13. Chapter 13 — Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña-Vibhāga Yogaḥ · The Yoga of the Field and its Knower

Verses 13.1–13.3

13.1

अर्जुन उवाच | प्रकृतिं पुरुषं चैव क्षेत्रं क्षेत्रज्ञमेव च | एतद्वेदितुमिच्छामि ज्ञानं ज्ञेयं च केशव

arjuna uvāca prakṛtiṁ puruṣaṁ caiva kṣetraṁ kṣetrajñameva ca / etad veditum icchāmi jñānaṁ jñeyaṁ ca keśava / / 13.1

Arjuna says: O Keśava, I wish to know and understand about prakṛti and puruṣa, passive and active energies. The field [kṣetra] and the knower of the field [kṣetrajña], and of knowledge [jñānaṁ] and of the end of knowledge [jñeyaṃ].

arjuna uvāca — Arjuna says · prakṛtiṁ — nature · puruṣaṁ — the enjoyer · ca — also · eva — certainly · kṣetraṁ — body · kṣetrajñam — knower of the body · eva — certainly · ca — also · etad — all this · vedituṁ — to understand · icchāmi — I wish · jñānaṁ — knowledge · jñeyaṁ — the object of knowledge · ca — also · keśava — O Kṛṣṇa.

13.2

श्रीभगवानुवाच | इदं शरीरं कौन्तेय क्षेत्रमित्यभिधीयते | एतद्यो वेत्ति तं प्राहु: क्षेत्रज्ञ इति तद्विद:

śrībhagavānuvāca idam śarīraṁ kaunteya kṣetram ity abhidhīyate / etadyo vetti taṁ prāhuḥ kṣetrajña iti tadvidaḥ / / 13.2

Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa replies: This body, O Kaunteya, is called the field, kṣetra. Anyone who knows this body is called the knower of the field, kṣetrajña.

śrī bhagavān uvāca — the personality of God says · idaṁ — this · śarīraṁ — body · kaunteya — O son of Kuntī · kṣetraṁ — the field · iti — thus · abhidhīyate — is called · etat — this · yaḥ — anyone · vetti — knows · taṁ — he · prāhuḥ — is called · kṣetrajña — knower of the body · iti — thus · tadvidaḥ — one who knows

13.3

क्षेत्रज्ञं चापि मां विद्धि सर्वक्षेत्रेषु भारत | क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञयोर्ज्ञानं यत्तज्ज्ञानं मतं मम

kṣetrajñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarvakṣetreṣu bhārata / kṣetra-kṣetrajñayor jñānaṁ yat taj jñānaṁ mataṁ mama / / 13.3

O Bhārata, know that I am the Knower in all bodies [kṣetrajña], the witness. In my opinion knowledge means the understanding of this body or the field of activity as well as the Knower of this field.

kṣetrajñaṁ — the knower · ca — also · api — certainly · māṁ — Me · viddhi — know · sarva — all · kṣetreṣu — in bodily fields · bhārata — O son of Bhārata · kṣetra — field of activities (the body) · kṣetrajñayoḥ — the knower of the field · jñānaṁ — knowledge · yat — that which is taught · tat — that · jñānaṁ — knowledge · mataṁ — opinion · mama — that

Kṛṣṇa explains, ‘O Kaunteya (son of Kuntī), O Arjuna, this body is called the field, kṣetra; the person who knows this body is called the knower of the field or kṣetrajña.’ śrī bhagavān uvāca idaṁ śarīraṁ kaunteya kṣetram ity adhidhīyate I etad yo vetti taṁ prāhuḥ kṣetrajña iti tad-vidaḥ II 13.1 Whatever you know is not you. If you know something, it is not you. For instance, you can read this book because it is separate and apart from you. Similarly, if you can know your body, then it is not you. If you can know your mind, then it is not you. If you can know your thoughts, then they are not you.

Whatever you know is not you. You are separate from that or above that. That is why you are able to know it. Whether it is the body, thoughts or emotions, whatever you know is not you. KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 929 Now we need to separate these two, the field from the knower of the field. Once we separate these two, the body will be complete, blissful and joyful! Consciousness will be liberated. When these two join, that is where the problem starts. A one-liner that I read somewhere said: A man tells his friend, ‘My sign is earth and my wife’s sign is water. Together we make mud!’ Water and earth are beautiful as they are.

Only when they are mixed do we get mud! Similarly, consciousness, as it is, is beautiful and so is the body. When the two meet, that is where the trouble of incompletions starts. All we need to do is understand and create the right cognition about the field and the knower, that is, what we are and what we are not. The problem in our lives is that when we identify ourselves with something, we believe we are that. Instead of understanding that we possess a mind, we believe we are the mind. The mind then becomes ‘I’. As long as I think this table is mine, there is no problem.

If I start thinking that I am this table, the problem starts! As long as we think that our body and mind are ours, there is no problem. But the problem appears the moment we identify with them. Kṛṣṇa says, ‘We must understand that whatever we know is not us.’ Inch by inch He starts to explain the difference between kṣetra and kṣetrajña. When we understand that something is separate from us, we never feel that we must renounce it. We simply need to renounce the inadequate cognition that we are that particular thing, that’s all. We will simply know that there is nothing to renounce just by being aware of the way in which our body or mind works.

