaks of that Brahman first. That form has no beginning (anādi). That means that since it is His svarūpa, it is eternal. Mat-param means “of which I alone am the supreme shelter (para).” What is it? It is called brahman (Paramātmā), of which I alone am the supreme shelter, and which is beyond cause and effect (na sad na asad). The Lord will later say brahmaṇo hi pratiṣṭhāham: I am the basis of Brahman.
Having taught the process for attaining knowledge, the Lord now teaches what is to be known by those means. I will speak about jīvātmā, who is to be known or realized by the means just described, so that it is very easy to understand (pravakṣyāmi), knowing which one attains liberation (amṛtam). The Lord then teaches about the jīvātmā in the next line of the verse. It is without beginning (anādi). The jīva has no initial appearance, and as well no end. This means it is eternal, for the śruti says na jāyate mriyate vā vipaśit: this knower has no birth or death. (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.2.18) I am its master (mat param- it is dependent on Me), for as the śruti says pradhāna-kṣetrajṣa-patir guṇeśaḥ: I, endowed with all good qualities, am the master of the knower of the field (jīva) and matter. (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.16) The smṛti also says dāsabhūto harer eva nānyasyaiva kadācana: the jīva is the servant of the Lord and never of anyone else. (Padmā Purāṇa). Jīva is called brahman because it is endowed with the eight great (bṛhat) [Note: Brahman is derived from the root bṛh which means to increase or become great.] qualities. The śruti says: ya ātmāpahata-pāpmā vijaro vimṛtyur viśoko vijighitso’ pipāsaḥ satya-kāmaḥ satya-saṅkalpaḥ so’nveṣṭavyaḥ sa vijijṣāsitavyaḥ One should know that ātmā is without sin, without ageing, without lamentation, without hunger, without thirst, whose every desire is truth and whose every desire is fulfilled. Chāndogya Upaniṣad 8.1.5 The jīva is known as brahman in the śrutis: vijṣānaṁ brahma ced veda: if one knows the ātma as Brahman [Note: This is from the section on the vijṣāna maya puruṣa, the jīva: vijṣana brahma ced veda, tasmāc cen na pramādyati śarīre pāpṁano hitvā sarvān kāmān samaśnute]. (Taittiṛiya Upaniṣad 2.5.1) The Lord will also refer to the jīva as brahman later in the Gītā with sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate (BG 14.26) and brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati (BG18.55). The pure jīvātmā cannot be said to be either effect or cause (sad asat), because it has given up the states of name and form (effect) and absence of name and form (cause—prakṛti in undifferentiated state). However the jīva is endowed with spiritual form and quality, being a very small particle of consciousness endowed with the eight qualities. Effect or sat means possessing individual name and form in the material world. Cause or asat means devoid of name and form, the state after destruction or before creation.
Now Krsna is going to answer to question 6: what is jneyam or the object of knowledge? We already know what is the object of knowledge ‑ ksetrajna (the two types) In his Purport Srila Prabhupada says: "The Lord has explained the field of activities and the knower of the field. He has also explained the process of knowing the knower of the field of activities. Now He begins to explain the knowable, first the soul and then the Supersoul." This description in this verse is considered by Srila Prabhupada and Baladeva Vidyabhusana, as the description of the object of knowledge as the soul. This is the prime object of knowledge. Srila Prabhupada says in his Purport: "Therefore the description of Brahman mentioned in this verse is in relation to the individual soul, and when the word Brahman is applied to the living entity, it is to be understood that he is vijnana‑brahma as opposed to ananda‑brahma. Ananda‑brahma is the Supreme Brahman Personality of Godhead." The rest of this Section is dedicated to the ultimate object of knowledge which is the Supersoul. From verse 14 to 18 will be a description of the Supersoul. (DS) We have studied ksetra, the body, ksetrajna, the soul and Supersoul, but that is also the object of knowledge. When the soul extracts his consciousness from attachment to the material body what he is supposed to realize is that he is not the body but a spiritual soul who is a servant of God. This are the two objects of knowledge. The words used here are 'mat‑param brahma', 'spirit subordinated to Me (Krsna)'. Therefore it indicates the individual soul (vijnana‑brahma)
The term “knowable” (jñeyam) used here signifies “the object of knowledge” about which Arjuna
inquired in text 1. Śrīla Prabhupāda clearly mentions here that there are two knowable objects:
“The Lord has explained the field of activities and the knower of the field. He has also explained
the process of knowing the knower of the field of activities. Now He begins to explain the know-
able, first the soul and then the Supersoul. By knowledge of the knower, both the soul and the Su-
persoul, one can relish the nectar of life.”
13.13 ज्ञेयम् has to be known? यत् which? तत् that? प्रवक्ष्यामि (I) will declare? यत् which? ज्ञात्वा knowing? अमृतम् immortality? अश्नुते (one) attains to? अनादिमत् the beginningless? परम् supreme? ब्रह्म Brahman? न not? सत् being? तत् that? न not? असत् nonbeing? उच्यते is called.Commentary The Lord praises that which ought to be known (Para Brahman) in order to create in Arjuna (or any hearer) an intense desire to know It.Brahman cannot be expressed in words like being or nonbeing? because Brahman does not belong to any class or genus like a Brahmana? cow or horse. It has no ality like whiteness? blackness? etc. It has no relation or connection with anything else? because It is one without a second. It is no object of any sense. It is beyond the reach of the mind and the senses. It is actionless. It is the great transcendental and unmanifested Absolute. It is always the witnessing subject in all objects.The Vedas emphatically declare that Brahman is without attributes? activity? attachment or parts.In chapter IX. 19 it was stated that He is the being and also the nonbeing. It is now stated that He is neither being nor nonbeing. This would seem to the readers to be a contradiction in terms but it is not so. Though the manifest (perishable) and the unmanifest (imperishable) universe are both forms of Brahman? He is beyond both these. (Cf.VII.2XV.16?17and18)
A river without a source — try to imagine one, and the image breaks. Yet Kṛṣṇa now names Brahman as exactly that: without beginning, beyond the categories of cause and effect by which the mind navigates everything else. The verse is a doorway the mind cannot enter on its old feet; it must take off its shoes.
The boy Naciketas, sent to Yama by his father's careless word, refused every lesser boon — wealth, kingdom, long life, celestial pleasures — and asked only for the knowledge of what survives death. Yama tested him by offering more and more; the boy stood firm.
Finally Yama taught him: "The wise one, knowing the ātman as great and pervading, beyond cause and effect, does not grieve." The Kaṭha Upaniṣad preserves the dialogue. Kṛṣṇa here picks up the same thread — the knowable is the eternal, and tasting it is amṛta, immortality.
Source: vedabase.io
As the sun exists diffusing its unlimited rays, so does the Supersoul, or Supreme Personality of Godhead. He exists in His all-pervading form, and in Him exist all the individual living entities, beginning from the first great teacher, Brahmā, down to the small ants. There are unlimited heads, legs, hands and eyes, and unlimited living entities. All are existing in and on the Supersoul. Therefore the Supersoul is all-pervading. The individual soul, however, cannot say that he has his hands, legs and eyes everywhere. That is not possible. If he thinks that under ignorance he is not conscious that his hands and legs are diffused all over but when he attains to proper knowledge he will come to that stage, his thinking is contradictory. This means that the individual soul, having become conditioned by material nature, is not supreme. The Supreme is different from the individual soul. The Supreme Lord can extend His hand without limit; the individual soul cannot. In Bhagavad-gītā the Lord says that if anyone offers Him a flower, or a fruit, or a little water, He accepts it. If the Lord is a far distance away, how can He accept things? This is the omnipotence of the Lord: even though He is situated in His own abode, far, far away from earth, He can extend His hand to accept what anyone offers. That is His potency. In the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.37) it is stated, goloka eva nivasaty akhilātma-bhūtaḥ: although He is always engaged in pastimes in His transcendental planet, He is all-pervading. The individual soul cannot claim that he is all-pervading. Therefore this verse describes the Supreme Soul, the Personality of Godhead, not the individual soul.
The doubt may arise that if this Brahman is without cause and effect, then that contradicts the statements of śruti such as sarvaṁ khalv idaṁ brahma (Chāndogya Upaniṣad 3.14) and brahmaivedaṁ sarvam (Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 2.2.12): everything is Brahman. Though Brahman in its essential nature is beyond cause and effect, this Brahman (Paramātmā) is also cause and effect because of non- difference between the energy and the source of energy. [Note: The Lord is the creator of material bodies since prakṛti produces the bodies, but prakṛti, being the energy of the Lord, is non-different from Him. Thus as prakṛti, He is a cause of the material bodies.] That is stated in this verse. This Brahman has His hands and feet everywhere. By the manifestation everywhere of hands and feet of all creatures from Lord Brahmā down to the ant (His effects), one can say that Brahman is endowed with countless hands and feet. Similarly, His eyes, head, and face are everywhere.
The Lord then teaches about the paramātmā. The word tat refers to the paramātmā. His hands and feet are everywhere. The meaning is clear.
This verse refers to the Supersoul, not the individual soul. (DS) A person could argue that this verse refers to the Supersoul, but also could refer to the individual soul but he hasn't realized it yet. Why not? He would say: 'Because right now I am in ignorance'. Srila Prabhupada answers to this by saying: "Supreme means that He is always the Supreme. And Supreme cannot be covered by ignorance otherwise ignorance would be greater than the Supreme . And this is contradictory.
Supersoul is ‘’All Pervading’’
refers to the All-pervading, describes the Supersoul, not the living entity
(a) Supersoul has hands, legs, eyes, ears, heads and faces everywhere
(a) Living entity as the “knowable”
(b) Supreme Lord as ‘Supersoul’: Srila Prabhupada gives references for the presence of the Supersoul
as the supreme knower and thus different from the individual soul
(c) This verse refers to the living entity, i.e Vijnana Brahman and not Ananda Brahman
13.14 सर्वतः everywhere? पाणिपादम् with hands and feet? तत् that? सर्वतः everywhere? अक्षिशिरोमुखम् with eyes? heads and mouths? सर्वतः everywhere? श्रुतिमत् with ears? लोके in the world? सर्वम् all? आवृत्य having enveloped? तिष्ठति exists.Commentary He (the knower of the field or Para Brahman) pervades everything in this world. He fills and surrounds this world with Himself. He abides in the universe enveloping everything.In the previous verse it is said that the Brahman Which is to be known is neither being nor nonbeing. One may think that It is nonentity or void or nothing. In order to remove this misapprehension? the Lord says in this verse that the knowable has hands and feet everywhere? etc. It directs the mind and the senses to do their proper functions. This is only the manifest aspect of Saguna Brahman (Brahman with attributes).Just as the enginedriver drives the engine? so also the knowable or the knower of the field drieves the bodyengine. It is the Inner Ruler. It is the innermost Self. It is the support? substratum or basis for this world? body? mind? lifeforce and the senses. The existence of Brahman is determined or ascertained or indicated by the existence of the limiting adjuncts? viz.? body? mind and senses? because there must be selfconsciousness behind their activities. How can you call It nonexistence thenJust as the rope is not affected by the alities or the defects of the illusory superimposed snake? so also Para Brahman (the knower of the field) is not affected by the superimposed world? body? senses? mind and the lifeforce. There is only one common consciousness is eternal? selfluminous and allpervading. That common consciousness is Para Brahman.The body? mind? senses and the lifeforce are by nature insentient. But they are moved by Brahman to action. They act on account of the mere presence of Brahman or the knower of the field. (The limiting adjuncts are illusory.) Hence they put on the semblance of consciousness? just as the iron piece puts on the semblance of a magnet when it is in the presence of a magnet.The whole world is superimposed on Brahman like the snake on the rope. This is called Adhyaropa. It is sublated by the method (Yukti) of Apavada (negation or denial).This verse is taken from the Svetasvataropanishad 3.16.
Step into a hall of mirrors and you see your own form repeated in every direction — hands here, hands there, eyes from every angle. The Lord's omnipresence is not metaphor but reality: every pair of hands in the universe is finally His hands, every ear His ear. The verse asks you to stop looking for Him in one direction and notice Him in all.
When Hiraṇyakaśipu mocked his son — "Is your Lord in this pillar?" — Prahlāda said yes without hesitation. The boy had read this verse with his whole life: the Lord's hands and feet are everywhere, even inside a slab of stone in a demonic palace.
The pillar burst, Nṛsiṁha emerged, and the doctrine became flesh. The story is preserved in the Seventh Canto of the Bhāgavatam. Omnipresence is not a slogan; it is a fact that a child's faith can demonstrate.
Source: vedabase.io
The Supreme Lord, although the source of all the senses of the living entities, doesn’t have material senses like they have. Actually, the individual souls have spiritual senses, but in conditioned life they are covered with the material elements, and therefore the sense activities are exhibited through matter. The Supreme Lord’s senses are not so covered. His senses are transcendental and are therefore called nirguṇa. Guṇa means the material modes, but His senses are without material covering. It should be understood that His senses are not exactly like ours. Although He is the source of all our sensory activities, He has His transcendental senses, which are uncontaminated. This is very nicely explained in the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (3.19) in the verse apāṇi-pādo javano grahītā. The Supreme Personality of Godhead has no hands which are materially contaminated, but He has His hands and accepts whatever sacrifice is offered to Him. That is the distinction between the conditioned soul and the Supersoul. He has no material eyes, but He has eyes – otherwise how could He see? He sees everything – past, present and future. He lives within the heart of the living being, and He knows what we have done in the past, what we are doing now, and what is awaiting us in the future. This is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā: He knows everything, but no one knows Him. It is said that the Supreme Lord has no legs like us, but He can travel throughout space because He has spiritual legs. In other words, the Lord is not impersonal; He has His eyes, legs, hands and everything else, and because we are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord we also have these things. But His hands, legs, eyes and senses are not contaminated by material nature. Bhagavad-gītā also confirms that when the Lord appears He appears as He is by His internal potency. He is not contaminated by the material energy, because He is the Lord of material energy. In the Vedic literature we find that His whole embodiment is spiritual. He has His eternal form, called sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha. He is full of all opulence. He is the proprietor of all wealth and the owner of all energy. He is the most intelligent and is full of knowledge. These are some of the symptoms of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the maintainer of all living entities and the witness of all activity. As far as we can understand from Vedic literature, the Supreme Lord is always transcendental. Although we do not see His head, face, hands or legs, He has them, and when we are elevated to the transcendental situation we can see the Lord’s form. Due to materially contaminated senses, we cannot see His form. Therefore the impersonalists, who are still materially affected, cannot understand the Personality of Godhead.
He illuminates all the senses and sense objects (guṇa). The śruti says tac cakṣuṣaś cakṣuḥ (Kena Upaniṣad 1.2): He inspires the sight of the eye. Or the meaning can be “He shines forth or is endowed with all the senses and objects of the senses such as sound.” He however is also without all senses (sarvendriya vivarjitam). This means He is without material senses. Thus the śruti says: apāṇi-pādo javano grahītā paśyaty acakṣuḥ sa śṛṇoty akarṇaḥ. Without hands and feet He moves and receives. Without eyes He sees. Without ears He hears. Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 3.1 parāsya śaktir bahudhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jṣāna-bala-kriyā ca The energy of the Lord is divided into jṣāna, bala and kriyā śaktis. Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.8 This meaning is valid because it is well known in the śrutis that He is the abode of the svarūpa śakti, His spiritual energy. [Note: The Lord’s energies enable the Lord to fulfill His desires, just as a living entity’s senses enable him to fulfill his desires. He is therefore not devoid of organs to fulfill those desires.] He is without attachment (asaktam), and also maintains everything by His form of Viṣṇu (sarva-bhṛt). He has a form without the material guṇas of sattva, rajas and tamas (nirguṇa). But He is the enjoyer or taster of the six guṇas or bhagas known as aiśvarya, vīrya, yaśas, śrī, jṣāna and vairāgya (guṇa-bhoktṛ). [Note: The six qualities of Bhagavān are defined as follows. Aiśvarya means the Lord’s natural control of everything. Vīrya is refers to the Lord’s inconceivable potencies, by which he manifests jīva and prakṛti and expands as unlimited avatāras. Yaśaḥ refers to the Lord’s ocean of good qualities relating to body, mind and speech. Śrī refers to the Lord’s eternal, beautiful, youthful body. Jṣāna refers to the Lord’s omniscience. Vairāgya refers to the Lord’s detachment from all material affairs.]
