Stories of the Great Bharata - A Retelling

Arc 2 - Bhagavad Gītā Parva - Chapter 18 - The Yoga of Field and Knower (Bhagavad Gītā XIII)

Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña Vibhāga Yoga

Vaiśampāyana said

When Arjuna had understood the sweetness of devotion, the Blessed Lord—Śrī Bhagavān, whose wisdom is boundless—spoke again of that higher knowledge which transcends even devotion the understanding of the Field (Kṣetra) and the Knower of the Field (Kṣetrajña).

The Nature of the Field and Its Knower

Śrī Bhagavān said

“This body, O son of Kuntī, is called the Kṣetra, the Field.

He who knows it is called Kṣetrajña, the Knower of the Field.

Know Me, O Bhārata, as the Knower of all Fields.

Thus, the understanding of both Field and Knower is true knowledge.”

“This frame of flesh, the Field is named,

Where sense and thought and form reside;

The Lord of all, in every field,

As Knower shines, in hearts abide.”

The Components of the Field

Śrī Bhagavān said

“The Field consists of the great elements—earth, water, fire, air, and space—together with mind, intellect, and ego.

It includes the ten senses and their five objects—sound, touch, form, taste, and scent—

and also desire, aversion, pleasure, pain, the body, consciousness, and fortitude.

All these constitute the mutable Field of experience.”

The Marks of True Knowledge

Then the Lord declared what jñāna—true knowledge—means not mere learning, but the purity of heart that perceives Truth.

“Humility, sincerity,

Harmlessness and patience true,

Uprightness, service of the sage,

And purity in all you do.

“Steadfast heart, and mastery

Of sense and self in discipline;

Indifference to outward joy,

And freedom from the touch of sin.

“Perceiving birth and death as pain,

And sickness, age, and sorrow’s chain;

Detachment, calm in gain and loss—

These mark the soul that breaks its cross.

“Alone with Me, in places still,

Disdaining crowds and worldly thrill;

With love unswerving, seeking Me—

Such wisdom is true purity.”

Vaiśampāyana said

The Lord thus showed that knowledge is not the hoarding of words, but the cleansing of the heart; that Ignorance is whatever feeds vanity, hatred, and delusion.

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The Object of Knowledge — The Supreme

Śrī Bhagavān said

“That which is to be known is the Supreme Brahman—without beginning, beyond being and non-being, eternal and all-pervading.

He has hands and feet everywhere, eyes, heads, and faces on every side.

He dwells in all beings, sustaining all, yet Himself unattached.

He is the light of all lights, beyond darkness, the knowledge, the object of knowledge, and the goal of knowledge.

He is seated in the hearts of all beings.”

“Within all hearts the Light Divine,

Beyond all dark, doth ever shine;

Not this, nor that—it is the Whole,

The deathless Brahman, end of soul.”

The Unity of Spirit and Nature

“Know that both Prakṛti (Nature) and Puruṣa (Spirit) are without beginning.

All transformations and the play of qualities arise from Nature.

Nature is the source of activity and of the experience of pleasure and pain,

while Spirit, dwelling in Nature, perceives and enjoys her qualities.”

Thus, Nature provides the field of experience, and Spirit, through identification with her, becomes the enjoyer. Yet the Lord—called the Supreme Puruṣa—remains ever unstained, the witness, sustainer, and ruler of all.

“He sees who sees that Nature works

And Spirit watches silently;

That all the doings of the world

Are Nature’s dream of vanity.”

The Vision of the Seer

“The wise one who sees the Supreme Lord abiding alike in all beings—the Imperishable within the perishable—

destroys not himself by self, and reaches the highest goal.

He who sees that all actions are wrought by Nature alone,

and that the Self acts not at all—he truly sees.

When he perceives all beings centered in the One and issuing forth from That, he attains Brahman.”

“As one great Sun lights up the world,

So Spirit shines through Nature’s frame;

The seer who knows this Light in all

Shall merge in That from which he came.”

The Pure and Untainted Self

“The Supreme Self, beginningless and without attributes, acts not and is unstained, though abiding in the body.

As space is untouched by the objects it contains, so the Self is untouched by the body it inhabits.”

“The ether vast no stain can mar,

Nor can the Self by act be scarred;

Dwelling in all, yet ever free—

Thus shines the soul eternally.”

The Fruit of True Vision

“They who, with the eye of wisdom, perceive the difference between the Field and the Knower of the Field,

and also know how beings are freed from the snare of Nature,

such seers attain to the Supreme.”

Vaiśampāyana’s Explanation

Then Vaiśampāyana said to Janamejaya

O King, thus did Śrī Bhagavān, the Lord of all beings, describe the mystery of matter and spirit—how the body is the field of action and experience, and how the true Self is the eternal witness.

He who knows the distinction between them, and who sees the Divine equally in all, transcends birth and death and becomes one with Brahman.

Thus ends the Thirteenth Chapter of the Bhagavad Gītā,

entitled Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña Vibhāga Yoga,

the Yoga of the Field and the Knower of the Field—

wherein the Lord reveals that the pure knowledge of the Self

is not found in books, but in the silence of the illumined heart.