Neither will we feel tortured by them, nor will we feel like torturing them. The people who are tortured by the body and mind are caught in this world and its troubles. Another group of people continuously torture the body and mind in the name of tapas, penance. I have seen people in India practicing yoga by sitting or standing on nails for five years! There are people who torture the body by standing on one leg, rolling on the ground or walking on fire. There is no need to torture the body in such ways. Actually we torture the body because we think that it is torturing us. We take revenge.

At one extreme, people are caught in pleasures of the senses and killing themselves. At the other extreme, people torture the body in the name of penance. Neither knows how to handle the body and mind. A person who knows how to handle his body and mind enjoys the whole thing. He is totally at ease with himself. He feels completely relaxed with his body and mind. He intensely enjoys all pleasures and comforts and he never abuses the body. Enjoying and abusing are two different things. Enjoying is when the mind and the body are in tune with each other. We feel ease, comfort, a deep sense of relaxation and a feeling of being at home with ourselves.

Another category of people tortures the body for the sake of the mind, in the name of penance or tapas. These people are in search of peace and bliss. They go on disrespecting and torturing the body: going without food for months together, standing on one leg, or walking on fire. They continuously abuse the body or mind in one way or the other. Torturing others happens when we torture ourselves. If we torture ourselves, naturally we will torture others. Please understand that we torture others when we do not feel comfortable and complete within ourselves. Torturing others is directly related to torturing ourselves. If we think that we are the mind, we torture our body; and if we think we are the body, we torture our mind.

The person who knows the secrets of the body and mind neither tortures nor abuses them. He knows how to use and enrich them and live blissfully in completion with them. His inner space overflows with bliss, and his outer space enjoys comforts and real pleasures. Kṛṣṇa reveals the sacred secrets of how to enrich the body and mind in beautiful and blissful energy, and how to create the inner space of completion, flowing in blissful consciousness. Kṛṣṇa says further, ‘O Bhārata, I am also the Knower in all bodies— kṣetrajñaṁ cāpi māṁ. To understand this body and the knower is called KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 931 knowledge.’ Beautiful! Here, He makes two statements.

He says, ‘I am the Knower in all the bodies, and to understand the knower and the body is knowledge—kṣetra kṣetrajñayor jñānaṁ yat taj jñānaṁ mataṁ mama.’ He says that understanding the field or the body-mind and the consciousness is knowledge. He says, ‘I myself reside as the consciousness inside the beings—sarva kṣetreṣu bhārata.’ kṣetrajñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva kṣetreṣu bhārata I kṣetra kṣetrajñayor jñānaṁ yat taj jñānaṁ mataṁ mama II 13.3 Our consciousness is God and there is no separate thing as God. The problem arises when we start carrying an inadequate cognition thinking that we are the body and the mind. A person who carries the right cognition and understands that he is consciousness liberates himself.

He is enlightened. He becomes the Buddha. Consciousness is God. The Equation is: God + body mind = man man – body mind = God! You Are Consciousness, Kṣetrajña Whether we believe it or not, we are consciousness. Let us see how we miss it, how we miss and mess our life! Here is a beautiful story about knowing the body and the mind and how we miss realizing that we are consciousness. A pregnant lioness was hunting for food one day when she came across a flock of sheep. She tried to attack the flock but the effort was too much for her. She fell on the ground, giving birth to a cub and also died due to the pressure she exerted.

The flock of sheep saw the newborn lion cub. They started playing with him. They felt that they should take care of this cub, as one species often does for a newborn of another species. They just took pity on him and adopted him. The sheep started taking care of the cub in the same way they care for their young ones, feeding him with goat milk and grass! The cub started behaving like a sheep and grew up along with the sheep. He lived happily amongst them, not knowing that they were different from him. After some time the problem started slowly. It had to. The mother sheep started receiving complaints about the behavior of the cub, ‘He is too arrogant,’ ‘He is too strong and rough,’ ‘He is not playing properly with us.’

Naturally the cub was sidelined. Whenever any argument arose, they decided to punish him. After a few days, the lion cub started to wonder, ‘What is this? I don’t feel that I am really living. Is this all a lie? Is this all that there is to life—eating grass, jumping around and bleating, just going around the grasslands? I don’t feel I am leading a full life.’ He felt that he was unlike the others, that somehow he was different. He did not feel that he was being himself. Whenever he saw a forest, he was tempted to go and explore the forest. But his sheep mother had warned him that it was the one thing he should not do.

She forbade him from straying away from the flock, obviously now considering him to be one of the sheep. She cautioned him that if he did so, the lions inside the forest would kill him. This whole story is actually about the spiritual seeker! It is about how a person takes birth, starts seeking and how he achieves fulfillment. It’s a wonderful story. I love this story. That is why I repeat this story whenever I can! The mother sheep said, ‘You cannot go there, there are lions out there.’ The cub somehow managed to suppress his search or feeling of emptiness even though he felt drawn KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 933 in and was tempted to go into the forest to explore.

After some time he decided, ‘I think this life is not for me.’ But somehow the mother sheep managed to pressurize and control him. She played a big drama—weeping, crying, convincing, and finally she got this lion married! The lion cub got married and a few years passed by. After some years he again started thinking and analyzing, ‘What is going on? I am leading the same old life, eating, bleating and jumping around! I feel something is seriously missing! I have found whatever best one can get—a good mother, good wife, nice life—but deep inside me, there is only emptiness. I don’t feel fulfilled. What is happening to me?’