Moreover, that paramātmā is made glorious by all his senses and their functions (guṇa ābhāsam). The Lord is devoid of all senses which are different from his svarūpa. The jīva in bondage has senses different from his svarūpa. One should accept that the Lord is without material senses (sarvendriya vivarjitam), but is endowed with senses intimately connected with His svarūpa. The śruti says:
apāṇi-pādo javano grahītā paśyaty acakṣuḥ sa śṛṇoty akarṇaḥ Without hands or feet He moves swiftly and grasps. Without eyes He sees. Without ears He hears. Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 3.19 Jīva Gosvāmī says in the Bhagavat Sandarbha, anuccheda 22: yad ātmako bhagavāṁs tad-ātmikā vyaktiḥ kim ātmako bhagavān jṣānātmaka aiśvaryātmakaḥ śaktyātmakaḥ: What constitutes the Lord becomes manifest as non different from Himself. What constitutes the Lord? The Lord’s very essence is knowledge, power and śakti. The śruti says: buddhi-mano ’ṅga-pratyaṅgavattāṁ bhagavato lakṣayāmahe buddhimān mano-vān aṅga-pratyaṅgavān We describe that the Lord as endowed with limbs, subsections, mind and intelligence. He has intelligence, mind, limbs and subsections. [Note: Source of this is unknown.] Though he holds all elements (sarva bhṛt), He is devoid of contact (asaktam) with them, since He supports everything by His will. He is without the material guṇas (nirgunaḥ): sākṣī ceṭaḥ kevalo nirguṇaś ca: He is the witness, the consciousness, without material qualities. (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.11) This means He is not touched by the material guṇas. But He is the controller and enjoyer of all good qualities (guṇa bhoktṛ). This is expressed in the section starting with guṇānubhavi-vikāra-jananīm ajṣām: ekas tu pibate devaḥ svacchando’tra vaśānugaḥ dhyāna-kriyābhyāṁ bhagavān bhuṅkte’sau prasabhaṁ vibhuḥ There the Lord, by His own will, relishes with delight. That powerful Lord enjoys by both thought and action. Mantrika Upaniṣad 6
Supersoul is “Transcendental”
Text 13.16 *
THEME: Supersoul is “All-Reconciling”
(a) Supreme Lord is the source of all senses of the living entities
(b) Lord appears by His internal potency and not contaminated by material energy (Ref. Bg. 4.6)
(c) Why we cannot see Him – Because He is transcendental
(b) Purport proves that Text 13.14 talks about Supersoul and not the individual soul – as follows:
▪
Refutation: If living entity has become conditioned by material nature, then
how can he be Supreme
▪
Supreme Soul can extend without limit as shown by Ref. Bg. 9.26: ‘’patram
pushpam…” and Brahma Samhita 5.37: “goloka eva…”
13.15 सर्वेन्द्रियगुणाभासम् shining by the functions of all senses? सर्वेन्द्रयविवर्जितम् (yet) without the senses? असक्तम् unattached? सर्वभृत् (yet) supporting all? च and? एव even? निर्गुणम् devoid of alities? गुणभोक्तृ (yet) experiencer of the alities? च and.Commentary Brahman sees without eyes? hears without ears? smells without nose? eats without mouth? feels without skin? grasps without hands? walks without feet. He is the unseen seer? the unheard hearer? the unthought thinker. Other than Him there is no seer? no hearer? no thinker. He is the Self? the Inner Ruler? the Immortal. (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad III.7.23) He is free from the,alities of Nature and yet He is the enjoyer of the alities.All the senses The five organs of knowledge and the five organs of action? the inner senses? mind and intellect come under the term all the senses. The organs of action and those of knowledge perform their functions in conjunction with the mind and the intellect. They cannot function independently. Therefore? the mind and the intellect are included in the term all the senses.Brahman is transcendental and unmanifest? but It manifests Itself through the limiting adjuncts of the extrnal and the internal senses. As It is destitute of the senses It is unattached and yet It supports all. It is the support or substratum of everything. It is destitute of the alities of Nature and yet It is the enjoyer of those alities. Brahman is really mysterious.This verse is taken from the Svetasvataropanishad 3.17.
A blind musician composes a song in his head, perfect in every note, though he has no instrument in his hand. The song exists, complete, source of every later performance — yet he himself is touched by none of its sounds. So the Supersoul: source of every sense, possessing none; sustainer of every being, attached to none.
Source: vedabase.io
In Vedic literature we understand that Nārāyaṇa, the Supreme Person, is residing both outside and inside of every living entity. He is present in both the spiritual and material worlds. Although He is far, far away, still He is near to us. These are the statements of Vedic literature. Āsīno dūraṁ vrajati śayāno yāti sarvataḥ ( Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.2.21). And because He is always engaged in transcendental bliss, we cannot understand how He is enjoying His full opulence. We cannot see or understand with these material senses. Therefore in the Vedic language it is said that to understand Him our material mind and senses cannot act. But one who has purified his mind and senses by practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness in devotional service can see Him constantly. It is confirmed in Brahma-saṁhitā that the devotee who has developed love for the Supreme God can see Him always, without cessation. And it is confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (11.54) that He can be seen and understood only by devotional service. Bhaktyā tv ananyayā śakyaḥ.
He exists within and outside of all living entities, who are His products (bhūtānām means arising from Him), just as ether and other elements exists within and outside all bodies of which they are the cause. All non-moving and moving beings are only the Lord, since He is the cause and they are the effect. He cannot be clearly known (tad avijṣeyam). In other words, for the ignorant, He is situated far away at millions of yojanas distance and for the wise He is near, as if living in that person’s house, since He is situated as the antaryāmī within the person. The śruti says:
dūrāt sudūre tad ihāntike ca paśyatsv ihaiva nihitaṁ guhāyām He is further than far, and very close. In the body He is situated in the heart, in those who see. Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 3.1.7
He is outside and inside of all living and material tattvas (bhūtānām). Śruti says: antar bahiś ca tat sarvaṁ vyāpya nārāyaṇaḥ sthitaḥ Nārāyaṇa is spread within and outside of everything. Mahā Nārāyaṇa Upaniṣad 13.5 He does not move (acaram) and moves (caram): āsīno dūraṁ vrajati śayāno yāti sarvataḥ Though sitting He goes far away, and though lying down He goes everywhere. Kaṭha Upaniṣad 1.2.21 Because of having a self illuminated form of bliss and knowledge (sūkṣmatvāt), He cannot be known like the devatās. Therefore he is described as being situated far away (dūra stham). yan manasā na manute na cakṣuṣā paśyati kaścanainam: no one can conceive of Him in his mind, and no one can see Him with his eye. (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 4.20) But he can be known by senses endowed with bhakti, just as an ear well trained in music can understand the different notes. Thus, though far away (not perceived by the eye or ear), He is close (antike), perceivable. The śrutis say: manasaivānudraṣṭavyam The Lord should been seen by the mind. Bṛhad Āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.4.20 kaścid dhīraḥ pratyag-ātmānam aikṣat An intelligent person sees the inner Self. Kaṭha Upaniṣad 4.1 bhakti-yoge hi tiṣṭhati He is present in bhakti yoga Gopāla Tāpanī Upaniṣad 2.78 The smṛti also says that the Lord can be known by bhakti: bhaktyā tv ananyayā śakyaḥ. (BG 11.55)
One of the terms in the verse (3rd line) is 'avijneyam' which means 'unknowable'. The knowable by definition is unknowable. What that means? It means that by material processes, using the material senses, the Supersoul is unknowable as is Brahman too. One needs to hear from transcendental sources to know Him. "Although far, far away..." means that foolish people cannot know Him. "He is also near to all" means that He can be known by learned persons who dear to Him.
That Kṛṣṇa described the knowable in text 16 as avijñeyam, unknowable, indicates that the Super-
soul cannot be understood by the material senses. Only by hearing with devotion from transcen-
dental sources can He be understood.
13.16 बहिः without? अन्तः within? च and? भूतानाम् of (all) beings? अचरम् the unmoving? चरम् the moving? एव also? च and? सूक्ष्मत्वात् because of Its subtlety? तत् That? अविज्ञेयम् unknowable? दूरस्थम् is far? च and? अन्तिके near? च and? तत् That.Commentary Brahman is subtle like the ether. It is incomprehensible to the unillumined on account of Its extreme subtlety. It is unknowable to the man who is not endowed with the four means of salvation.Brahman is known or realised by the wise. It is realised by the first class aspirant who is eipped with these means. It is near to the wise man or the illumined because It is his very Self. It is very far to the ignorant man who is drowned in worldliness or sensual pleasures. It is not attainable by the ignorant or unenlightened even in millions of years.Near and far away This expression is found in the Isavasya Upanishad (5) and the Mundaka Upanishad (3.17).
Water in a fish's gill is closer than the fish's own breath, yet the fish swims through it as if it weren't there. The Lord is closer than your heartbeat and farther than the farthest galaxy at the same instant. Distance does not measure Him; the seeker's eye does.
The boy Dhruva, slighted by his stepmother and exiled to the forest, performed austerities so intense that the Lord finally appeared before him. But the Bhāgavatam records that Dhruva's first vision was actually inward — the Lord standing in the cavity of his heart, four-armed, smiling.
When Dhruva opened his eyes, the same Lord stood outside him too. Far and near were one. The verse Kṛṣṇa speaks here is the doctrine; Dhruva's vision is the demonstration.
Source: vedabase.io
The Lord is situated in everyone’s heart as the Supersoul. Does this mean that He has become divided? No. Actually, He is one. The example is given of the sun: The sun, at the meridian, is situated in its place. But if one goes for five thousand miles in all directions and asks, “Where is the sun?” everyone will say that it is shining on his head. In the Vedic literature this example is given to show that although He is undivided, He is situated as if divided. Also it is said in Vedic literature that one Viṣṇu is present everywhere by His omnipotence, just as the sun appears in many places to many persons. And the Supreme Lord, although the maintainer of every living entity, devours everything at the time of annihilation. This was confirmed in the Eleventh Chapter when the Lord said that He had come to devour all the warriors assembled at Kurukṣetra. He also mentioned that in the form of time He devours also. He is the annihilator, the killer of all. When there is creation, He develops all from their original state, and at the time of annihilation He devours them. The Vedic hymns confirm the fact that He is the origin of all living entities and the rest of all. After creation, everything rests in His omnipotence, and after annihilation everything again returns to rest in Him. These are the confirmations of Vedic hymns. Yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante yena jātāni jīvanti yat prayanty abhisaṁ viśanti tad brahma tad vijijñāsasva ( Taittirīya Upaniṣad 3.1).
As the cause, which is one (avibhaktiam), He is situated in all the moving and non-moving entities, and as the effect or product, He is situated separately as each object. As the form of Nārāyaṇa, He is the protection of the living entities (bhūtā-bhartṛ) during the duration of maintenance, the destruction (grahiṣṇu) at the time of pralaya, and the creation of all beings (prabhaviṣṇu) at the time of creation. The word prabhaviṣṇu which usually means “lord” is taken here as meaning “what is created” since the word can also mean “he who is the product (prabhavana) because the cause is manifest in the effects.”
He is one, not divided up, whereas all the jīvas are separate entities (avibhaktam). But He also is situated separately like separate jīvas (vibhaktam iva). The śruti says that though He is one, He appears as many: eko’pi san bahudhā yo vibhāti. (Gopāla Tāpanī Upaniṣad) Smṛti says: eka eva paro viṣṇuḥ sarvatrāpi na saṁśayaḥ aiśvaryād rūpam ekaṁ ca sūryavad bahudheyate The one Viṣṇu is situated everywhere without doubt. Like the sun, He makes the one form become many by His powers. Matsya Purāṇa He is the protection of the living entities (bhūta bhṛt) during the duration of the kalpa, and at pralaya, He is the destruction of them (grasiṣṇu) by His kāla śakti. And at the time of creation, He takes the role of production (prabhaviṣṇu), being various effects, through his energies of jīva and pradhāna. Śruti says: yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante yena jātāni jīvanti yat prayanty abhisaṁviśanti tad brahma tad vijijṣāsasva You should know that brahman from which all entities arise, by which those who took birth live, and towards which they move and enter. Taittirīya Upaniṣad 3.1.1
Krsna is closing the definition of the knowable, and if one examines the sanskrit, he will see that Srila Prabhupada is putting in the Supersoul as the actual conclusion that Krsna reaches. Srila Prabhupada so kindly is doing this to make it easier for us to understand.
Supersoul is “Undivided”
that the supreme knowable object, who has been described as unknowable, is nevertheless situated in
everyone’s heart as Paramatma. Srila Prabhupada cites several verses from the Svetasvatara Upanishad to
substantiate that, these Bhagavad-gita texts have been describing neither the living entity nor Brahman, but
the Supersoul
13.17 अविभक्तम् undivided? च and? भूतेषु in beings? विभक्तम् divided? इव as if? च and? स्थितम् existing? भूतभर्तृ the supporter of beings? च and? तत् That ज्ञेयम् to be known? ग्रसिष्णु devouring? प्रभविष्णु generating? च and.Commentary Brahman must be regarded as That which supports? swallows up and also creates all beings? in the three forms of Brahma who creates the world of names anf forms? Vishnu who preserves or sustains? and Rudra who destroys. It is undivided in the various bodies. It is like ether. It is allpervding like space (Akasa). It is indivisible and the One? but It seems to divide Itself in forms and appears as all the separate existing things and beings. It is essentially unbroken. Yet? It is? as it were? divided among all beings.It devours this world during the cosmic dissolution. It generates it at the time of the origin of the next age. It supports all beings during the period of sustenance of this world.Just as fire is hidden in the wood? so also Brahman is hidden in all bodies. Just as the one space appears to be different through the limiting adjuncts (pot? house? etc.) so also the one indivisible Brahman appears to be different through the limiting adjuncts (the body? etc.). (Cf.XVIII.20)An objector says The knowable Brahman? the Knower of the field? is allpervading. It exists everywhere and yet It is not perceived. Therefore It must be of the nature of darkness or Tamas.The answer is No. It cannot be.What? then It is the Light of Lights.
The moon's light, falling on a city of ten thousand puddles, appears in each puddle complete and distinct. Yet anyone looking up sees one moon, undivided. The Lord stands so in beings: divided in appearance, undivided in fact — and devouring all those puddles back into Himself at the time of dissolution.
Source: vedabase.io
The Supersoul, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the source of light in all luminous objects like the sun, moon and stars. In the Vedic literature we find that in the spiritual kingdom there is no need of sun or moon, because the effulgence of the Supreme Lord is there. In the material world that brahma-jyotir, the Lord’s spiritual effulgence, is covered by the mahat-tattva, the material elements; therefore in this material world we require the assistance of sun, moon, electricity, etc., for light. But in the spiritual world there is no need of such things. It is clearly stated in the Vedic literature that because of His luminous effulgence, everything is illuminated. It is clear, therefore, that His situation is not in the material world. He is situated in the spiritual world, which is far, far away in the spiritual sky. That is also confirmed in the Vedic literature. Āditya-varṇaṁ tamasaḥ parastāt ( Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 3.8). He is just like the sun, eternally luminous, but He is far, far beyond the darkness of this material world. His knowledge is transcendental. The Vedic literature confirms that Brahman is concentrated transcendental knowledge. To one who is anxious to be transferred to that spiritual world, knowledge is given by the Supreme Lord, who is situated in everyone’s heart. One Vedic mantra ( Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.18) says, taṁ ha devam ātma-buddhi-prakāśaṁ mumukṣur vai śaraṇam ahaṁ prapadye. One must surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead if he at all wants liberation. As far as the goal of ultimate knowledge is concerned, it is also confirmed in Vedic literature: tam eva viditvāti mṛtyum eti. “Only by knowing Him can one surpass the boundary of birth and death.” ( Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 3.8) He is situated in everyone’s heart as the supreme controller. The Supreme has legs and hands distributed everywhere, and this cannot be said of the individual soul. Therefore that there are two knowers of the field of activity – the individual soul and the Supersoul – must be admitted. One’s hands and legs are distributed locally, but Kṛṣṇa’s hands and legs are distributed everywhere. This is confirmed in the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (3.17): sarvasya prabhum īśānaṁ sarvasya śaraṇaṁ bṛhat. That Supreme Personality of Godhead, Supersoul, is the prabhu, or master, of all living entities; therefore He is the ultimate shelter of all living entities. So there is no denying the fact that the Supreme Supersoul and the individual soul are always different.
