Yoga through Distinguishing the Field and the Knower of the Field

Arjuna said, "I wish to learn about Nature and the Spirit, the field and the knower of the field, knowledge and that which ought to be known, O Kesava."

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 Blessed Lord said, "O Arjuna, this body is called the field; he who knows it is called the knower of the field by those who know them."

Kshetra literally means field. The body is so called because the fruits (harvest) of actions in the form of pleasure and pain are reaped in it as in a field. The physical, the mental and the causal bodies go to…

Do thou also know Me as the knower of the field in all fields, O Arjuna. Knowledge of both the field and the knower of the field is considered by Me to be the knowledge.

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…

Hear from Me in brief what the field is, of what nature it is, what its modifications are, whence it is, who He is, and what His powers are.

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…

Sages have sung in many ways, with various distinctive chants and also with suggestive words indicative of the Absolute, full of reasoning and decisive.

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…

The great elements, egoism, intellect, and also the Unmanifested Nature, the ten senses, and one mind, and the five objects of the senses.

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…

Desire, hatred, pleasure, pain, the aggregate (body), intelligence, and fortitude—the field has thus been briefly described with its modifications.

These principles form the frame or the skelteton on which the world of forms is built. All these are mental states and treated as properties of the body by the Sankhya school of thought. According to the NyayaYaiseshika…

Humility, unpretentiousness, non-injury, forgiveness, uprightness, service to the teacher, purity, steadfastness, and self-control.

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…

Indifference to the objects of the senses and also absence of egoism; perceiving the evil in birth, death, old age, sickness, and pain.

The feeling of renunciation towards the objects of the senses is constant in the man of wisdom. He does not even like to talk about them. His senses do not run towards them.Vairagyam Indifference to the senseobjects such…

Non-attachment, non-identification of the Self with son, wife, home, and the rest, and constant even-mindedness in the face of the attainment of both desirable and undesirable.

When a man thinks, This object is mine, the idea of mineness enters his mind. He develops Abhimana (false identification). Then he begins to love the objects. He clings to them and gets attached to them. Asakti is…

Unswerving devotion to Me through the Yoga of non-separation, resorting to solitary places, and a distaste for the company of people.

The man of wisdom is firmly convinced that there is nothing higher than Me and that I am the sole refuge. He has unflinching devotion to Me through Yoga without any thought,for other objects. His mind has merged or…

Constancy in Self-knowledge, the perception of the end of true knowledge—this is declared to be knowledge, and what is opposed to it is ignorance.

The liberated sage has constant awareness of the Self. He knows that knowledge of the Self alone is permanent and all other learning relating to this world is ignorance. He knows that the knowledge which leads to the…

I will declare that which is to be known, knowing which one attains immortality; the beginningless Supreme Brahman, which is neither being nor non-being.

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…

With hands and feet everywhere, with eyes, heads, and mouths everywhere, with ears everywhere, He exists in the worlds, enveloping all.

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…

Shining by the functions of all the senses, yet without being attached to them; unattached, yet supporting all; devoid of qualities, yet the experiencer of them.

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.…

It is within and without all beings, both the unmoving and the moving; It is subtle and unknowable, and It is near and far away.

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…

Undivided yet, It exists as if divided in beings; It is to be known as the supporter of beings; It devours and It generates.

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.…

That Light of all lights is said to be beyond darkness: knowledge, the knowable, and the goal of knowledge, seated in the hearts of all.

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…

Thus, the field, as well as knowledge and the knowable, have been briefly stated. My devotee, knowing this, enters into My being.

Know that Nature (matter) and the Spirit are both beginningless, and know also that all modifications and qualities are born from Nature.

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…

In the production of the effect and the cause, Nature (matter) is said to be the cause; in the experience of pleasure and pain, the soul is said to be the one responsible.

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…

The soul seated in Nature experiences the qualities born of Nature; attachment to the qualities is the cause of its birth in good and evil wombs.

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,…

The Supreme Soul in this body is also called the observer, the permitter, the sustainer, the enjoyer, the great Lord, and the Supreme Self.

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…

He who thus knows the Spirit and Matter together with their qualities, in whatever condition he may be, he is not reborn.

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.…

Some behold the Self within themselves through meditation, others through the Yoga of knowledge, and still others through the Yoga of action.

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…

Others, too, who do not know thus, worship, having heard of It from others; they, too, cross beyond death, regarding what they have heard as the supreme refuge.

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…

Wherever a being is born, whether unmoving or moving, know thou, O best of the Bharatas (Arjuna), that it is from the union of the field and its knower.

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…

He who sees the Supreme Lord existing truly in all beings, the imperishable within the perishable, sees indeed.

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…

For he who truly sees the same Lord dwelling everywhere does not destroy the Self by the self; rather, he attains the highest goal.

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…

He sees, who sees that all actions are performed solely by Nature and that the Self is without action.

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…

When a person sees all beings as resting in the One and emanating from the One alone, they then become Brahman.

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,…

Being without beginning, devoid of any qualities, the Supreme Self, imperishable, though dwelling in the body, O Arjuna, neither acts nor is tainted.

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…

As the all-pervading ether is not tainted, due to its subtlety, so the Self seated everywhere in the body is not tainted either.

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.…

Just as the one sun illuminates the entire world, so too does the Lord of the field (Supreme Self) illuminate the entire field, O Arjuna.

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…

They who, by the eye of knowledge, perceive the distinction between the field and its knower, as well as the liberation from the Nature of being, go to the Supreme.

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…