Again he started searching. The seeking started. Then suddenly one day, a lion from the nearby forest attacked the flock of sheep. When this happened all the sheep ran away. This sheep-lion neither felt like running away, nor did he have the courage to stand and face the lion. He knew the lion was trying to attack, but he thought, ‘He looks so graceful. Something about him is different.’ He had never seen such a majestic beast before. So, slowly, somehow, unconsciously this sheep-lion felt attracted and drawn towards the lion. Because of the attraction, neither did he run away, nor did he have the courage to face the lion, because he thought he was a sheep under attack.

He started walking away slowly but kept his face and gaze fixed on the lion. The lion straightaway came near him and caught him. The sheep-lion started bleating, ‘Oh, please leave me alone and do not kill me!’ The lion said, ‘Fool, I have not come to kill you! You are a lion, why are you bleating and shouting for help? Why do you think I will kill you?’ ‘Lion?’ the sheep-lion suspected that the lion was trying to cheat him and take him to the forest. He became frightened and cried, ‘No, leave me.’ The lion again said, ‘Fool! You are a lion, why don’t you understand that?’ The sheep-lion refused to believe the lion.

He escaped and ran away. Even though he ran away, the sheep-lion was unable to forget the lion. For a week he was afraid. Fear is usually there after the first glimpse, after the first experience. He had had the first glimpse of the lion! This is how Arjuna felt after his first experience of the Divine, his first glimpse of Kṛṣṇa. It is an experience that evokes fear as well as a blissful attraction. A week passed by and the fear slowly subsided. He felt drawn to the lion once again. The sheep-lion felt like meeting the lion. ‘I think I should meet the lion once more,’ he thought.

One part of his mind was saying, ‘No, no, no, I am afraid that he may kill me,’ while another part was saying, ‘No, it was such a blissful experience with him. He is so graceful and I want to meet him again!’ Please be very clear that unless you have Enlightenment within yourself, you will not feel attracted towards an Enlightened person. If we feel attached or connected to an Enlightened person and feel we are in tune with him in some way, understand that it is a sign that we have Enlightenment within us already. However, if we have not matured or grown to the level of feeling the Enlightenment within us, we may not feel even a slight connection with an Enlightened person.

There are millions of people living in this city. Why are only a few hundred sitting here for these discourses? Not only that, thousands came at least once and have not come back the second time. Why do only a few come regularly? The moment you feel attracted to an Enlightened Master’s teachings, be very clear that the Enlightenment in you has started expressing or flowering! That is the reason why the sheep-lion remembered the KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 935 lion and felt attracted to it. He felt the intense urge to see the lion again and finally decided to meet him. But how would he meet him? The lion never sent out flyers saying, ‘In such and such a place, I am doing a program!

You can meet me here.’ The sheep-lion came to the edge of the meadow where the forest started, and waited expectantly every day for the lion to appear. After a few months the lion appeared. The moment the sheep-lion saw him, his fear surfaced and he was caught in the dilemma once again despite having waited for months to see him. This time the lion came towards him and asked, ‘How are you doing?’ The sheep-lion started bleating again, ‘I am, I am, I am….’ He was unable to answer, but did not run away, as he had done earlier. The lion said, ‘Don’t worry. If you are afraid, I will go away.

I am not going to eat you because you are a lion. And because I can’t eat you, I won’t kill you. Also since I see no use in you, there is no reason for me to stay here if you are afraid.’ Saying this, the lion started walking back towards the forest. The sheep-lion immediately pleaded with the lion to stay and spend a few moments with him. He also added, ‘Don’t come too close. You can stand at a distance and talk. Please stand ten feet away and I will stand here. But please spend some time with me.’ The sheep-lion was now neither able to forget the lion and escape, nor did he have the courage to go near him!

This is the next phase of growth for a seeker. With around ten or fifteen feet between them they stood and talked. However, again and again the lion said, ‘You are a lion. Fool! You think you are a sheep! You are not like the friends you live with. This is not the way you are supposed to live.’ The sheep-lion started to think about what the lion said. Slowly the doubt he had that the lion was going to take him to the forest and eat him disappeared. Now the sheep-lion was convinced that the lion did not have an ulterior motive. He thought, ‘I have nothing to offer him and I am of no use to him.’

Only when this confidence comes into the mind of the disciple, he starts trusting the words of the Master! That is why in the Vedic system spiritual knowledge is free. We start trusting the Master only when we realize that we cannot contribute to the Master in any way, that the Master has nothing to gain from us, that he is not missing us. The trust between the Master and disciple starts when the disciple understands that he has nothing to add to what the Master already has in his being. The Master has everything and he is sharing because he is overflowing. He is not giving in order to take something from us.

His very being is overflowing. Only when you understand that, will you start trusting the Master’s words. The sheep-lion developed that much trust on the lion. He thought, ‘The lion is not going to kill and eat me. If he wanted to do that, he would have done it long ago. One thing is certain. He is not going to gain anything from me. So why does he say I am a lion?’ Then, the sheep-lion thought about what the lion had said. When we understand that we have nothing to give the Master, that he is overflowing out of his ecstasy and he is only sharing the joy and bliss, we start experimenting with things more deeply.