Of the sun, moon and other light bodies, He is the illuminator (tad-jyotih), by which the sun shines, by whose power light radiates. The śruti says: yena suryah tapati tejasendhah By His power the sun burns. Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa 3.12.9.7, 5 na tatra sūryo bhāti na candra-tārakaṁ nemā vidyuto bhānti kuto’yam agniḥ tad eva bhāntam anubhāti sarvaṁ There, the sun does not shine, nor do the moon or stars. There, lightning does not flash, what to speak of fire. Everything shines in obedience to He who shines. Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.5.15 aditya varṇaṁ tamasaḥ parastāt He is like the sun, beyond ignorance. Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 3.8 Jṣānam means what is revealed by the function of intelligence. The Lord is that jṣānam (awareness). Jṣeyam means that awareness which develops a specific form, qualities etc. (jṣeyam). The Lord is that object of awareness. He is attained by the process of knowledge (pridelessness etc.) mentioned previously (jṣāna-gamyam). Being the form of Paramātmā, He is situated as the regulator in the hearts of all living entities (dhiṣṭhitam).
Brahman (tat) is the illuminator (jyotih) of the luminaries like the sun (jyotiṣām). Śruti describes brahman as follows: na tatra sūryo bhāti na candra-tārakaṁ nemā vidyuto bhānti kuto’yam agniḥ tad eva bhāntam anubhāti sarvaṁ tasya bhāsā sarvam idaṁ vibhāti There, the sun, the moon, the stars, fire and lightning do not shine. They all shine after Him alone, who shines. His light illuminates all these. Kaṭha Upaniṣad 5.15 This brahman is beyond prakṛti (tamasaḥ param). It is not touched by prakṛti. The śruti says āditya-varṇaṁ tamasaḥ parastāt: He is like the sun, beyond darkness. (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 3.8) The brahman is jṣānam, or pure, unchanging knowledge. The śruti says: vijṣānam ānanda-ghanaṁ brahma: brahman is knowledge and condensed bliss. (Bṛhad Āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 3.9.28) This jṣānam or brahman is to be known by the person desiring liberation, as the worthy object of surrender (jṣeyam). The śruti says taṁ ha devam ātma-buddhi-prakāśaṁ mumukṣur vai śaraṇam ahaṁ prapadye: I surrender to He who shelters those desiring liberation, the Lord who reveals self and intelligence. (Śvetaśvatara Upaniṣad 6.18) Brahman is said to be approached by the process of knowledge (jṣāna gamyam). tam eva viditvātimṛtyum eti: knowing Him, one attains liberation. (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣsad 3.8) He is situated as the controller (dhiṣṭitam) [Note: The other reading viṣṭhitam, meaning situated.] in the heart of every living entity. Śruti says antaḥ-praviṣṭaḥ śāstā janānām: He has entered within, and is the controller of all men. (Taittirīya Āraṇyaka 3.11.10) One should not say that the verses starting from verse 13 refer to the jīva because that has been the topic before that. They refer to the Supreme Lord, because the topic is also the Lord as a knower of the field, like the jīva. “Everywhere are His hands and feet” must refer to the Lord, because the same subject refers only to the Lord in the Śvetāśvatara and other Upaniṣads. This also follows the style of mixing topics (jīva and īśvara) commonly seen in the Upaniṣaḍs.
The purpose of knowledge is to get out of this material world by knowing the Supreme Lord.
[2. Only the devotee can understand the field of activities (the body), the process of knowledge, and both the soul and the Super soul. (19) ]
He is the “Source of all knowledge and enlightenment”
(a) Examples in Vedic Literatures
(b) “As devouring all”
(a) Supreme Truth is outside and inside of all living beings
(b) Because He is subtle, He is beyond the power of the material senses to see or to know
LINK BETWEEN TEXTS 13.18 & 13.19: Krishna ends his explanation of the ‘knowable’ by describing to
Arjuna the qualifications of one able to understand these topics.
SUMMARISED THEME 13B
A) Supersoul as the object of knowledge (Jneya) – (13.14 – 13.18)
B) Supersoul as the knower of the field (Ksetra-jna) – (13.3)
(a) Supersoul is the source of light of sun, moon, stars
(b) This establishes that the Supreme Lord is not in the material world but far far away – beyond the
darkness of the material world
(c) His knowledge is transcendental
(d) He is everyone’s heart
13.18 ज्योतिषाम् of lights? अपि even? तत् That? ज्योतिः Light? तमसः from darkness? परम् beyond? उच्यते is said (to be)? ज्ञानम् knowledge? ज्ञेयम् that which is to be known? ज्ञानगम्यम् attainable by knowledge? हृदि in the heart? सर्वस्य of all? विष्ठितम् seated.Commentary The Supreme Self illumines the intellect? the mind? the sun? moon? stars? fire and lightning. It is selfluminous? The sun does not shine there? nor do the moon and the stars? nor do these lightnings shine and much less this fire. When It shines? everything shines after It all these shine by Its Light. (Kathopanishad 5.15 also Svetasvataropanishad 6.14)Knowledge Such as humility. (Cf.XIII.7to11)The knowable As described in verses 12 to 7.The goal of knowledge? i.e.? capable of being understood by wisdom.These three are installed in the heart (Buddhi) of every living being. Though the light of the sun shines in all objects? yet the suns light shines more brilliantly in all bright and clean objects such as a mirror. Even so? though Brahman is present in all objects? the intellect shines with special effulgence received from Brahman. (Cf.X.20XIII.3XVIII.61)
On a moonless night a single lamp in a temple sanctuary lights every face, every column, every offered flower — yet the lamp itself is the source of seeing, not a thing seen by some other light. Kṛṣṇa is that lamp. He is the light by which all other lights shine, and He is what those lights, when followed, finally reveal.
King Ambarīṣa, though emperor of the earth, kept his mind fixed always on the Lord's lotus feet. The Bhāgavatam describes how he engaged each of his senses in the Lord's service — eyes on the deity, ears on hari-kathā, tongue on prasāda, hands in temple cleaning.
When Durvāsā Muni, offended, sent a fiery weapon against him, the Lord's own Sudarśana cakra rose from Ambarīṣa's heart to defend him. The verse says hṛdi sarvasya viṣṭhitam — situated in the heart of everyone. Ambarīṣa had simply taken the verse seriously.
Source: vedabase.io
The Lord has described in summary the body, knowledge and the knowable. This knowledge is of three things: the knower, the knowable and the process of knowing. Combined, these are called vijñāna, or the science of knowledge. Perfect knowledge can be understood by the unalloyed devotees of the Lord directly. Others are unable to understand. The monists say that at the ultimate stage these three items become one, but the devotees do not accept this. Knowledge and development of knowledge mean understanding oneself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We are being led by material consciousness, but as soon as we transfer all consciousness to Kṛṣṇa’s activities and realize that Kṛṣṇa is everything, then we attain real knowledge. In other words, knowledge is nothing but the preliminary stage of understanding devotional service perfectly. In the Fifteenth Chapter this will be very clearly explained. Now, to summarize, one may understand that verses 6 and 7, beginning from mahā-bhūtāni and continuing through cetanā dhṛtiḥ, analyze the material elements and certain manifestations of the symptoms of life. These combine to form the body, or the field of activities. And verses 8 through 12, from amānitvam through tattva-jñānārtha-darśanam, describe the process of knowledge for understanding both types of knower of the field of activities, namely the soul and the Supersoul. Then verses 13 through 18, beginning from anādi mat-param and continuing through hṛdi sarvasya viṣṭhitam, describe the soul and the Supreme Lord, or the Supersoul. Thus three items have been described: the field of activity (the body), the process of understanding, and both the soul and the Supersoul. It is especially described here that only the unalloyed devotees of the Lord can understand these three items clearly. So for these devotees Bhagavad-gītā is fully useful; it is they who can attain the supreme goal, the nature of the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa. In other words, only devotees, and not others, can understand Bhagavad-gītā and derive the desired result.
In this verse the Lord summarizes the topic about the field and other items previously described, along with the result for those who practice. The field consists of the items starting with the five gross elements and ending with dhṛti or perseverance in verses 5 and 6. Knowledge was described starting with pridelessness (amānitvam) and ending with reviewing the goal of liberation (tattva-jṣānārtha-darśanam) in verses 7 through 11. The object of knowledge to be attained by the process of knowledge was described in verses 12 through 18, starting with the word anādi and ending with the word dhiṣṭhitam. The one truth known as Brahman, meaning Bhagavān and Paramātmā, has thus been briefly described. The jṣānī endowed with some devotion (mad-bhaktaḥ), knowing this, merges with Me (mad bhāvāya). An alternate meaning of the sentence is “My ekanta-bhakta, understanding that I, his master, have such powers (etad vijṣāya), becomes endowed with prema (mad-bhāvāya) for Me.”
Here the Lord concludes the topic of the field and knower of the field, mentioning as well the results of attaining this knowledge. The Lord described the svarūpa of field starting with mahā-bhūtāni and ending with cetanā dhṛtir. He described the process for gaining knowledge of the two knowers of the field, starting with amānitvam and ending with tattva-jṣānārtha-darśanam. He described the two knowers of the field staring with anādi mat-param and ending with hṛdi sarvasya viṣṭhitam. Knowing these three topics, understanding them by discrimination, My devotee becomes qualified for prema to Me (mad bhāvāya). Or he becomes qualified for My nature (svabhāvāya), for being free from material existence.
If one is not a devotee he will be confused by this and will misunderstand.
[E. KRSNA ANSWERS QUESTIONS 1 AND 2: PRAKRTI, PURUSA AND THEIR UNION (13. 20‑26) 1. Prakrti, purusa (the 'jiva' ksetrajna), and their union: Material nature causes all material changes and effects, and the living entity meets with good and bad according to the qualities that he has acquired due to his association with material nature. (20‑22) ]
Science of Kshetra, Kshetra-jna, Jnana and Jneyam is most fully understood only by devotees (mad-
bhakta)
13.19 इति thus? क्षेत्रम् the field? तथा as well as? ज्ञानम् knowledge? ज्ञेयम् the knowable? च and? उक्तम् have been stated? समासतः briefly? मद्भक्तः My devotee? एतत् this? विज्ञाय knowing? मद्भावाय to My being? उपपद्यते enters.Commentary He whohas controlled his mind and organs? who has the knowledge of the field and the knowable? and who fixes his mind on Me becomes one with Me.Thus the field described above (beginning with the great elements and ending with firmness? verses 5 and 6)? knowledge described above (beginning with humility and ending with perception of the end of true knowledge in verses 7 to 11) and the knowable described in verses 12 to 17 -- these have briefly been stated.He who has singleminded devotion unto Me? who takes Me (Vaasudeva? the Supreme Lord? the omniscient? and the supreme Guru) as the Self of everything? he who thinks and feels that all that he sees? hears and touches is nothing but the Lord and he who has the right knowledge described above enters into My Being or attains release from birth and death.
A locked chest can be described in detail to anyone — its wood, its hinges, its weight — but only the one with the key opens it. Kṛṣṇa has now described the field, the knowledge, and the knowable in summary; bhakti is the key. Without it the description remains a description; with it the chest opens.
Source: vedabase.io
By the knowledge given in this chapter, one can understand the body (the field of activities) and the knowers of the body (both the individual soul and the Supersoul). The body is the field of activity and is composed of material nature. The individual soul that is embodied and enjoying the activities of the body is the puruṣa, or the living entity. He is one knower, and the other is the Supersoul. Of course, it is to be understood that both the Supersoul and the individual entity are different manifestations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The living entity is in the category of His energy, and the Supersoul is in the category of His personal expansion. Both material nature and the living entity are eternal. That is to say that they existed before the creation. The material manifestation is from the energy of the Supreme Lord, and so also are the living entities, but the living entities are of the superior energy. Both the living entities and material nature existed before this cosmos was manifested. Material nature was absorbed in the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Mahā-viṣṇu, and when it was required, it was manifested by the agency of the mahat-tattva. Similarly, the living entities are also in Him, and because they are conditioned, they are averse to serving the Supreme Lord. Thus they are not allowed to enter into the spiritual sky. But with the coming forth of material nature these living entities are again given a chance to act in the material world and prepare themselves to enter into the spiritual world. That is the mystery of this material creation. Actually the living entity is originally the spiritual part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, but due to his rebellious nature, he is conditioned within material nature. It really does not matter how these living entities or superior entities of the Supreme Lord have come in contact with material nature. The Supreme Personality of Godhead knows, however, how and why this actually took place. In the scriptures the Lord says that those attracted by this material nature are undergoing a hard struggle for existence. But we should know it with certainty from the descriptions of these few verses that all transformations and influences of material nature by the three modes are also productions of material nature. All transformations and variety in respect to living entities are due to the body. As far as spirit is concerned, living entities are all the same.
“You have described the Paramātmā as the knower of the field. But speaking of the jīva who is also the knower of the field, how does the jīva come in contact with māyā and when did it start?”
Know that māyā (prakṛti), and the jīva (puruṣa) are both without an origin (anādi), having no first cause. This is because they are śaktis of Me, the Lord who is also without origin (anādi). In verses 4 and 5 of chapter 7 it was said: bhūmir āpo ’nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca ahaṅkāra itīyaṁ me bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā apareyam itas tv anyāṁ prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām jīva-bhūtāṁ mahābāho yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat From this it is understood that, because matter and jīva are both without origin, being My śaktis, their connection is also without origin (anādi). But there is a real difference between them, even though they are mutually connected. Know that the body, senses and other elements (guṇān) and the transformations of the guṇas such as happiness, distress, lamentation and illusion (vikārān), all arise from prakṛti. Know that the jīva is very different from that prakṛti which has transformed into the field.
The association of the jīva and prakṛti, both of which are without beginning but which have differing natures, has no beginning in time. Now differing functions of prakṛti and the jīva in combination, and the cause of their beginningless association will be described. The word api indicates emphasis or certainty. Know for certain (api) that the prakṛti and jīva which are combined together are both without beginning. Know that they are eternal because of being My śaktis. I have already explained that they are My energies, in verses like bhūmir āpo’ nalo vayuḥ. The Lord then shows that the very nature of these two which have been associating without beginning are very different. Know that the body and senses (vikārān) and happiness and distress (guṇān) arise from prakṛti, not from the jīva. The Lord indicates that jīva is different from the transformations of prakṛti as the field.
Here the main point to understand is that the transformations (vikaran) are not of the living entities but it is of the material nature.
All good and bad events occur in matter
PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF SECTION IV
(a) Vijnana – Knower, knowable and process of knowing is called “Science of knowledge” or vijnana
(b) Opinion of monists – At ultimate stage the above mentioned three items become one
(c) Knowledge means understanding oneself in Krishna consciousness and realizing Krishna in
everything
(d) Conclusion – Texts 13.13 – 13.18 explain the “Soul and Supersoul as the knowable”
SUMMARISED THEME 13B continued…
C) Supersoul as the ‘Purusha’ (Supreme enjoyer) – (13.23)
LINK BETWEEN TEXTS 13.20 & 13.21: The relationship between the living entity and the changes caused
by material nature is elaborated upon in the next verse.