Until we understand that whatever the Master says is only for our own benefit, we never try to experiment with his words. The sheep-lion thought about the lion, ‘He looks so KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 937 courageous, so graceful, so bold, and he is radiating so much confidence. It doesn’t look like he is lying.’ We can clearly tell whether someone is lying or not by seeing the eyes of a person. We don’t need a lie detector! All we need to do is look into his eyes. So the sheep-lion thought, ‘He doesn’t look like a liar. Then why is he again and again telling me that I am a lion?

I know I am a sheep.’ The lion then said, ‘I think you are not interested in believing me. Anyhow, I am not interested in wasting my time. I am going.’ But the sheep-lion begged, ‘No, no, no! Please, at least give me an appointment.’ The lion asked why he wanted the appointment. The sheep-lion replied, ‘I will go home and think about whatever you have told me. Then I will come back and clear my doubts with you.’ The lion agreed, saying he would meet him at the same place in one month’s time. The sheep-lion then started to contemplate, ‘How can I be a lion? I know for sure I am a sheep.

I eat grass. I bleat like a sheep and go around with sheep. So, how can I be a lion?’ He thought and thought. He considered all the great philosophical questions, the very same questions that I have been answering all these days! There must have been some books: ‘sheep-philosophy,’ ‘sheep-Gītā.’ The sheep-lion read all of them and thought of all the possible questions. He made a big list of questions that his mother and father never answered. One important thing though is that he never told his mother that he met the lion because if she knew, she would stop him! She would not have allowed him to go to the edge of the forest.

She would have told him, ‘Never go there! You must stay in the meadows. You cannot go to the other side into the forest.’ Parents are afraid for their young ones. They send their children to the temples but never to a Swami, never to a spiritual master! To them there is always a danger. See, Swami Vivekānanda is great as long as he takes birth in the neighbor’s house, not in our house! Anyhow, finally after one month, the appointment date arrived. The sheep-lion collected the best grass, whatever he thought was best, as an offering to the lion. He gave it to the lion saying, ‘Please have all these things.

I preserved them carefully for you.’ Seeing the love of the sheep-lion, the lion also acted as if he was eating and enjoying the grass, just so that he could please the sheep-lion and make him feel more connected. He was zeroing down the distance. He wanted the sheep-lion to feel comfortable and connected in his presence. Only then could any transformation or transmission of knowledge happen. Just to make the sheep-lion comfortable, the lion acted like he was eating the grass. Naturally, the sheep-lion asked, ‘Is it good? Is it tasty?’ The lion said, ‘Yes, yes, it is tasty. I am happy. You cook well. You have done a great job.’

Some compliment is given! After accepting the grass offering, the lion started to slowly say the same things to the sheep-lion, ‘I am telling you again and again, but you are not ready to listen. You are a lion, not a sheep.’ By now, the sheep-lion knew that what he was thinking was wrong. Still he was unable to accept what the lion was saying as right. How could he be a lion? He knew by now he was not a sheep. He applied logic, ‘My color is different. If I am a sheep, I should be like my friends. I think differently. I do not feel satisfied or comfortable with that life.

This means I am something more. But I am unable to understand how KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 939 I could be a lion.’ He was not able to comprehend what the lion said. At the same time he was not sure about what he had been thinking all along. One day, the lion said to him, ‘Come, let us go to a nearby lake for a picnic.’ By now the sheep-lion was comfortable with the lion and agreed. When they reached the lake, the lion suddenly grabbed the neck of the sheep-lion, dragged him to the water, and told him to look at the reflection in the water. The lion asked him, ‘Do you see an image of a lion in the reflection?’

The sheep-lion replied, ‘Yes, I see your reflection. You are standing.’ The lion asked, ‘Do you see another reflection?’ The sheep-lion said, ‘Yes, I see another small lion, your baby. Where is the baby? Your baby is not here but his reflection is here. Is he inside the water?’ The lion roared and said, ‘Fool, it is you!’ The sheep-lion refused to believe and said, ‘No, no, no, maybe your baby is hiding inside the water. Call him.’ The lion said, ‘Fool, it is not my baby. It is you.’ The lion then told him, ‘Look, I am now moving away. Only you are standing there. See what is happening!’

The sheep-lion then saw the reflection. Suddenly, the first shock happened to him, ‘I think there is some truth in what the lion says.’ Again, he was frightened, ‘If I am a lion, I must live in the forest. I cannot take that responsibility. If I am a sheep, I am so comfortable. Already, I know all my sheep friends and I get regular food. I know where food is available. I know where I cook. I know where I eat. I know where my house is. I know where my wife is. I know where my life is. I know all these things and I am completely accustomed to the life of a sheep.

But if I understand that I am a lion, the whole thing must be dropped. I must renounce the whole thing. I must take a big jump. It’s difficult.’ That fear pattern again came up and he simply ran away; he escaped one more time. The First Experience After a few months, the lion came in search of the sheep-lion. This time the sheep-lion did not have any grass offerings. Instead the lion brought an offering of meat for the sheep-lion! When he saw the sheep-lion, he didn’t talk. There were no intellectual discourses, philosophical discussions or question-and-answer sessions. Straightaway, he caught hold of the sheep-lion, opened his mouth, and put the meat inside.

The moment the sheep-lion tasted the blood, the moment he tasted the meat, something reeled inside him. Something happened to his being. Something happened to his consciousness. Suddenly he swallowed the meat and roared! The roaring is what we call Enlightenment! Most importantly, the sheep-lion realized that he had been a lion from the beginning, from day one! The same thing happens in our lives. Again and again, we wrongly think we are sheep. At some point, we start suspecting, ‘I am not feeling satisfied with this life. What is happening?’ And after some time, suddenly we see a lion that teaches us, ‘You are God. You are that energy.

You are consciousness.’ We get scared and run away. At home we start thinking, ‘I think he has some plans. He wants to build an ashram and he needs me for it. That is why he says these things.’ After a few days we realize that he already has an ashram; we don’t need to build one for him or contribute to his ashram. We KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 941 realize that he has everything and doesn’t need anything. Then slowly we start analyzing, ‘Why is he coming everyday and saying the same thing? Everyday he comes and for two or three hours he says the same thing in a loud voice.

Why?’ After a few days we think, ‘One thing is certain, whatever I think about me is wrong. But I don’t know whether whatever he says is right or not.’ During meditation, one glimpse of Consciousness happens. When that happens we again run away with the fear, ‘No, no, no. This is not for me. If the same thing happens again, I may leave everything and go after him.’ At this stage, the Master suddenly catches hold of us and puts the meat of solid spiritual experience into our mouth. Something happens in our system, in our consciousness. Suddenly we open our eyes and roar, declaring the experience that happened in our being.

We realize that from day one, from the beginning, we have been That. The sheep-lion has always been a lion. But it requires another lion to make a sheep-lion realize that he is indeed a lion. From day one, we are the knower or the kṣetrajña, the Consciousness. But by mistake we start carrying the inadequate cognition thinking that we are the body-mind, in the same way that the sheep-lion thought that he was a sheep. Suddenly a person who has already experienced that he is Consciousness guides and enriches us saying, ‘This is Consciousness and that is body-mind. Understand that you are Consciousness.’ Here, the same story is happening between Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna. Kṛṣṇa explains kṣetra and kṣetrajña. He tells Arjuna that he is not a sheep but a lion; he is not merely the field; he is the knower of the field. Consciousness And Conscience

Verses 13.4–13.7

13.4

तत्क्षेत्रं यच्च यादृक्च यद्विकारि यतश्च यत् | स च यो यत्प्रभावश्च तत्समासेन मे शृणु

tat kṣetraṁ yac ca yādṛk ca yadvikāri yataś ca yat / sa ca yo yat prabhāvaś ca tat samāsena me sṛṇu / / 13.4

Understand my summary of this field of activity and how it is constituted, what its changes are, how it is produced, who that knower of the field of activities is, and what his influences are.

tat — that · kṣetraṁ — field of activities · yah — as · ca — and · yādṛk — as it is · ca — and · yat — what is · vikāri — changes · yataḥ — from which · ca — and · yat — which · sa — he · ca — also · yaḥ — one · yat — which · prabhāvaśca — influence also · tat — that · samāsena — in summary · me — from Me · sṛṇu — understand

13.5

ऋषिभिर्बहुधा गीतं छन्दोभिर्विविधै: पृथक् | ब्रह्मसूत्रपदैश्चैव हेतुमद्भिर्विनिश्चितै:

ṛṣibhir bahudhā gītaṁ chandobhir vividhaiḥ pṛthak / brahma-sūtra padaiś caiva hetumadbhir viniścitaiḥ / / 13.5

That knowledge of the field of activities and of the knower of activities is described by various sages with chants in the scriptures It is presented with all reasoning as to cause and effect.

ṛṣibhir — by the wise sages · bahudhā — in many ways · gītaṁ — described · chan- dobhiḥ — Vedic hymns · vividhaiḥ — in various · pṛthak — variously · brahmasūtra — the Vedanta · padaiḥ — aphorisms · ca — also · eva — certainly · hetumadbhir — with cause and effect · viniścitaiḥ — ascertained

13.6

महाभूतान्यङ्ककारो बुद्धिरव्यक्त मेव च | इन्द्रियाणि दशैकं च पञ्च चेन्द्रियगोचरा:

mahā-bhūtāny ahaṅkāro buddhir avyaktam eva ca / indriyāṇi daśaikaṁ ca pañca cendriya gocarāḥ / / 13.6

The field of activities and its interactions are said to be: the five elements of nature, ego, intelligence, the mind, the formless, the ten senses of perception and action, as well as the five objects of senses and desire, hatred, happiness, distress, the aggregate, the life symptoms, and convictions.

mahābhūtāni — great elements · ahaṅkāraḥ — ego · buddhiḥ — intelligence · avyaktaṁ — the unmanifested · eva — certainly · ca — also · indriyāṇi — senses · daśaikaṁ — eleven · ca — also · pañca — five · ca — also · indriyagocarāḥ — objects of the senses · icchā — desire · dveṣaḥ — hatred · sukhaṁ — happiness · duḥkhaṁ — distress · saṅghātaḥ — the aggre- gate · cetanā — living symptoms · dhṛtiḥ — conviction · etat — all this · kṣetraṁ — the field of activities · samāsena — in summary · savikāraṁ — with its modifications · udāhṛtam — exemplified