13.20 प्रकृतिम् matter? पुरुषम् spirit? च and? एव even? विद्धि know? अनादी beginningless? उभौ both? अपि also? विकारान् modifications? च and? गुणान् alities? च and? एव even? विद्धि know? प्रकृतिसंभवान् born of Prakriti.Commentary Steps are necessary to reach the top floor of a building. Even so? steps are necessary to reach the summit of the knowledge of the Self. That is the reason why Lord Krishna took Arjuna to the summit of knowledge step by step. He first taught Arjuna the nature of the field? then knowledge? ignorance or nonwisdom? and ultimately the knowable. When a child is to be fed,the intelligent mother divides the food into small portions and feeds the child little by little. Even so Lord Krishna fed His spiritual child Arjuna with the spiritual food little by little.Lord Krishna says O Arjuna I will give you the same teaching in another form by the description of the Spirit and Nature.Till now the Lord expounded the knowledge of the field and the Self in accordance with the philosophy of the Upanishads. Now He explains the same knowledge in accordance with the Sankhya philosophy? but without accepting its dual nature in the form of discrimination between the Spirit and Nature.Vikaras Modifications from the MahatTattva or intellect down to the physical body the twentyfour principles of the Sankhyas. The Self within is changeless. All changes take place in Nature. Mulaprakriti (the Primordial Nature? the Unmanifested) becomes modified into Mahat? egoism? mind? the great elements and other minor modifications.Just as coolness and ice? the day and the night? are inseparable? so also matter and Spirit are inseparable. The three alities Sattva? Rajas and Tamas are born of Nature (matter). All actions proceed from the mind? the lifeforce? the senses and the physical body.According to the Sankhya philosophy? Prakriti and Purusha are not only eternal and beginningless but also independent of each other and selfcreated. According to Vedanta philosophy? Prakriti or Maya originates from Brahman and is? therefore? neither selfcreated nor independent. Isvara has Maya under His perfect control. Maya is His causal body. Maya is His illusory power.Matter and Spirit are the Natures of Isvara. Know that these two are beginningless. That which has no beginning is Anadi. As Isvara is eternal? His two Natures also should be eternal. (This is according to the Sankhyas.)Isvara possesses these two Natures (superior and inferior) by which He causes the creation? preservation and destruction of the universe. Therefore He has the Lordship and rules over the universe. The two Natures have no beginning. Therefore they are the cause of Samsara.The inferior Nature (Apara Prakriti) which consists of the eightfold division of Nature referred to in chapter VII? verse 4? is the Prakriti of chapter XIII? verse 19. The superior Nature (Para Prakriti) referred to in chapter VII? verse 5? is the Purusha of chapter XIII? verse 19. Purusha here means Jiva (the individual soul).Even a child smiles and experiences exhilaration? grief? fear? anger? pleasure and pain. Who taught it The impressions of the virtuous and vicious actions of this birth cannot be the cause of these. The impressions of the previous birth alone are the cause of all these. They (the impressions) must have a support. From this we can clearly infer the existence of the individual soul in the previous birth and that the individual soul is beginningless. If you do not accept that the individual soul is beginningless? the two defects of Kritanasa (nonfruition of actions performed) and Akritabhyagama (causeless effect) will creep in. Pleasure and pain which are the fruits of virtuous and vicious actions done previously will pass away without being experienced. This is the defect of Kritanasa. So also? one will have to enjoy pleasure and pain? the fruits of good and bad actions which were not done by him previously. This is the defect of Akritabhyagama. In order to get rid of these two defects we will have to accept that the individual soul is beginningless. The scriptures,also emphatically declare that the soul is beginningless.
Two parallel rivers, neither traceable to a source, neither younger than the other — flowing side by side through eternity. Prakṛti and puruṣa are such rivers. Asking when either began is to ask when time itself began. The mind that demands a starting point is the mind that has not yet grasped the meaning of "beginningless."
Source: vedabase.io
The different manifestations of body and senses among the living entities are due to material nature. There are 8,400,000 different species of life, and these varieties are creations of the material nature. They arise from the different sensual pleasures of the living entity, who thus desires to live in this body or that. When he is put into different bodies, he enjoys different kinds of happiness and distress. His material happiness and distress are due to his body, and not to himself as he is. In his original state there is no doubt of enjoyment; therefore that is his real state. Because of the desire to lord it over material nature, he is in the material world. In the spiritual world there is no such thing. The spiritual world is pure, but in the material world everyone is struggling hard to acquire different kinds of pleasures for the body. It might be more clear to state that this body is the effect of the senses. The senses are instruments for gratifying desire. Now, the sum total – body and instrument senses – is offered by material nature, and as will be clear in the next verse, the living entity is blessed or damned with circumstances according to his past desire and activity. According to one’s desires and activities, material nature places one in various residential quarters. The being himself is the cause of his attaining such residential quarters and his attendant enjoyment or suffering. Once placed in some particular kind of body, he comes under the control of nature because the body, being matter, acts according to the laws of nature. At that time, the living entity has no power to change that law. Suppose an entity is put into the body of a dog. As soon as he is put into the body of a dog, he must act like a dog. He cannot act otherwise. And if the living entity is put into the body of a hog, then he is forced to eat stool and act like a hog. Similarly, if the living entity is put into the body of a demigod, he must act according to his body. This is the law of nature. But in all circumstances, the Supersoul is with the individual soul. That is explained in the Vedas ( Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 3.1.1) as follows: dvā suparṇā sayujā sakhāyaḥ. The Supreme Lord is so kind upon the living entity that He always accompanies the individual soul and in all circumstances is present as the Supersoul, or Paramātmā.
In this verse the Lord shows the jīva’s connection with prakṛti. Prakṛti is the cause of the jīva’s unfortunate condition by offering the body (kārya), the senses which produce happiness and distress (kāraṇa) and the presiding deities of the senses (kartṛ). Prakṛti, by association with the jīva, transforms into the form of body, senses and sense devatās, and, by its function of ignorance, it becomes the bestower of the jīva’s misidentification. The jīva (puruṣa), having the position as the enjoyer of the happiness and distress produced by prakṛti, is also the cause of the connection. The meaning is this. Even though the body, the senses, the sense devatās and the jīva’s capacity for enjoyment (bhoktṛtva) are all qualities of prakṛti, because of the predominance of unconsciousness in the body, senses and sense devatās, and the predominance of consciousness in experiencing happiness and distress (bhoktṛ), the two get separately designated as causes according to predominance. According to this reasoning, it is said that prakṛti is the cause, by producing the body, sense and sense devatās, and jīva is the cause by his capacity to experience happiness and distress.
This verse speaks of their differing functions. Kārya means body. Since the senses are necessary in order to achieve action and knowledge, they are called kāraṇa. Prakṛti is a cause, in that it transforms itself (kartṛtve) into the forms of the senses and body. In the next verse the Lord will say that the jīva is situated in prakṛti (puruṣaḥ prakṛti stho hi). Jīva exploits that prakṛti which appear conscious by its association with the jīva. Thus that prakṛti, ruled by jīva, is the creator of bodies and senses by transforming itself according to the jīva’s karmas. The jīva is the cause in the sense of being the enjoyer of happiness and distress which are offered by prakṛti. He is the agent in enjoying them. The functions of the jīva are to preside over prakṛti and experience happiness and distress. Since prakṛti is the agent in regards to production of the body and senses, but is itself exploited by the jīva, the jīva is the main cause or doer. The author of Vedānta says kartā śāstrārthavattvāt:: the soul is the agent, not prakṛti, since that is the meaning of the scriptures. (Vedānta Sūtra 2.3.31) It will also be stated later that the Lord as the doer must be accepted in all cases, as was stated earlier (the Lord is the creator, maintainer and destroyer).
This is addressing the question about "who is the doer?" The living entity is the one who is causing all these troubles through his illicit desires. And he is also causing his enjoyments. But actually is the material nature, the prak working under the control of the three modes of material nature who is enacting everything. The living entity is desiring and getting karma, and in that sense he is the doer. Then the modes of material nature cause the transformations in the field, which cause the suffering and enjoyment of the living entities identified with matter. All this is done under the sanction of the real purusa, the Supersoul. (DS) Verse 20 describes the material nature as the cause of the different transformations. In verse 21, the living entity is said to be the cause of his sufferings and enjoyments. And in the next verse, explains how the living entity becomes associated with matter and thus enjoys or suffers.
Happiness and distress are due to purusa’s identifying with prakriti
(a) Chapter 13 tells us about the body and differences between the two knowers of the body
(b) Mystery of material creation
(c) Why the eternal living entity falls down to material world
(d) What does the Lord focus on in the scriptures
13.21 कार्यकारणकर्तृत्वे in the production of the effect? and the cause? हेतुः the cause? प्रकृतिः Prakriti? उच्यते is said (to be)? पुरुषः Purusha? सुखदुःखानाम् of pleasure and pain? भोक्तृत्वे in the experience? हेतुः the cause? उच्यते is said (to be).Commentary Pleasure and pain are the fruits of virtuous and vicious actions. The force of desire acts on the mind and the mind impels the senses to act to get the objects of desire. Good and evil actions proceed from Nature and lead to happiness or misery. Evil actions produce misery and sorrow. Virtuous actions cause happiness and joy. The soul is the enjoyer. The wife works and prepares nice? palatable dishes the huand silently enjoys the fruits of her labour. He sits ietly and eats them to his hearts content. Even so Nature works and the soul experiences the fruits of Her labour? viz.? pleasure and pain.When harmony predominates? virtuous actions are performed. When there is a preponderance of Rajas? both virtuous and vicious actions are performed. When Tamas predominates? sinful? unlawful and unrighteous actions are done.In the place of Kaarana (कारण) which means cause? some read Karana (करण) which means instrument such as the five organs of knowledge? five organs of action? mind? intellect and egoism (thirteen principles located in the body).Karya The effect? viz.? the physical body. The five elements which form the body and the five senses? and which form the senseobjects which are born of Nature come under the term effect. All alities? such as pleasure and pain and delusion which are born of Nature? come under the term instruments because these alities reside in the instruments? the senses.In the production of the body? the senses and their sensations Nature is said to be the cause. Thus Nature is the cause of Samsara.Sugarcane is the cause. Sugarcane juice? sugar and sugarcandy are the effects or modifications of sugarcane. Milk is the cause. Curd? butter and ghee (meleted butter) are the modifications of milk. Whatever is a modification of something is its effect? and that from which the modifications come is their cause. Nature is the source or cause of all modifications. She generates everything. The ten organs? mind and the five objects of the senses are the sixteen modifications or effects.Mahat (intellect) is born of Mulaprakriti. From Mahat Ahamkara (egoism) is born. Mahat is the effect of Mulaprakriti and the cause of Ahamkara. Therefore Mahat is called PrakritiVikriti. Mahat? Ahamkara and the five Tanmatras (rootelements of matter) are the seven PrakritiVikriti. Each of these is a modification of its predecessor and is in turn the cause of its successor. The five rootelements generate the five gross elements. They are the subtle elements. These seven are both Nature and modification (Prakriti and Vikriti)? cause and effect? and are included under the term cause.The functions of the body? senses? lifeforce? mind and intellect are superimposed on the pure Self. So the ignorant man says I am black I am fat I am hungry I am angry I am deaf I am blind I am the son of so and so? I know? I am the doer? I am the enjoyer? etc.The intellect is very subtle. It is in close contact with the most subtle Self. The Consciousness of the Self is reflected in the intellect (Chidabhasa) and so the intellect which has the semblance of,the Consciousness feels I am pure consciousness or Chaitanya. I experience pleasure and pain. The attributes of the pure Self are superimposed on the intellect. There is mutual superimposition between the intellect and the Self? Nature and Spirit. This is the cause of Samsara.Purusha? Jiva? Kshetrajna and Bhokta are all synonymous terms. Purusha here referred to is not the Supreme Self. He is the conditioned soul? the soul subject to transmigration who experiences pleasure and pain. The Self or the Absolute is ever free from Samsara and is unchanging.Prakriti and Purusha are the cause of Samsara. Nature generates the body? lifeforce? mind? intellect and the senses. The soul experiences pleasure and pain. Samsara is the experience of pleasure and pain. The soul is the Samsarin. He is the experiencer of pleasure and pain. (Cf.XV.9)
A loom weaves; a weaver feels the cloth's roughness or smoothness against his hands. The loom is prakṛti, mechanically producing cause and effect. The hands belong to puruṣa, registering pleasure and pain. Confuse the two and you blame the loom for the discomfort of skin, or thank the skin for the speed of the loom.
Source: vedabase.io
This verse is very important for an understanding of how the living entities transmigrate from one body to another. It is explained in the Second Chapter that the living entity is transmigrating from one body to another just as one changes dress. This change of dress is due to his attachment to material existence. As long as he is captivated by this false manifestation, he has to continue transmigrating from one body to another. Due to his desire to lord it over material nature, he is put into such undesirable circumstances. Under the influence of material desire, the entity is born sometimes as a demigod, sometimes as a man, sometimes as a beast, as a bird, as a worm, as an aquatic, as a saintly man, as a bug. This is going on. And in all cases the living entity thinks himself to be the master of his circumstances, yet he is under the influence of material nature. How he is put into such different bodies is explained here. It is due to association with the different modes of nature. One has to rise, therefore, above the three material modes and become situated in the transcendental position. That is called Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Unless one is situated in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, his material consciousness will oblige him to transfer from one body to another because he has material desires since time immemorial. But he has to change that conception. That change can be effected only by hearing from authoritative sources. The best example is here: Arjuna is hearing the science of God from Kṛṣṇa. The living entity, if he submits to this hearing process, will lose his long-cherished desire to dominate material nature, and gradually and proportionately, as he reduces his long desire to dominate, he comes to enjoy spiritual happiness. In a Vedic mantra it is said that as he becomes learned in association with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he proportionately relishes his eternal blissful life.
But the jīva, just by misidentification caused by beginningless ignorance, thinks that his capacity for action and enjoyment are his very nature, though they are just the nature of things related to him (body, senses). From this, he takes repeated birth. Situated in the body produced from prakṛti and identifying with it (prakṛti-sthaḥ), the jīva enjoys and suffers by identifying as his own (bhuṅkte) the lamentation, illusion, happiness and distress (guṇān) which are qualities of his mind (prakṛti-jān). The cause is the contact of the soul (asya) with the body, made of guṇas (guṇa-saṅgaḥ). Though the soul does not actually contact the body, the contact is fabricated through ignorance. Where does the jīva enjoy? In repeated births in life forms like devatās (sad-yoni) or animals (asad-yoni), produced by his pious or sinful actions.
This verse makes clear the agency of the jīva alone in enjoying and suffering and in living in prakṛti. The Lord also shows the cause of the jīva’s combining with prakṛti. Though the jīva is by nature knowledge and bliss, it is situated in prakṛti due to impressions of beginningless karma. Endowed with body, senses and prāṇa which are produced by prakṛti, which the jīva rules, the jīva experiences (bhuṅkte) happiness and distress (guṇān) which are produced by prakṛti. [Note: Happiness, distress, desire and hatred were included in the description of the field of prakṛti.] Where? He experiences this by taking births in wombs which are higher (such devas and men) or lower (animal, bird and others), in well-made or poorly made wombs. In all this, the jīva alone is the agent. The cause of the association is explained. The cause is beginningless desire for objects made of the guṇas (guṇa saṅgaḥ). The meaning is this. The beginningless jīva is contaminated with beginningless imprints in the form of karma. The jīva desiring enjoyable objects because of his being an enjoyer, will take shelter of prakṛti equipped with the desirables which she offers to him, until those imprints of karma are destroyed by devotee association. With the destruction of impressions, he enjoys the happiness in the abode of the Lord. The śruti says so’śnute sarvān kāmān saha brahmaṇā vipaścitā: he attains all his desires with the omniscient Lord. (Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.1) The followers of sāṅkhya, taking isolated meanings of the statements “all activities are carried out by the modes” (BG 3.27) “prakṛti is the doer” (BG 13.20), “everything is done by prakṛti alone” (BG 13.29) and “the guṇas alone are the agent” (BG 14.19), claim that prakṛti alone is the agent. That is an impetuous interpretation, since prakṛti, like a lump of earth or wood, is an unconscious element. The ability to gain knowledge, perceive, desire and act—the qualities of the agent—belong to conscious entities alone. The śruti says vijṣānaṁ yajṣaṁ tanute karmāṇi tanute’pi ca: the jīva accomplishes knowledge, sacrifice and action. (Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.5) Śruti also says: eṣa hi draṣṭā spraṣṭā śrotā rasayitā ghrātā mantā boddhā kartā vijṣānātmā puruṣaḥ: the conscious ātmā alone is the seer, toucher, hearer, taster, smeller, thinker, knower, and agent. (Praśna Upaniṣad 4.9) They maintain that prakṛti has this nature of an agent because of being the receptacle of the jīva and thus having superimposition of consciousness. This is not so, because the agency of prakṛti through proximity and imposition is caused by the proximity of the jīva alone. It is seen that the ability of hot iron to burn is due to fire, not the iron. One should not compare dull iron (or prakṛti) to the water that moves or the tree that bears fruit, and thus conclude that this proves prakṛti’s nature as an agent, because all of that action is accomplished by the presence of antaryāmi, and because this contradicts the śruti, which is the foundation of knowledge.