13.7

इच्छा द्वेष: सुखं दु:खं सङ्घातश्चेतना धृति: | एतत्क्षेत्रं समासेन सविकारमुदाहृतम्

icchādveṣaḥ sukhaṁ duḥkhaṁ saṅghātaścetanā dhṛtiḥ / etatkṣetraṁ samāsena savikāram udāhṛtam / / 13.7

Kṛṣṇa asks Arjuna to listen carefully to His explanation of what constitutes kṣetra—body-mind, and its activities, its changes, and how they are produced. These truths have been explained by many Ṛṣis, sages, from time to time. The Vedic scriptures, the Brahma Sūtras for example, express these truths with clarity, using sharp reasoning. Thousands of years of research done by millions of inner scientists, Ṛṣis, in millions of inner science laboratories have led to the same truth: The true nature of man is pure consciousness, kṣetrajña, and man is the knower or witness of the field, kṣetra, the body-mind. Throughout this chapter, Kṛṣṇa cautions Arjuna not to confuse the body with the knower of the body and not to confuse the mind with the knower of the mind.

The whole problem arises when we mix the knower of the field with the field itself. KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 943 We have forgotten that we have taken this body and mind for a purpose and that is to live our desires, saṁskāras. We have forgotten that we have only rented this body-mind costume for this birth and we gradually associate ourselves with it! After a while, this costume becomes more important and dear to us than anything else. Once the costume begins to wear out, we start to worry. This is what happens when we wrongly associate ourselves with the body and mind, instead of associating with the consciousness that runs it.

We confuse kṣetrajña with kṣetra. Naturally, all the problems that arise at the body-mind level start to affect us. The activities that happen to the body-mind appear to be having a direct influence on our lives. In the next few verses, Kṛṣṇa takes Arjuna step-by-step into what these activities are and how they interact with each other. Kṛṣṇa talks about the five great elements, the false ego, the intelligence or the mind that makes decisions and all ten senses. Please understand, He says, ‘ten senses, indriyāṇi daśakaṁ ca’. We think we have five senses. No. We have five karmendriya and five jñānendriya. Karmendriya are the senses or organs responsible for actions such as talking, walking etc and they are the mouth, hands and feet, organs of excretion and reproduction.

Jñānendriya are our five senses that receive knowledge such as smell, taste, sight, touch, and hearing and they are the nose, tongue, eyes, skin and ear. So, all the ten senses, plus attachment, aversion, joy, sorrow, the body, mutual attraction and the consciousness contribute to the field of activities. Actually the word ‘consciousness’ cannot be used. When our consciousness becomes rigid, it becomes conscience. There’s a difference between conscience and consciousness. For example, we do something based upon what we think is right or wrong according to our conscience. If we give these same teachings to the next generation, it will not work because something else may be right or wrong for them.

When we force them to follow the same thing that we did, we are giving it as just a morality, as just a conscience. We are giving them a law without the spirit. On the other hand, when we give our next generation an understanding about life, we give them consciousness. Conscience Is Suffering Understand, a person with only conscience always suffers. He can never be happy, whether he enjoys or renounces. If he enjoys, he suffers from guilt. If he renounces, he feels the lack of it. He suffers either way. Never give conscience to the next generation. Always give them an understanding about life, what I call consciousness.

Let them experience and explore. I do not believe in morality. I believe in conscious experience. I do not believe in conscientiousness. I believe in consciousness. Conscience is given to us by society. Consciousness is given to us by God. Conscience is social conditioning. Consciousness is our very nature. Conscience naturally makes our whole life into a ritual. We should know why we are doing and what we are doing before doing anything. Only then will we do it intensely with integrity and authenticity. If we do not know the context and logic behind what we are doing, we will neither integrate ourselves completely into doing it nor take the responsibility to authentically dedicate ourselves to it.

Kṛṣṇa says that the rigid sense of conscience, all the rules that form the kṣetra, are also the field. They are matter. They are not energy. They are not your being. They are not you. Whatever is mentioned here is not you. Listen! We should understand we are liberated the moment we know what we are not. We are liberated even if we live with what is not us. Even if we live with our body-mind, if we know that we are not the body and the mind, then we are not their slaves! Please understand that the word ‘slavery’ can be used as long as something goes against your will.

With awareness and completion, even if you live with the body-mind, you are not their slave. Nothing can enslave us once we understand and cognize that we KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 945 are not body and mind. We can never become a slave to anything. Even slavery cannot enslave us. Slavery can enslave us as long as we are not ready to cooperate with slavery. This is a subtle point. So, please listen! When we cognize that we are beyond body and mind, we will feel no need to resist when somebody tries to enslave us. We know that we can never be slaves. Only that which goes against our will can enslave us.

Here we are in a totally different space, a totally different consciousness, the space of completion and nothing can go against our will. And we will never have a will that would make us feel like a slave. We will be flowing with the river, flowing with the current. We will disappear into the Divine. So slavery cannot happen to us. Our consciousness is beyond any form of slavery. That is why Kṛṣṇa teaches the secret of understanding the bodymind and consciousness, kṣetra and kṣetrajña. In ancient times, man was only subjected to physical slavery. In the present day, man is subjected to psychological slavery. Understand, we are the psychological slaves of countless things.