Memory (of scriptural rules) enables one to perform jyotiṣṭoma for bestowing svarga and meditation for bestowing liberation. This indicates that consciousness, the experiencer, not inert prakṛti, is the agent. [Note: What would be the use of scripture if prakṛti did everything?] Agency belongs to the jīva alone. When there are statements in scripture saying that prakrti is the doer, those statements are made in order to show the prominence of her functioning. Though a man carries something using his hand, we say that the hand carries an object. Similarly, because jīva accomplishes using prakṛti, the scriptures say that prakṛti accomplishes. This is how some explain such statements. Others say that prakṛti is said to be the agent in actions like sacrifice or war for the jīva attached to body and senses made of prakṛti, whereas prakṛti is not the agent for the pure jīva without attachment to body and senses.
This verse is very important. It describes how the living entity who is ksetrajna (who, although described here as purusa is actually prakriti) gets trapped within ksetra. It shows a 'phony purusa' who thinks he is the enjoyer of his little ksetra, but actually this ksetra is the field for his suffering. (DS) Due to the desire to enjoy, the living entity takes shelter in matter (sad‑asad‑yoni‑janmasu). Therefore he takes birth in good and bad species of life, life after life. This identification goes on and on until he meets a devotee. Then his desire to enjoy will become weakned and then he can become liberated from that.
[2. Paramatma Purusa (ksetrajna): the Supersoul exists within all bodies as the Overseer, the Permitter, and the Supreme Proprietor. (23) ]
‘Desire to enjoy’ forges the bond between purusha and prakriti
(a) This verse signifies “How a living entity transmigrates from one body to another”
(b) Binding factor to different bodies – Association with the three modes
(c) How Krishna consciousness helps – “Helps to rise above the three modes and be become
transcendental”
(d) How this change can be effected – By “hearing from authoritative sources”
(a) Different manifestations of body and senses among living entities are due to material nature
(b) Material world is a place of struggle – provides different “residential quarters”
(c) Supersoul always accompanies us in all circumstances (in all bodies)
13.22 पुरुषः Purusha? प्रकृतिस्थः seated in Prakriti? हि indeed? भुङक्ते enjoys? प्रकृतिजान् born of Prakriti? गुणान् alities? कारणम् the cause? गुणसङ्गः attachment to the Gunas? अस्य of his? सदसद्योनिजन्मसु of birth in good and evil wombs.Commentary The soul residing in Nature and identifying itself with the body and the senses which are modifications of Nature acts through the alities of Nature and experiences pleasure and pain and delusion. It thinks? I am happy? I am miserable? I am deluded? I am wise. When it thus identifies itself with the alities? it assumes individuality and takes birth in pure and impure wombs.The soul (Jivatma) enjoys the sensual objects in conjunction with the body? mind and the senses and thus becomes the enjoyer. Brahman is the silent witness and nonenjoyer. The souls attachment to the alities of pleasure? pain and delusion is the chief cause of its birth. If you add the word Samsara to the second half of the verse? it will mean Attachment to the alities is the cause of Samsara through births in good and evil wombs.Good wombs (Sat Yoni) are those of the gods and the like evil wombs (Asat Yoni) are those of lower animals. The human womb is partly good and partly evil on account of mixed Karmas.Purushah prakritisthah Purusha (the soul) seated in Prakriti (Nature). This is Avidya (ignorance). Attachment to the alities of Nature is Kama (desire). Avidya and Kama are the cause of Samsara.Jnana (wisdom) and Vairagya (dispassion) will destroy ignorance and desire. (Cf.XIV.5XV.7)
A traveler dresses for the climate he steps into. In a tropical land he wears thin cloth; in a frozen one, fur. The garment is not his choice once he has chosen the climate. So the soul, by associating with sattva, rajas, or tamas, dresses itself in the corresponding species of birth. The mode is the climate; the body is the cloth.
Emperor Bharata, having renounced his kingdom for spiritual practice, found an orphaned fawn and grew attached to it. He fed it, watched over it, worried for it. At the moment of his death, his mind rested on the deer — and so in his next birth, he was born as a deer.
The Bhāgavatam preserves this episode in the Fifth Canto. Whatever mode and association the soul cultivates at the end shapes the next body. Bharata, only by retaining the memory of his previous fall, eventually rose again as Jaḍa Bharata. Guṇa-saṅga decides the species — exactly the verse's claim.
Source: vedabase.io
It is stated here that the Supersoul, who is always with the individual soul, is the representation of the Supreme Lord. He is not an ordinary living entity. Because the monist philosophers take the knower of the body to be one, they think that there is no difference between the Supersoul and the individual soul. To clarify this, the Lord says that He is represented as the Paramātmā in every body. He is different from the individual soul; He is para, transcendental. The individual soul enjoys the activities of a particular field, but the Supersoul is present not as finite enjoyer nor as one taking part in bodily activities, but as the witness, overseer, permitter and supreme enjoyer. His name is Paramātmā, not ātmā, and He is transcendental. It is distinctly clear that the ātmā and Paramātmā are different. The Supersoul, the Paramātmā, has legs and hands everywhere, but the individual soul does not. And because the Paramātmā is the Supreme Lord, He is present within to sanction the individual soul’s desiring material enjoyment. Without the sanction of the Supreme Soul, the individual soul cannot do anything. The individual is bhukta, or the sustained, and the Lord is bhoktā, or the maintainer. There are innumerable living entities, and He is staying in them as a friend. The fact is that every individual living entity is eternally part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, and both of them are very intimately related as friends. But the living entity has the tendency to reject the sanction of the Supreme Lord and act independently in an attempt to dominate nature, and because he has this tendency he is called the marginal energy of the Supreme Lord. The living entity can be situated either in the material energy or in the spiritual energy. As long as he is conditioned by the material energy, the Supreme Lord, as his friend, the Supersoul, stays with him just to get him to return to the spiritual energy. The Lord is always eager to take him back to the spiritual energy, but due to his minute independence the individual entity is continually rejecting the association of spiritual light. This misuse of independence is the cause of his material strife in the conditioned nature. The Lord, therefore, is always giving instruction from within and from without. From without He gives instructions as stated in Bhagavad-gītā, and from within He tries to convince the living entity that his activities in the material field are not conducive to real happiness. “Just give it up and turn your faith toward Me. Then you will be happy,” He says. Thus the intelligent person who places his faith in the Paramātmā or the Supreme Personality of Godhead begins to advance toward a blissful eternal life of knowledge.
Having spoken of the jīva, the Lord now speaks about the Paramātmā. Though the Lord already described Paramātmā in general and in detail from verses thirteen to eighteen, it should be understood that the present statement is made in order to clearly show that the Paramātmā is situated in all bodies along with the jīva, but different from the jīva.
In this body, there is another, supreme puruṣa, the great Lord, called the Paramātmā (paramātmā iti ca api uktaḥ). The word parama in Paramātmā clearly indicates a personal expansion of Lord (svāṁśa), distinct from the jīva, in order to defeat those who propound the theory of one soul only. He is the witness (draṣṭā) situated close to (upa) each jīva, but separate from him. He is the bestower of favors (anumantā), showing mercy by His very closeness to the jīva. The śruti says sakṣi cetaḥ kevalo nirguṇaś ca: He is the witness, the consciousness, pure, beyond the material guṇas. (Gopāla Tāpanī Upaniṣad 2.96) He is the supporter (bhartā) and the protector (bhoktā) of the jīva.
Having spoken of the jīva who is situated in the body as the experiencer of happiness and distress, the Lord now speaks of the Supreme Lord situated there as the controller. In this body there is another person different from the jīva (paraḥ), who is called the great lord (maheśvaraḥ), the supreme ātmā (paramātmā). He is a witness (upadraṣṭā)—seeing, by being situated near to (upa), but different from the jīva. He gives permission (anumantā), for without His permission the jīva cannot do anything at all. He is the supporter or maintainer of the jīva (bharṭa). He is the ruler of the jīva (bhoktā). [Note: Bhoktā means enjoyer but also a ruler, who enjoys a kingdom.] Although the Lord has already said that He is everywhere (staring from verse 13), He says this again in order to emphasize that He is situated with the jīva.
Now the relationship between the two ksetrajnas is explained. One is trying to be purusa and the other is permitting him to be purusa.
[3. Result: One who understands prakrti (ksetra), purusa (ksetrajna jiva/ ksetrajna Supersoul) and their interactions attains liberation and doesn't take his birth again in the material world. (24) ]
Describes actual purusha
THEME: Second type of purusa is mentioned here – He is never entangled like the ordinary purusa
(a) Monist philosophers take knower of the body to be ‘one’ – They think there is no difference
between the Supersoul and the individual soul
Refutation: The Lord says that “He is represented by the Paramatma in every body”
(b) Relationship between living entity and Supersoul
(c) How does an intelligent person act – Places his faith in the Paramatma and begins to advance to a
blissful eternal life of knowledge
PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF TEXTS 13.20 – 13.23
13.23 उपद्रष्टा the spectator? अनुमन्ता the permitter? च and? भर्ता the supporter? भोक्ता the enjoyer? महेश्वरः the great Lord? परमात्मा the Supreme Self? इति thus? च and? अपि also? उक्तः is called? देहे in the body? अस्मिन् (in) this? पुरुषः Purusha? परः Supreme.Commentary Upadrashta A spectator? a witness? a lookeron? a bystander? one who sits near. When the priests and the sacrificer perform the sacrificial rites? an expert who has good experience in sacrifical matters sits by their side. He does not take any part at all in the sacrifice. He sits as a silent witness. He guides them. He points out their defects and corrects them. Even so the Supreme Self does not act. It does not take any part in the activities of the body? the mind and the senses. It is entirely distinct from them. It is a silent witness of their activities. It sits near Nature and silently watches Her actions.It may be explained in another way. The body? the eyes? the mind? the intellect and the Self are the,seers. Of these the body is the most external seer the Self is the most internal and nearest seer. Beyond the Self there is no other internal seer.Anumanta Permitter. The Supreme Self gives consent. It expresses Its approval or satisfaction regarding the actions done by the senses? the mind and the intellect. The King consents and says Yes. The Prime Minister and the other officers carry out his orders. Even so the Supreme Self consents or gives permission the body? the mind? the intellect? and the senses perform their respective functions. Or? though It Itself does not work while the senses? the mind and the intellect work? It appears to be engaged in action? it seems to cooperate with them. As It is an onlooker or mere witness? It never stands in the way of the activities of the body? the mind? the intellect and the senses.Bharta Supporter. Just as the huand is the supporter of his wife? so also the Self is the supporter of this body? mind? intellect? lifeforce and the senses. It is different from them? just as the father who supports the children is different from them.Bhokta Enjoyer the Self? of the nature of eternal intelligence. Just as heat is the inherent nature of fire? so also eternal intelligence is the inherent nature of the Self. All the states of the mind such as pleasure? pain and delusion are permeated and illumined by the intelligent Self. Just as Govindan who takes the food is different from the foo? so also the Self is different from the intellect? the mind and the senses.Mahesvarah The great Lord. As He is the soul or essence of everything and as He is independent of all? He is Mahesvara. The sky is very big. Mahesva is bigger than even the sky? and so He is called Mahesvara. Just as the king is different from his subjects? so also the Self is different from Nature and the effects or modifications of Nature.Paramatma The Supreme Self. It is supreme because It is superior to all those things? from the Unmanifested to the physical body? which are mistaken for the Self on account of ignorance. Just as an iron piece moves in the presence of a magnet so also the mind and the intellect which are insentient move and function in the presence of the Supreme Self. Just as the moon borrows its light from the sun? so also the mind and the intellect borrow their light from the Supreme Self. The Supreme Self is selfluminous. Mind and intellect have no selfluminosity. In the Vedas also He is called the Supreme Self. Lord Krishna says in verse 17 of the fifteenth chapter But distinct is the Highest Purusha spoken of as the Supreme Self.Do thou also know Me as the knower of the field in all the fields? has been described in detial and the subject is concluded in this verse.
Inside the body, two birds perch on the tree (as the Upaniṣad says) — one tastes the fruits, sweet and bitter; the other watches without tasting. The watcher is the Lord, overseer and permitter. Every act you perform is performed in His sight, with His silent consent. Acknowledge the second bird and the first bird's anxieties grow lighter.
The Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad pictures two birds, close friends, perched on the same tree. One eats the tree's fruits — sweet and sour, alternately delighted and troubled. The other watches, eating nothing.
When the eating bird at last turns and notices its silent companion, sorrow falls away. The verse Kṛṣṇa speaks here names that companion as upadraṣṭā, anumantā — the overseer, the permitter. The Gītā is restating the Upaniṣadic image in technical Sāṅkhya vocabulary. Recognize the watcher and you stop being only the eater.
Source: vedabase.io
Clear understanding of material nature, the Supersoul, the individual soul and their interrelation makes one eligible to become liberated and turn to the spiritual atmosphere without being forced to return to this material nature. This is the result of knowledge. The purpose of knowledge is to understand distinctly that the living entity has by chance fallen into this material existence. By his personal endeavor in association with authorities, saintly persons and a spiritual master, he has to understand his position and then revert to spiritual consciousness or Kṛṣṇa consciousness by understanding Bhagavad-gītā as it is explained by the Personality of Godhead. Then it is certain that he will never come again into this material existence; he will be transferred into the spiritual world for a blissful eternal life of knowledge.
The results of this knowledge are stated in this verse. He who knows Paramātmā (puruṣam), prakṛti or māyā-śakti (along with its qualities), and the jīva (indicated only by the word ca), does not take birth again, even though in this life he may be situated in all sorts of unfavorable circumstances (sarvataḥ vartamāno ’pi), such as being overcome by sleep and having uncontrolled mind or other such problems.
This verse speaks of the results of this knowledge. That person who knows the Lord, prakṛti belonging to the Lord, and the jīva (indicated by ca), according to the description given by Me with differentiation of the three (evam), does not take birth again though living in the material world (sarvathā) doing actions to support his body. He is liberated.