When some product is advertised on television, straightaway it sits in our head. Within a few days, we somehow get money and buy that product. We live in a world of psychological slavery. Once we understand that we are not the body-mind, that we are beyond it, we will be totally free from physical and psychological slavery. See, it is like this. When we badly want a particular object or event to happen, our happiness is in the hands of that object or event. That external object or event has the power to control our happiness. We feel depressed when things turn out other than the way we desired. We feel the world is unfair.

Many people ask me, ‘Why has God been so unfair to me? Why is it that only I face these difficulties?’ Please understand, the moment you place your happiness in the hands of something or someone, you have become their slave. They can exploit you. One more thing is that even the thought of wanting freedom can exploit us if we allow it. Many times we chase freedom in the name of spiritual seeking. Freedom happens only when we realize that there is no need to chase. We must drop the idea of wanting freedom and just trust the freedom. We will then experience it. Otherwise, craving for freedom can enslave us instead of enriching us.

We realize the futility of this struggle and experience freedom only when we become aware that we are already free. The minute we stop resisting whatever we have, we start flowing. We stop giving someone or something the power to control our happiness. Nothing will enslave us. Everything will enrich us. We will experience the consciousness of completion and freedom. Inner Science Technology

Verses 13.8–13.12

13.8

अमानित्वमदम्भित्वमहिंसा क्षान्तिरार्जवम् | आचार्योपासनं शौचं स्थैर्यमात्मविनिग्रह:

amānitvam adambhitvam ahimsā kṣāntir ārjavam / ācāryopāsanaṁ śaucaṁ sthairyam ātma-vinigrahaḥ / / 13.8

Humility, absence of pride, nonviolence, tolerance, simplicity, service to an enlightened spiritual Master, cleanliness, steadiness and self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification; absence of ego, the perception of the pain of the cycle of birth and death, old age and disease; nonattachment to children, wife, home and the rest and even-mindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me, resorting to solitary places, detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self realization, and philosophical search for the absolute truth: All these I thus declare to be knowledge and anything contrary to these is ignorance.

amānitvaṁ — humility · adambhitvaṁ — pridelessness · ahimsā — nonviolence · kṣāntiḥ — tolerance · ārjavam — simplicity · ācāryopāsanaṁ — approaching a bon- afide spiritual master · śaucaṁ — cleanliness · sthairyaṁ — steadfastness · ātma- vinigrahaḥ — control

13.9

इन्द्रियार्थेषु वैराग्यमनहङ्कार एव च | जन्ममृत्युजराव्याधिदु:खदोषानुदर्शनम्

indriyārtheṣu vairāgyam anahaṁkāra eva ca / janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi- duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam / / 13.9

indriyārtheṣu — in the matter of the senses · vairāgyaṁ — renunciation · ana- haṁkāra — being without egoism · eva — certainly · ca — also · janma — birth · mṛtyu — death · jarā — old age · vyādhi — disease · duḥkha — distress · doṣa — fault · anudarśanam — observing

13.10

असक्तिरनभिष्वङ्ग: पुत्रदारगृहादिषु | नित्यं च समचित्तत्वमिष्टानिष्टोपपत्तिषु

asaktir anabhiṣvaṅgaḥ putra-dāra-gṛhādiṣu / nityaṁ ca sama-cittatvam iṣṭāniṣṭopapattiṣu / / 13.10

asaktiḥ — without attachment · anabhiṣvaṅgaḥ — without association · putra — sons · dāra — wife · gṛhādiṣu — home, etc. · nityaṁ — eternal · ca — also · samacittatvaṁ — equilibrium · iṣṭā — desirable · aniṣṭa — undesirable · upapattiṣu — having obtained

13.11

मयि चानन्ययोगेन भक्तिरव्यभिचारिणी | विविक्तदेशसेवित्वमरतिर्जनसंसदि

mayi cānanya-yogena bhaktir avyabhicāriṇī / vivikta-deśa-sevitvam aratirjana saṁsadi / / 13.11

mayi — unto Me · ca — also · ananyayogena — by devotional service · bhaktiḥ — devotion · avyabhicāriṇī — constant, unalloyed · vivikta — solitary · deśa — place · sevitvaṁ — resorting to · aratiḥ — without attachment · jana — to people in general · saṁsadi — mass

13.12

अध्यात्मज्ञाननित्यत्वं तत्वज्ञानार्थदर्शनम् | एतज्ज्ञानमिति प्रोक्तमज्ञानं यदतोऽन्यथा

adhyātma-jñāna-nityatvaṁ tattva-jñānārtha-darśanam / etaj-jñānam iti proktam ajñānaṁ yad atonyathā / / 13.12

adhyātma — pertaining to the self · jñāna — knowledge · nityatvaṁ — eternity · tattva jñānā — knowledge of the truth · artha — for the purpose of · darśanam — philoso- phy · etat — all this · jñānam — knowledge · iti — thus · proktam — declared · ajñānaṁ — ignorance · yat — that which · ataḥ — from this · anyathā — others

In these five verses, Kṛṣṇa gives a beautiful technique. Until this point He gave us an intellectual understanding. Now He gives the technique and technology to realize and experience what He says. I call these five verses the inner science technology to liberate our inner space! It is a precise technique to liberate oneself from the kṣetra. It talks about how to be liberated from the body-mind and how to bring them under our control. First, the moment we understand that we are more powerful than the body-mind, we are liberated from the body and the mind. Here, He beautifully gives the technique to liberate us from the body-mind and therefore, how to experience the consciousness.