Knowing the philosophy explained in Bg. 13.20 – 13.23 causes liberation – no more births
13.24 यः who? एवम् thus? वेत्ति knows? पुरुषम् Purusha? प्रकृतिम् Prakriti? च and? गुणैः alities? सह with? सर्वथा in all ways? वर्तमानः living? अपि also? न not? सः he? भूयः again? अभिजायते is born.Commentary One who knows the Soul and Nature with its alities? whatever his conduct may be? frees himself from the cycle of births and deaths. Such is the advantage he gains from the discriminative knowledge of Spirit and Matter. He knows that he is eternal and changeless and that all changes are due to the modifications of Nature on account of its alities. The self through ignorance identifies itself with the body and suffers rirth.In whatsoever condition he may be? whether he is engaged in prescribed or forbidden acts (like Indra who killed the Purohita Visvarupa and many Sannyasins)? he is not born again? because the,actions (which are the seeds of rirth)? of one who knows the Spirit and Matter? who has gained the knowledge of the Self? are burnt by the fire of that knowledge. Just as the seeds that are fried in fire do not sprout again? so also the actions burnt in the fire of knowledge cannot produce new bodies or further births. In his case they are Karmabhasa (mere semblance of Karma). They are not effective causes and cannot produce further births. A burnt cloth cannot serve the purpose of the cloth.Those actions which are done with egoism and desire (expectation of fruits) will produce fruits or results. In the case of a wise man? the seeds of evil? viz.? ignorance? egoism? attachment? etc.? are burnt by the fire of knowledge. Therefore he cannot have rirths.The Karmas (Prarabdha) which have already started their operation by producing this present birth do not perish? notwithstanding the dawn of the knowledge of the Self. When an arrow is once sent out from a bow at a mark? it pierces the mark and continues to act till it falls to the ground when the full force with which it was dischared is exhausted. Even so the Prarabdha Karma which has given rise to the body continues to act till the inherent force is fully exhausted? although the sage has attained Selfrealisation through his body. But he is not in the least affected by this? because he has no identification with the body? and as he has identified himelf with Brahman or the Absolute. If a carbuncle or cancer arises in the body on account of Prarabdha Karma? he will not suffer a bit as he has risen above bodyconsciousness? and as he stands as a witness of his body. But a bystander or a spectator wrongly imagines that the liberated sage is also suffering like an ordinary worldly man. This is a serious and sad mistake. From the viewpoint of the liberated sage he has neither body nor Prarabdha Karma.An arrow that is placed ready on the bow but not discharged with force can be withdrawn. Similarly? the Karmas which have not begun to generate their fruits or effects can be neutralised or destroyed by the knowledge of the Self. Therefore it is proper to say that the liberated sage is not born again. He will not take another body when the body through which he attained knowledge perishes. As ignorance? the cause of this body? is destroyed by the knowledge of the Self? birth? the effect of ignorance? is also destroyed. As one takes birth through virtuous and vicious actions? a sage will not take birth as his virtuous and visiouc actions (the whole Sanchita or accumulated Karmas of his previous births) are destroyed by the knowledge of the Self. The Karmas done by him after he has attained Selfrealisation cannot touch him at all as he has neither egoism (agency) nor desires. (Cf.XIII.32)
A traveler who has finally read the map correctly will not lose his way again, no matter what road he takes. Understand prakṛti, puruṣa, and the guṇas, and the soul will not be born again, no matter what circumstance it finds itself in at death. Right understanding is itself the road home.
Source: vedabase.io
The Lord informs Arjuna that the conditioned souls can be divided into two classes as far as man’s search for self-realization is concerned. Those who are atheists, agnostics and skeptics are beyond the sense of spiritual understanding. But there are others, who are faithful in their understanding of spiritual life, and they are called introspective devotees, philosophers, and workers who have renounced fruitive results. Those who always try to establish the doctrine of monism are also counted among the atheists and agnostics. In other words, only the devotees of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are best situated in spiritual understanding, because they understand that beyond this material nature are the spiritual world and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is expanded as the Paramātmā, the Supersoul in everyone, the all-pervading Godhead. Of course there are those who try to understand the Supreme Absolute Truth by cultivation of knowledge, and they can be counted in the class of the faithful. The Sāṅkhya philosophers analyze this material world into twenty-four elements, and they place the individual soul as the twenty-fifth item. When they are able to understand the nature of the individual soul to be transcendental to the material elements, they are able to understand also that above the individual soul there is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is the twenty-sixth element. Thus gradually they also come to the standard of devotional service in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Those who work without fruitive results are also perfect in their attitude. They are given a chance to advance to the platform of devotional service in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Here it is stated that there are some people who are pure in consciousness and who try to find out the Supersoul by meditation, and when they discover the Supersoul within themselves, they become transcendentally situated. Similarly, there are others who also try to understand the Supreme Soul by cultivation of knowledge, and there are others who cultivate the haṭha-yoga system and who try to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead by childish activities.
Alternative methods are mentioned in two verses. Some devotees, by contemplation of the Lord (dhyānena) in the mind (atmani) without help from any other process, spontaneously (ātmanā), not by any other process except bhakti, see the Paramātmā. This is understood from a later verse: bhaktyā mām abhijānāti (BG 18.55), only by devotion am I known. Others (anye), jṣānīs, by distinguishing soul from body (sāṅkhyena), and others (apare), yogīs , by aṣṭāṅga-yoga (yogena), and others by niṣkāma-karma (karma-yogena), see Paramātmā. In this regard, jṣāna-yoga, aṣṭāṅga-yoga and niṣkāma-karma-yoga are successive causes of each other and not direct causes of seeing Paramātmā. That is because their nature is sattvic (and thus the result can only be sattvic) but the nature of Paramātmā is beyond the guṇas. Moreover, it is said by the Lord: jṣānaṁ ca mayi sannyaset A self-realized person who has cultivated scriptural knowledge up to the point of enlightenment and who is free from impersonal speculation, understanding the material universe to be simply illusion, should surrender unto Me both that knowledge and the means by which he achieved it. SB 11.19.1 bhakyāham ekayā grāhyaḥ Only by practicing unalloyed devotional service with full faith in Me can one obtain Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. S 11.14.21 Thus, after giving up jṣāna, indicated in the first of the verses quoted, becoming free from jṣāna, one sees Paramātmā by bhakti alone, indicated in the second verse.
For attaining the great Lord, various practices are described in two verses. Some people, with pure consciousness, directly see Me, the great Lord (ātmānam), situated in the mind (ātmani), by meditation with knowledge as a secondary element (dhyānena), without help form anything else (ātmanā). Others see Me by sāṅkhya, by knowledge with meditation as a secondary element. Others see Me by aṣṭāṅga yoga with knowledge as a secondary element. Others see Me by niṣkāma karma, with knowledge and meditation included in it. [Note: The point seems to be that all these methods need some jṣāna in order to reach the realization of paramātmā.]
The Supersoul is jneyam, is the object of knowledge, He is the Purusa. This verse shows three different ways to attain Him. This was so much discussed in the first six chapters. The idea is that through yoga or dhyana (meditation) or through jnana (the cultivation of knowledge) and working without fruitive result ,karma (niskama karma yoga), the only goal to be obtained is the Supersoul.
One can achieve this understanding (Texts 13.20 – 13.23) through various types of yogas
(a) Lord explains two classes of conditioned souls (Based on search for self-realization)
(b) Devotees of the Lord are best situated in spiritual understanding – Because
(c) Sankhya philosophers are also in the class of faithful
(d) Renounced workers are also in the category of faithful and are perfect in their attitude
(a) This verse indicates the result of knowledge – Knowledge of truly understanding the relationship
between soul and Supersoul
(b) The purpose of knowledge – To understand how the living entity has fallen into this material
world in a precarious condition
(c) Understand your position
13.25 ध्यानेन by meditation? आत्मनि in the self? पश्यन्ति behold? केचित् some? आत्मानम् the Self? आत्मना by the self? अन्ये others? सांख्येन योगेन by the Yoga of knowledge (by the Sankhya Yoga)? कर्मयोगेन by Karma Yoga? च and? अपरे others.Commentary There are severla paths to reach the knowledge of the Self according to the nature or temperament and capacity of the individual. The first path is the Yoga of meditation taught by Maharshi Patanjali. The Raja Yogins behold the Supreme Self in the self (Buddhi) by the self (purified mind). Meditation is a continous and unbroken flow of thought of the Self like the flow of oil from one vessel to another. Through concentration hearing and the other senses are withdrawn into the mind. The senses are not allowed to run towards their respective sensual objects. They are kept under proper check and control through the process of abstraction. Then the mind itself is made to abide in the Self through constant meditation on the Self. The mind is refined or purified by meditation. The mind that is rendered pure will naturally move towards the Self. It is not attracted by nor is it attached to the sensual objects.Sankhya Yoga is Jnana Yoga. The aspirant does Vichara (analysis? reflection) and separates himself from the three alities of Nature? the three bodies and the five sheaths and identifies himself with the witness (Self). He thinks and feels? I am distinct from the three alities. I am the silent witness. I am unattached. I am nondoer. I am nonenjoyer. I am immortal? eternal? selfexistent? selfluminous? indivisible? unborn and unchanging.The Karma Yogi surrenders his actions and their fruits to the Lord. He has Isvarapana Buddhi (intelligence that offers everything to God). This produces purity of mind which gives rise to knowledge of the Self. Karma Yoga brings about concentration of the mind through the purification of the mind. It leads to Yoga through the purification of the mind and so it is spoken of as Yoga itself.Those who practise Sankhya Yoga are the highest class of spiritual aspirants. Those who practise the Yoga of meditation are aspirants of the middling class. Those who practise Karma Yoga are the lowest class of spiritual aspirants. The aspirants of the middling and lowest class soon become aspirants of the highest class through rigorous Sadhana or spiritual practices. (Cf.V.5VI.46)
Three pilgrims set out for the same shrine. One takes the mountain road through silence; one the river road through chant; one the forest road through service. They arrive in the same courtyard at the same hour. The shrine is one; the roads are three. Choose your road by the gait of your feet, not by anyone else's praise of their own.
Source: vedabase.io
This verse is particularly applicable to modern society because in modern society there is practically no education in spiritual matters. Some of the people may appear to be atheistic or agnostic or philosophical, but actually there is no knowledge of philosophy. As for the common man, if he is a good soul, then there is a chance for advancement by hearing. This hearing process is very important. Lord Caitanya, who preached Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the modern world, gave great stress to hearing because if the common man simply hears from authoritative sources he can progress, especially, according to Lord Caitanya, if he hears the transcendental vibration Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. It is stated, therefore, that all men should take advantage of hearing from realized souls and gradually become able to understand everything. The worship of the Supreme Lord will then undoubtedly take place. Lord Caitanya has said that in this age no one needs to change his position, but one should give up the endeavor to understand the Absolute Truth by speculative reasoning. One should learn to become the servant of those who are in knowledge of the Supreme Lord. If one is fortunate enough to take shelter of a pure devotee, hear from him about self-realization and follow in his footsteps, one will be gradually elevated to the position of a pure devotee. In this verse particularly, the process of hearing is strongly recommended, and this is very appropriate. Although the common man is often not as capable as so-called philosophers, faithful hearing from an authoritative person will help one transcend this material existence and go back to Godhead, back to home.
Others, who worship Paramātmā, hearing talks from various sources, also surpass death.
Others, though not knowing these methods, having faith in hearing the topics of the Veda (śruti parāyaṇāḥ), are thus qualified. Hearing those methods from speakers of the methods (anyebhyaḥ), they worship that great Lord. Even they, from that association (ca), gradually, after understanding and practicing (ca), definitely (eva) surpass death. The great power of hearing the subject of the Lord is here shown.
'They transcend', why? Because they hear with faith. That is what means to hear from authorities ‑ to hear with faith and without any material desires. Therefore, just by that process of hearing with faith, without material desires, they will attain liberation, they will transcend the path of birth and death. (DS) For those who cannot cultivate knowledge or practice yoga, or renunciation of the fruits of work, in order to attain the Supersoul, for them an alternative is given herein: 'just by hearing of Him from authorities.
[F. JNANA CAKSUSA: THE VISION OF KNOWLEDGE (13. 27‑35) 1. Everything that we see is a combination of the field and the knower of the field. (27) ]
Bhakti is the easiest and the best path to understand this science
13.26 अन्ये others? तु indeed? एवम् thus? अजानन्तः not knowing? श्रुत्वा having heard? अन्येभ्यः from others? उपासते worship? ते they? अपि also? च and? अतितरन्ति cross beyond? एव even? मृत्युम् death? श्रुतिपरायणाः regarding what they have heard as the Supreme refuge.Commentary The three paths? viz.? the Yoga of meditation? the Yoga of knowledge? and the Yoga of action to attain the knowledge of the Self were described in the previous verse. In this verse the Yoga of worship is described.Some who are ignorant of the methods described in the previous verse listen to the teachings of the spiritual preceptors regarding this great Truth or the Self with intense and unshakable faith? solely depending upon the authority of others instructions? and through constant remembrance and contemplation of them attain immortality. They are devoted to their preceptor. Some study the books written by realised seers? stick with great faith to the teachings contained therein and live according to them. They also overcome death. Whichever path one follows? one eventually attains the knowledge of the Self and final liberation from birth and death? -- salvation (Moksha). There are several paths to suit aspirants of different temperaments and eipments.Freeing oneself from ignorance with its effects through the knowledge of the Self? is crossing the Samsara or attaining immortality or overcoming death or obtaining release or salvation.
A man too weak to climb the mountain himself sits by the road and listens, as travelers returning from the summit describe the view. By the end of many evenings he can sketch the summit better than some who climbed. Hearing alone has carried him. So the simple soul, hearing of Kṛṣṇa from devotees, transcends death.
Cursed to die within seven days, Mahārāja Parīkṣit sat by the Ganges and heard the Bhāgavatam from Śukadeva Gosvāmī. He did not meditate. He did not philosophize. He listened.
At the appointed hour, when the snake-bird Takṣaka came, Parīkṣit's mind was so absorbed in hari-kathā that death had nothing to take. The Bhāgavatam frames its entire structure around this listener. Śravaṇa alone, the verse promises, ferries the soul across mṛtyu — and Parīkṣit's seven days are the demonstration.
Source: vedabase.io
Both material nature and the living entity, which were existing before the creation of the cosmos, are explained in this verse. Whatever is created is but a combination of the living entity and material nature. There are many manifestations like trees, mountains and hills which are not moving, and there are many existences which are moving, and all of them are but combinations of material nature and the superior nature, the living entity. Without the touch of the superior nature, the living entity, nothing can grow. The relationship between material nature and spiritual nature is eternally going on, and this combination is effected by the Supreme Lord; therefore He is the controller of both the superior and inferior natures. The material nature is created by Him, and the superior nature is placed in this material nature, and thus all these activities and manifestations take place.
From this verse till the end, the Lord expands on the meaning of what He already spoke. Know that all living entities (sattvam), whether low or high, non-moving or moving, are born from the combination of field and knower of the field.
The Lord speaks of extent of the creation of the living entities that takes place through a combination of the jīva and prakṛti, in order to search out how to separate the two which have been associating since beginningless time. To whatever extent living entities (sattvam) exist, in high or low bodies, in moving and non-moving forms, know that they appear from a combination of the field and the knower of the field. Know they arise from the combination of the two knowers of the field with prakṛti. The Lord, controlling the jīva and prakṛti, puts them in motion. Jīva and prakṛti then mutually bind themselves up. It is understood that the “creation” of living entities in this universe takes place by appearance of their material bodies.
In this Section the Lord explains how to separate the ksetra and ksetrajna. This is going to summarize everything that is needed to transcend 'thinking oneself identifyied with his 'playground'. (DS) Even though the material energy and the spiritual soul are described as beginningless, that doesn't mean that their relat ionship is eternal.
[2. Neither the Supersoul nor the soul within the body are destroyed. (29) ]
Realised person can distinguish between spirit and matter in all circumstances
PRACTICAL APPLICATION SECTION V
One who can see Supersoul, living entities and material nature
in their proper perspective, sees through the eyes of knowledge
(a) This verse especially applies to modern society
(b) Qualification – Any common man, if a good soul – has a chance of advancing by hearing
(c) Lord Caitanya stresses “hearing” as important process
(d) Benediction
(e) Conclusive advice
13.27 यावत् whatever? सञ्जायते is born? किञ्चित् any? सत्त्वम् being? स्थावरजङ्गमम् the unmoving and the moving? क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञसंयोगात् from the union between the field and the knower of the field? तत् that? विद्धि know? भरतर्षभ O best of the Bharatas.Commentary O Arjuna? remember that whatever is born? unmoving or moving? know thou that to be done to the union between the body and the Self.The knower of the field is like the ether without parts. Therefore? there cannot be a union of the field and the knower of the field through contact of each others parts like the contact of the drum and the stick or a rope and a vessel. There cannot be the inseparable connection between them like the connection that exists between the head and the neck? or the arm and the shoulder? because the field and its knower are not related to each other as cause and effect.Then? what sort of union is there between the field and its knower It is of the nature of mutual superimposition or illusion. This consists in confounding the one with the other as well as their attributes? like the union of a rope with a snake? and motherofpearl with silver? on account of lack of discrimination of their real nature. The attributes of the Self are transferred to the body and vice versa. The insentient body is mistaken for the sentient Self. The activities of the body or Nature are transferred to the silent? actionless Self. This sort of illusion or superimposition will disappear when one attains knowledge of the Self? when he is able to separate the field from the knower like the reed from the Munja grass? when he realises that Brahman which is free from all limiting adjuncts is his own immortal Self? and that the field is a mere appearance like the snake in the rope? silver in motherofpearl? an imaginary city in the sky? and is like an object seen in a dream or like the horses? places and forests projected by ajuggler. A sage who has the knowledge of the Self is not born again.
Every embroidered cloth is two things at once — the thread (knower) and the pattern (field). Neither alone is the embroidery. So every being you encounter, from the ant on the step to the elder at the temple gate, is this same union: a soul woven into a body. See both threads and you see truly.
Source: vedabase.io
Anyone who by good association can see three things combined together – the body, the proprietor of the body, or individual soul, and the friend of the individual soul – is actually in knowledge. Unless one has the association of a real knower of spiritual subjects, one cannot see these three things. Those who do not have such association are ignorant; they simply see the body, and they think that when the body is destroyed everything is finished. But actually it is not so. After the destruction of the body, both the soul and the Supersoul exist, and they go on eternally in many various moving and nonmoving forms. The Sanskrit word parameśvara is sometimes translated as “the individual soul” because the soul is the master of the body and after the destruction of the body he transfers to another form. In that way he is master. But there are others who interpret this parameśvara to be the Supersoul. In either case, both the Supersoul and the individual soul continue. They are not destroyed. One who can see in this way can actually see what is happening.
One should therefore know Paramātmā. He who sees the Paramātmā situated in the destructible bodies (vinaśyatsu) of all beings, actually sees. He is an actual jṣānī.
One should see the Supreme Lord, distinct from the jīvas, but situated in the jīvas who are combined with prakṛti. He who, associating with those who know the truth, sees the outstanding quality— that the Supreme Lord, though situated with equal favor in all jīvas having bodies either moving or non-moving, is not destructible in those jīvas who experience destruction with the dissolution of their bodies (vinaśyatsu), actually sees. He is a seer of the truth. According, he sees that the Supreme Lord, being indestructible and equally favoring all, is distinct from the jīvas who are combined with prakṛti, and are subject to various destructions.
One who sees the indestructible Supersoul always accompanying the indestructible individual soul
in all bodies, is the “actual seer”
13.28 समम् eally? सर्वेषु (in) all? भूतेषु in beings? तिष्ठन्तम् existing? परमेश्वरम् the Supreme Lord? विनश्यस्तु among the perishing? अविनश्यन्तम् the unperishing? यः who? पश्यति sees? सः he? पश्यति sees.Commentary He who beholds the Supreme Lord through the inner eye of wisdom? Him Who is seated in all beings from the Creator down to the unmoving objects and Who is not destroyed even when all beings are destroyed? he is said to have realised the Self.In different kinds of fire? the heat is the same. Gold is the same in different forms of ornaments. The light from many lamps is the same. So also in all living being?s the soul is the same. The soul or the Self is uniform everywhere. The Self is the same in ants? elephants? kings? beggars? saints and rogues.The Self is indestructible all living beings are perishable. It is the Supreme Lord when compared to the body? senses? mind? intellect? the Unmanifested Nature and the individual soul.Birth is the root cause of the BhavaVikaras or the modifications? viz.? change? growth? decay and death. The other changes of state manifest themselves after the birth of the body.The Supreme Lord is one and changeless as He is birthless? decayless and deathless. He is the one common consciousness in all beings. He sees rightly who sees the Supreme Lord as now described. He is a Jivanmukta. He has knowledge of the knower of the field or the immortal Self. He is the real seer or a liberated sage.The sage alone sees properly on account of knowledge. The whole world sees erroneously on account of ignorance. He who is suffering from defective vision beholds many moons. He sees erroneously. But he who sees one moon only sees in the proper manner? correctly. Even so he who beholds the one immortal indivisible Self in all beings really sees the Truth. He alone sees. He who sees many distinct selves erroneously does not really see though he sees. He is like the man who beholds many moons. (Cf.VIII.20
When the city is burning, the air above it is not burned. The Supersoul stands so above the body's destruction — present in it, untouched by it. To see this — to see the body dying and the Supersoul not — is to see at last with the right eye. All other sight is half-sight.
When the Pāṇḍavas had been killed (as Dhṛtarāṣṭra heard from his ministers), the blind king mourned for his sons too — knowing the war was his own making. Vidura came and taught him: the body falls, but the soul cannot fall. The Supersoul in every chest is untouched by the destruction of the chest.
The Mahābhārata records the slow turning of Dhṛtarāṣṭra's heart through Vidura's repeated instruction in this very principle. Equal-vision begins with the recognition that what truly *is* in another cannot be killed.
Source: vedabase.io
The living entity, by accepting his material existence, has become situated differently than in his spiritual existence. But if one understands that the Supreme is situated in His Paramātmā manifestation everywhere, that is, if one can see the presence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in every living thing, he does not degrade himself by a destructive mentality, and he therefore gradually advances to the spiritual world. The mind is generally addicted to sense gratifying processes; but when the mind turns to the Supersoul, one becomes advanced in spiritual understanding.
He who sees Me situated everywhere does not make the soul (ātmānam) fall down (hinasti) by the mind (ātmanā), which wanders on the wrong path.
Seeing the Lord distinct from jīva and prakṛti by the above mentioned method, that person attains power to discriminate himself from the transformations of prakṛti, by the power of seeing that Lord. He who sees the Lord situated distinctly (samyak avasithitam) with permanent qualities and form, such that He treats all living entities equally (samam), does not cause degradation of himself (ātmanam) by a mind which distinguishes the transformations of prakṛti and is lusty for the taste of sense objects (ātmanā). He attains the excellent path (parām gatim), knowledge of discriminating the self from the transformations of prakṛti, by disgust with the taste for prakṛti.
Thus seeing in proper knowledge, one does not degrade himself by pursuing selfish desires of the
mind; but one approaches the transcendental destination
13.29 समम् eally? पश्यन् seeing? हि indeed? सर्वत्र everywhere? समवस्थितम् eally dwelling? ईश्वरम् the Lord? न not? हिनस्ति destroys? आत्मना by the self? आत्मानम् the Self? ततः then? याति goes? पराम् the highest? गतिम् the goal.Commentary This is the vision of a liberated sage. The Supreme Self abides in all forms. There is nothing apart from It.An ignorant man destroyes the Self by identifying himself with the body and the modifications of the mind and by not seeing the one Self in all beings. He has a blurred vision. His mind is very gross. He cannot think of the subtle Self. He is swayed by the force of ignorance. He mistakes the impure body for the pure Self. He has false knowledge. But the sage has knowledge of the Self or true knowledge and so he beholds the one Self in all beings. An ignorant man is the slayer of his Self. He destroys this body and takes another body and so on. But he who beholds the one Self in all beings does not destroy the Self by the self. Therefore he attains the Supreme Goal? i.e.? he attains release from the round of birth and death. Knowledge of the Self leads to liberation or salvation. Knowledge of the Absolute annihilates the ignorance in toto. If the ignorance is destroyed and false knowledge is also destroyed? all evils are simultaneously destroyed.Those who have realised that unity of the Self in all these diverse forms are never caught in the meshes of birth and death. They attain the state of Turiya (the fourth state beyond waking? dreaming and deep sleep) where form and sound do not exist.The self is everybodys friend and also his enemy as well. The idea first expressed in chapter VI? verses 5 and 6 is repeated here. (Cf.XVIII.20)
A judge who treats every plaintiff alike cannot be bribed against himself; his evenness protects him as much as it protects the court. So the seer who sees the same Lord in every being cannot use his own mind to hurt himself — the equal vision is its own shield. He arrives at the destination intact.
Source: vedabase.io
This body is made by material nature under the direction of the Supersoul, and whatever activities are going on in respect to one’s body are not his doing. Whatever one is supposed to do, either for happiness or for distress, one is forced to do because of the bodily constitution. The self, however, is outside all these bodily activities. This body is given according to one’s past desires. To fulfill desires, one is given the body, with which he acts accordingly. Practically speaking, the body is a machine, designed by the Supreme Lord, to fulfill desires. Because of desires, one is put into difficult circumstances to suffer or to enjoy. This transcendental vision of the living entity, when developed, makes one separate from bodily activities. One who has such a vision is an actual seer.
One who sees that all actions are done by prakṛti in the form of body and senses, and who sees that the jīva (ātmānam) is the doer only by thinking himself the body, but is not actually the doer, actually sees.
How does he perform this distinction of the individual self from prakṛti? [Note: In the previous verse the person distinguished the Lord from everything, by which he developed the power of discriminating himself from prakṛti.] The Lord explains in two verses. He who sees that all activities are being done by prakṛti alone, and impelled by the Lord, by My superintendence (indicated by the word ca), and sees the ātmā as not doing those activities, he alone sees himself as he truly is. This is the meaning. I, a jīva, having a nature of knowledge and bliss, do not actually perform the actions which produce suffering, such as fighting or sacrifice. Inspired by the Supreme Lord according to my desires for fulfilling my enjoyment, and superintended by me who have lost discrimination and possess beginningless impressions for enjoyment, this prakṛti alone with the nature of happiness, distress and illusion does the actions, through my body and senses. Because of supplying the body and senses, prakṛti is the doer of the actions. Prakṛti is the doer of the actions because of being the instrument. The pure jīva, the non-doer, is separate from prakṛti which accomplishes that action. By this (since he sees the jīva as non-doer in material acts) it is clear that such a person also sees that the pure jiva is also a doer.
'Aham khara' = I am the doer.
Further describes the man who “actually sees” in real knowledge
13.30 प्रकृत्या by Nature? एव alone? च and? कर्माणि actions? क्रियमाणानि being performed? सर्वशः all? यः who? पश्यति sees? तथा so also? आत्मानम् the Self? अकर्तारम् actionless? सः he? पश्यति sees.Commentary Nature is responsible for all activities. The Self is beyond all action. It is the silent witness only. He who experiences thus is the real seer or sage.He who knows that all actions proceeding from the five organs of knowledge? the five organs of action? the mind and the intellect are prompted by Nature and that the Self is actionless? really sees. He alone sees. He who identifies himself with the body? the mind and the senses and foolishly thinks that the Self is the actor is an ignorant man. He sees only with the physical eyes. He has no inner eye of intuition. The sky remains motionless but the clouds move across the sky. Even so the Self is actionless but Nature does everythin. The Self is destitute of any limiting adjunct. Just as there is no variety in ether? so also there is no variety in the Self. It is one homogeneous essence. It is free from any kind of characteristics. (Cf.III.27XIV.19XVIII.16)
A pen lies on the desk while the writer's hand moves it across the page. From the page's perspective, the pen is writing; from the truer view, the hand is. The body, like the pen, is the visible mover; the self, the truer agent, does not write at all — and the soul, deeper still, only watches the writing happen.
Source: vedabase.io
When one can see that the various bodies of living entities arise due to the different desires of the individual soul and do not actually belong to the soul itself, one actually sees. In the material conception of life, we find someone a demigod, someone a human being, a dog, a cat, etc. This is material vision, not actual vision. This material differentiation is due to a material conception of life. After the destruction of the material body, the spirit soul is one. The spirit soul, due to contact with material nature, gets different types of bodies. When one can see this, he attains spiritual vision; thus being freed from differentiations like man, animal, big, low, etc., one becomes purified in his consciousness and able to develop Kṛṣṇa consciousness in his spiritual identity. How he then sees things will be explained in the next verse.
When one perceives that the various forms of the living beings, moving and non- moving (pṛthag-bhāvam), are situated in the one prakṛti at the time of pralaya, and sees at the time of creation the expansion of living entities from prakṛti, he becomes Brahman (brahma saṁpadyate). [Note: Brahman would here mean that the jīva attains qualities similar to the Lord.]
That jīva sees that all living entities, who have assumed various forms such as devas and men (bhūta pṛthag bhāvam), lose those distinctions of deva and men and variations of big and small and become one by entering prakṛti (ekastham) at the time of universal destruction. He sees that they disperse again from prakṛti as many forms at the time of creation. It is not that he sees that all the forms enter into himself and then disperse into many forms from himself. In other words when the jīva sees his ātmā distinct from prakṛti, he realizes (sampadyate) himself (brahma), manifesting the eight great qualities such as freedom from sin, distinct from prakṛti.
When one is looking around and he sees so many material bodies and he ceases to see them as their field of activities, but one sees them for what they are ‑ the ksetrajna, the soul ‑ that is Brahman vision.
Only the body acts – Living entity is distinct from the field of activities
(a) A sensible man ceases to see different identities due to different material bodies
(b) Sees how beings are expanded everywhere, and thus attains to the “Brahman conception”
(a) Current situation of living entity – One has situated himself differently than in spiritual world
(b) Role of mind – Mind is generally addicted to sense gratification; When the mind turns to the
Supersoul, one becomes advanced
(a) Explains the man in real knowledge – To see the three things i.e. the body, its proprietor and the
Supersoul as the friend of the soul, in their proper perspective
(b) How such vision is possible – By good association with real knower of spiritual subjects
(c) Two meanings of “paramesvara”
LINK BETWEEN TEXTS 13.31 & 13.32:
What does a person with Brahman vision see?
13.31 यदा when? भूतपृथग्भावम् the whole variety of beings? एकस्थम् resting in the One? अनुपश्यति sees? ततः from that? एव alone? च and? विस्तारम् the spreading? ब्रह्म Brahman? सम्पद्यते (he) becomes? तदा then.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. As waves in water? atoms in the earth? rays in the sun? organs in the body? emotions in the mind? sparks in the fire? so verily are all forms rooted in the One. Wherever he turns his gaze he beholds only the one Self and enjoys the bliss of the Self.When he beholds the diversity of beings rooted in the One in accordance with the teachings of the scriptures and the preceptor? he realises through intuitive experience that all that he beholds is nothing but the Self and that the origin and the evolution of all is from That One alone. Compare with the Chhandogya Upanishad? 7.26.1.आत्मतः प्राण आत्मत आशा आत्मतः स्मरआत्मत आकाश आत्मतस्तेज आत्मत आपःआत्मत आविर्भावतिरोभावावात्मतोऽन्नम्।।Atmatah prana atmata asa atmatah smaraAtmata akasa atmatasteja atmata apahAtmata avirbhavatirobhavavatmatonnam.From the Self is life from the Self is desire from the Self is love from the Self is ether from the Self is light from the Self are the waters from the Self is appearance and disappearance from the Self is food.
Walk through a forest and you see ten thousand leaves — but they grow from a few trees, and the trees stand on one piece of ground. Walk through the species of life and you see ten thousand identities — but they grow from one source, and that source is Brahman. The sage's eye sees the ground beneath the leaves.
Source: vedabase.io
A living entity appears to be born because of the birth of the material body, but actually the living entity is eternal; he is not born, and in spite of his being situated in a material body, he is transcendental and eternal. Thus he cannot be destroyed. By nature he is full of bliss. He does not engage himself in any material activities; therefore the activities performed due to his contact with material bodies do not entangle him.
“You have said that the jīva in contact with his body takes repeated birth (verse 22). The jīva, by thinking himself the body by being in the body, becomes contaminated by the guṇas and takes repeated birth. But the Paramātmā does not become contaminated. Why?” He is called anādi because He has no original cause. But just as anuttama can mean parama uttama taking the ablative sense of the word (no one higher than Him), so anādi, “having no cause”, can mean the supreme cause (no other cause than Him). Therefore because He is the final cause (anāditvāt), and because the guṇas such as creation and destruction arise out of Him (nirgataḥ + guṇa = nirguṇatvāt), this Paramātmā is distinguished from the jīva. At all times, in all circumstances, He is without decrease in His own knowledge, bliss and other qualities. Though situated in the body, because He does not take up the qualities of the body, He does not think He is a doer like the jīva (na karoti)— He does not become an enjoyer—nor does He get contaminated by the guṇas of the material body (na lipyate).
“It is not correct to say that one reaches perfection by seeing the distinction of the Lord and ātmā from prakṛti. The śruti says: etebhya eva bhūtebhyaḥ samutthāya tāny evānu vinaśyati na pretya saṁjṣāsti Rising out of the elements, this ātmā vanishes in them. After destruction, there is no definition. Bṛhad Āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 2.4.12 From this śruti statement it is understood that the jīva is created and destroyed along with his body.” No, this jīva (ayam ātmā), even though situated in a body, as well as being without beginning (anāditvāt param), is avyaya. Having this prominent quality of being without change (avyaya), he is thus without destruction. He does not perform actions such as fighting or sacrifice, because he is without material guṇas, being pure knowledge and bliss (nirguṇatvāt). He is not touched by the qualities of destruction arising from the nature of the senses and body. The meaning of the śruti statement quoted should not be taken literally.
Vision of eternity is further explained – One can see that the soul never mixes with the body
explains this with two analogies in Text 13.33 and 13.34 respectively
13.32 अनादित्वात् being without beginning? निर्गुणत्वात् being devoid of alities? परमात्मा the Supreme Self? अयम् this? अव्ययः imperishable? शरीरस्थः dwelling in this body? अपि though? कौन्तेय O son of Kunti (Arjuna)? न not करोति acts? न not? लिप्यते is tainted.Commentary The Supreme Self is beyond Nature. Therefore It is without alities. It is Nirguna. The activity in Nature is really due to its own alities which inhere in it. The Supreme Self existed before the body came into being and will continue to be after its dissolution. It is eternally the same and imperishable.Avyaya That which is free from the changes of birth and death or appearance and destruction. That which has a beginning has birth. After the object is born it is subject to the changes of being (growth? decay? etc.). As the Self is birthless? It is free from the changes of state (existence? birth? growth? change? decay and death). As the Self is free from all sorts of functions? It is Avyaya. Even if the reflection of the sun in the water moves? the sun does not move a bit. Even so the Supreme Self is not touched by the fruits of action as It is not the doer? as It is without the alities of Nature? or limbs? indivisible? devoid of parts? without action? beginningless and unattached and causeless.This Supreme Self is free from the three kinds of differences? viz.? Sajatiyabheda? Vijatiyabheda and Svagatabheda. A mango tree is different from a fig tree. This is Sajatiyabheda. A mango tree is different from a stone. This is Vijatiyabheda. In the same mango tree there is difference between leaves? flowers and fruits. This is Svagatabheda. But the Supreme Self is one without a second. There is no other Brahman Which is eal to It. Therefore? there cannot be Sajatiyabheda in Brahman. This world is a mere appearance. It is a mere figment of our imagination. It is superimposed on the Absolute on account of ignorance. An imaginary object has no independent existence apart from its substratum? just as the snake in the rope has no independent existence apart from its substratum? the rope. Therefore? there cannot be Vijatiyabheda in Brahman. Brahman is indivisible? partless? without alities? without form and without any limbs. Therefore there cannot be Svagatabheda in Brahman.Brahman or the Supreme Self is beginningless. It is without a cause. It is selfexistent. It is without parts. It is without alities. Therefore Brahman is imperishable. As It is unattached? It is neither the doer nor the enjoyer. If Brahman also is the doer and enjoyer. It is no longer Brahman. It is in no way better than ourselves. This cannot be. Agency and enjoyment are attributed to the ego on account of ignorance. It is Nature that acts. (Cf.V.14XV.9)
Sunlight passes through a stained glass window and falls onto a stone floor. The light takes on the window's colors briefly, yet the sun itself is untouched, undyed, blazing white above. The soul, eternal and beyond the guṇas, is so untouched by the body it appears within. Color shows on the floor; the sun keeps its purity.
Source: vedabase.io
The air enters into water, mud, stool and whatever else is there; still it does not mix with anything. Similarly, the living entity, even though situated in varieties of bodies, is aloof from them due to his subtle nature. Therefore it is impossible to see with the material eyes how the living entity is in contact with this body and how he is out of it after the destruction of the body. No one in science can ascertain this.
In this verse the Lord gives an example. Just as the ether, situated in mud and other places, is not contaminated because it is most subtle—not contacting the mud at all, the Paramātmā is not connected with the guṇas or faults of the material body, and therefore is not contaminated.
“If the jīva is situated in the body, how is it that he is not contaminated by its qualities?” Just as ether, though entering everywhere, into mud or other impure items, is not touched by their qualities because of being very subtle, so the jīva, though situated in all high and low bodies of devas and men, is not contaminated by those qualities, because he is very subtle.
1st Analogy: Like the sky (because of its subtle nature) does not mix with anything, although it is all
pervading; similarly the soul in Brahman vision does not mix with the body, though situated in the body
13.33 यथा as? सर्वगतम् the allpervading? सौक्ष्म्यात् because of its subtlety? आकाशम् ether? न not? उपलिप्यते is tainted? सर्वत्र everywhere? अवस्थितः seated? देहे in the body? तथा so? आत्मा the Self? न not? उपलिप्यते is tainted.Commentary Ether pervades everything. All are immersed in it. There is no point whereunto ether does not penetrate and pervade and yet it is not tainted by anything. Even so the Self pervades the whole body and the whole world. Being subtler than the body the Self is never tainted by it or anything else. It is unattached and actionless. It has no parts or limbs. So virtuous and vicious actions cannot contaminate the Self. It is ever pure and stainless.
The sky fills the room, the cave, the lung, the pot — yet take any of them away and the sky has lost nothing, gained nothing, been altered by nothing. The soul lives in the body with that same untouchability. Whatever the body has done or had done to it, the soul is the sky inside the room.
Held captive in Rāvaṇa's garden, surrounded by demonesses, threatened daily — Sītā's outer circumstances were dire. Yet her inner life remained unstained. She refused even to look at Rāvaṇa; her mind dwelt always on Rāma.
The Rāmāyaṇa portrays her as the embodiment of this verse's truth. The body was in Laṅkā; the soul was in Ayodhyā. Like the sky in a polluted city — present everywhere, contaminated nowhere — her self was untouched by what surrounded it. Brahman-vision is portable; the captor cannot reach it.
Source: vedabase.io
There are various theories regarding consciousness. Here in Bhagavad-gītā the example of the sun and the sunshine is given. As the sun is situated in one place but is illuminating the whole universe, so a small particle of spirit soul, although situated in the heart of this body, is illuminating the whole body by consciousness. Thus consciousness is the proof of the presence of the soul, as sunshine or light is the proof of the presence of the sun. When the soul is present in the body, there is consciousness all over the body, and as soon as the soul has passed from the body there is no more consciousness. This can be easily understood by any intelligent man. Therefore consciousness is not a product of the combinations of matter. It is the symptom of the living entity. The consciousness of the living entity, although qualitatively one with the supreme consciousness, is not supreme, because the consciousness of one particular body does not share that of another body. But the Supersoul, which is situated in all bodies as the friend of the individual soul, is conscious of all bodies. That is the difference between supreme consciousness and individual consciousness.
Using an example, the Lord shows how the Paramātmā, being the source of illumination, is not connected with the qualities of what He illuminates. Just as the sun, the illuminator, is not connected to the qualities of what He illuminates, the Paramātmā (kṣetrī) illumines everything and is not affected. The śruti says: sūryo yathā sarva-lokasya cakṣur na lipyate cākṣuṣair bāhya-doṣaiḥ ekas tathā sarva-bhūtāntarātmā na lipyate śoka-duḥkhena bāhyaḥ
Just as the sun is the eye of all people but is not contaminated by the material faults of the eyes, so the Paramātmā within all beings is not contaminated by lamentation and suffering of the material world. Kaṭha Upaniṣad 5.11
This ātmā, not contaminated by the qualities of the body, nourishes the body by its qualities. Just as the one sun illuminates the whole world with its light, so the jīva (kṣetrī) illuminates, or gives consciousness (prakāśayati) to the whole body (kṣetram) from head to foot by its consciousness. The author of Vedānta says guṇād vā lokavad: as a flame pervades a room by its rays, the soul pervades the whole body by its quality. (Vedānta Sūtra 2.3.24)
Krsna, in this last few verses, is giving examples to help us to understand.
[5. Summary: One who sees the distinction between the body, its owner, and the Supersoul, and one who recognize the process of liberation, can attain the supreme goal. (35) ]
2nd Analogy: As the sun alone illuminates all this universe, similarly the living entity illuminates the
entire body by consciousness
(a) Consciousness is the proof of presence of soul – e.g. Sunshine is the proof of sun
(b) Difference between “Supreme consciousness” and “individual consciousness”
PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF TEXTS 13.29 – 13.31
13.34 यथा as? प्रकाशयति illumines? एकः one? कृत्स्नम् the whole? लोकम् world? इमम् this? रविः sun? क्षेत्रम् the field? क्षेत्री the Lord of the field (Paramatma)? तथा so? कृत्स्नम् the whole? प्रकाशयति illumines? भारत O descendant of Bharata (Arjuna).Commentary The Supreme Self is one. It illumines the whole matter from the Unmanifested down to the blade of grass or a lump of clay? from the great elements down to firmness or fortitude. (Cf. verses 5 and 6.) Just as the sun is one? just as the sun illumines the whole world? just as the sun is not tainted? so also the Self is One in all bodies? It illumines all the bodies and It is not contaminated.
One sun, ninety-three million miles away, sends light into every blade of grass, every wave, every windowpane in the city — and the city wakes. So the soul, one alone in the body, sends consciousness into every cell, every limb, every thought — and the body becomes alive. Withdraw the sun and the city is dark. Withdraw the soul and the body is corpse.
Source: vedabase.io
The purport of this Thirteenth Chapter is that one should know the distinction between the body, the owner of the body, and the Supersoul. One should recognize the process of liberation, as described in verses 8 through 12. Then one can go on to the supreme destination. A faithful person should at first have some good association to hear of God and thus gradually become enlightened. If one accepts a spiritual master, one can learn to distinguish between matter and spirit, and that becomes the stepping-stone for further spiritual realization. A spiritual master, by various instructions, teaches his students to get free from the material concept of life. For instance, in Bhagavad-gītā we find Kṛṣṇa instructing Arjuna to free him from materialistic considerations. One can understand that this body is matter; it can be analyzed with its twenty-four elements. The body is the gross manifestation. And the subtle manifestation is the mind and psychological effects. And the symptoms of life are the interaction of these features. But over and above this, there is the soul, and there is also the Supersoul. The soul and the Supersoul are two. This material world is working by the conjunction of the soul and the twenty-four material elements. One who can see the constitution of the whole material manifestation as this combination of the soul and material elements and can also see the situation of the Supreme Soul becomes eligible for transfer to the spiritual world. These things are meant for contemplation and for realization, and one should have a complete understanding of this chapter with the help of the spiritual master. Thus end the Bhaktivedanta Purports to the Thirteenth Chapter of the Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā in the matter of Nature, the Enjoyer and Consciousness.
The Lord summarizes the contents of the chapter. Those who know the difference between two knowers of the field (kṣetra-jṣayoḥ), the jīva and Paramātmā, along with the field, and also the method of liberation (mokṣa) from prakṛti for the living entities (bhūta), such as meditation, achieve the supreme goal. Among the knowers of the field, the jīva, enjoying the qualities of the field, is bound up, but is also liberated by knowledge. This is the meaning of the chapter. Thus end the commentaries on the thirteen chapter of the Gītā for the pleasure of the devotees’ minds, by the mercy of the ācāryas.
Concluding the contents of this chapter, the Lord speaks of the results of such knowledge. Those who know by eyes which see the differences (jṣāna cakṣuṣā)—the difference (antaram) of the jīva and the Lord from the field of prakṛti, by the method discussed by Me, and who know the process for liberation of the living entities from prakṛti (bhūta prakṛti mokṣam), starting with amānitvā, go to My supreme attractive abode called the spiritual sky (param). Both the jīva and the Lord are situated in the body. The jīva, joined to the qualities of the body, is bound up, but is liberated by understanding the Lord. This is the knowledge of the thirteenth chapter. Chapter 14
Srila Prabhupada says in his Purport: "The purport of this Thirteenth Chapter is that one should know the distinction between the body, the owner of the body, and the Supersoul. One should recognize the process of liberation, as described in verses eight through twelve. Then one can go on to the supreme destination. A faithful person should at first have some good association to hear of God and thus gradually become enlightened. If one accepts a spiritual master, one can learn to distinguish between matter and spirit, and that becomes the steppingstone for further spiritual realization. A spiritual master, by various instructions, teaches his students to get free fro material concept of life. For instance, in Bhagavad‑gita we find Krsna instructing Arjuna to free him from materialistic considerations. One can understand that this body is matter; it can be analyzed with its twenty‑four elements. The body is the gross manifestation. And the subtle manifestation is the mind and psychological effects. And the symptoms of life are the interaction of these features. But over and above this, there is the soul, and there is also the Supersoul. The soul and the Supersoul are two. This material world is working by the conjunction of the soul and the twenty‑four material elements. One who can see the constitution of the whole material manifestation as this combination of the soul and mat elements and can also see the situation of the Supreme Soul becomes eligible for transfer to the spiritual world. These things are meant for contemplation and for realization, and one should have a complete understanding of this chapter with the help of the spiritual master."
THUS ENDS THE STUDY OF CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
page \* arabic6
A one verse chapter summary
THEME: Seeing with the eyes of knowledge, the following things, one attains the Supreme Goal
SUMMARIZED THEME 13C
A) One can distinguish between spirit and matter in all circumstances (13.27)
B) One sees indestructible Supersoul accompanying the indestructible individual soul in all the bodies
(13.28)
C) One sees the Supersoul equally present everywhere (13.29)
D) One sees that all activities are performed by the body and the self does nothing (13.30)
E) One sees the living entity as distinct from the field of activities (13.31)
F) One sees that soul never mixes with the body, but is transcendental and eternal (13.32)
(a) Purport of Chapter 13
(b) How the process works
(c) Conclusion and Suggestion
Bhagavad Gita Notes
Selected Texts extracted from “Surrender unto Me”
13.35 क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञयोः between the Kshetra and the Kshetrajna? एवम् thus? अन्तरम् distinction? ज्ञानचक्षुषा by the eye of knowledge? भूतप्रकृतिमोक्षम् the liberation from the Prakriti of being? च and? ये who? विदुः know? यान्ति go? ते they? परम् the Supreme.Commentary They who know through the eye of intuition opened by meditation and the instructions of the spiritual preceptor and the scriptures? that the field is insentient? the doer? changing and finite? and that the knower of the field (the Self) is pure consciousness? the nondoer? unchanging and infinite? and who also perceive the nonexistence of Nature? ignorance? the Unmanifested? the material cause of being -- they attain the Supreme. Through the attainment of Selfrealisation or knowledge of the Self? they are entirely liberated from the clutches or the influence of Maya (delusion) and ignorance. They do not assume any more bodies. They are not born again. They attain Kaivalya Moksha.In accordance with the doctrine of the Sankhyas? bondage and freedom do not pertain to the Self because It is always unattached and it is the nondoer and nonenjoyer and also without limbs or parts. But on account of Its union with Nature? It assumes agency through superimposition. When ignorance is annihilated through the knowledge of the Self? Nature which is conjoined with the Self is liberated. Then She gives up Her play or dance in front of the Spirit. She has discharged all Her duties well for the sake of the enjoyment and the release (Bhoga and Apavarga) of the Purusha (Spirit). Therefore the Sankhyas declare that bondage and freedom are states of Nature only. Some interpret that the Self is emancipated from the shackles of Nature and Her modifications.(This chapter is known by the name PrakritiPurushaVibhagaYoga also.)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 entitledThe Yoga of the Distinction BetweenThe Field and the Knower of the Field. ,
A pair of new eyeglasses, ground correctly, makes a blurred world snap into focus. The 'eyes of knowledge' (jñāna-cakṣus) work like that — what was an undifferentiated tangle of body and self resolves into two clear things, and the path of liberation appears in sharp outline. Those who put on these glasses arrive. Those who refuse them keep stumbling.
Jaḍa Bharata, reborn after his deer-attachment, hid his realization behind the manner of an idiot. When the king Rahūgaṇa pressed him into palanquin service and rebuked him for his clumsy gait, Jaḍa Bharata at last spoke — and what came out was this exact chapter's vision: "You speak to whom? To the body? The body cannot hear. To the soul? The soul has no body to carry palanquins."
The Bhāgavatam preserves the discourse in the Fifth Canto. With his jñāna-cakṣus opened, Jaḍa Bharata saw cleanly through the king's confusion. Rahūgaṇa fell at his feet. The verse's promise — *they attain the supreme* — was already true of the speaker.
Source: vedabase.io