Let me first give the translation of the verses: Humility, non-violence, tolerance, simplicity, approaching the enlightened spiritual master, cleanliness, steadfastness, self-control, renunciation of the objects of sense gratification, absence of all egos, perception of all the evils of birth and death, old age and diseases, detachment, freedom from all entanglements, even-mindedness amidst pleasant and unpleasant events, constant devotion, aspiring to live in a spiritual way, giving importance to the ultimate truth, and detachment. All these I declare to be knowledge and besides these, whatever there may be, is ignorance. Kṛṣṇa mentions a long list of things in these verses with many instructions. Let me be very clear that if we straightaway try to practice all the qualities He has given here, we will feel we are going mad!

We cannot really practice these qualities. All we can do is help the consciousness to happen in us so that we start radiating these qualities. These qualities simply happen in us. By way of comparison, let us say we want to remove the dirt from a muddy water tank. If we put our hands into the tank and try to take away the mud, what happens? We make it muddier, that’s all. All the dirt that is settled below will come up to the surface. Instead, if we sprinkle a handful of lime powder inside the tank, it will absorb the dirt and we can have clean water in the tank.

Our mind is also like a muddy tank. If we try to suppress it and fight with it, we will create more incompletion. Instead just add a little meditation process of completion which is like the lime powder, and relax. Just put in your awareness to complete and relax. Automatically the impurities will settle down. The moment we become aware and complete, and the witnessing consciousness starts operating, the whole thing settles down. The witnessing consciousness is the lime powder that purifies our being. Rāmakṛṣṇa says that if the straight line of integrity connects your mouth and mind, you will be liberated. We cheat ourselves if we engage in an activity because it is appreciated by society and not because we feel it from within.

This constant mismatch of internal and external, of what KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 949 we feel deep within and what we do is inauthenticity, it creates problems. Instead of creating consciousness, we start creating the activity. Instead of working on our being, we work on our doing. Our doing is in no way going to help us. Only our being is going to help us. So work on the being and not on the doing. A person who works on his doing may continuously chisel, chisel and chisel his doing; however, his being will face the same old struggle, suppression, suffering, and fighting. Instead, if we work on our being, we will flower and automatically radiate the right energy, the right consciousness!

You Are Unique If we practice these qualities just because Kṛṣṇa say that we should, the qualities will never really develop in us. They will remain skin deep. When true non-violence happens, our very being will radiate love, no matter what. Even if an enemy were to stand in front of us, no other emotion but love would remain in us, and that is what Kṛṣṇa really wants. If we visit Sringeri, a temple in South India, we will see a stone statue of a snake protecting a frog with its hood. A beautiful sight! It depicts that emotion of divine love that is unconditional. Divine love does not consider whether a person is a friend or enemy.

If we are centered in our being, qualities of love and non-violence happen. All the things that Kṛṣṇa has mentioned in these five verses are an outcome of the flowering of that consciousness, and not things to be practiced. If we practice them to please somebody else, we would become slaves to the people around us. Normally we believe others’ opinions about us. We accept their scale as a standard for measuring ourselves. Then we get into trouble. This is what I call ‘guilt’. Guilt is reviewing our past decisions with updated intelligence.Ifweuseourpresentintelligencetoreviewourpastdecisions, we create guilt and suffering. Understand, we are updated every second. We are not the same as what we were a few hours ago.

Our intelligence is continuously updated. So naturally when we look back and analyze what happened in the past we feel certain things could have been avoided. The problem is that we think we run the show. We take everything upon our shoulders and allow emotions like guilt and worry to come in. If we remember that the Universe is pure Intelligence that knows how to take care of our lives, we will simply relax. Also, when we allow the cosmic intelligence to operate, we spontaneously express the beautiful qualities that Kṛṣṇa enumerates. The same cannot be achieved by doing anything. Kṛṣṇa first talks about humility or amānitvaṁ. Humility can never be achieved by effort.

If it is attempted through effort, it looks ugly. Humility happens when we feel that every being is unique. It does not come by thinking that everyone is equal. There are no equals! If we deeply understand that every being is unique, we automatically respect everyone. Every being has something that he contributes to Existence, to life. Listen. Even our enemy contributes to our growth! He may do it indirectly but nevertheless, he contributes to our growth. Never think that a person is useless. We are removed from planet Earth the moment we stop contributing to Existence in some way or other. Normally we evaluate whether a person is worthy of our respect.

We will see how well qualified he is, how much society respects him. Then we will decide, ‘Okay, I think I can show him some respect.’ It is as though our respect is so precious and the world continues to run because of that! When we understand that every being is a unique creation of the Universe, that the same divinity that is in us is in them also, we automatically radiate humility and the absence of pride. All these qualities that are supposed to be radiated by a seeker should simply happen from within. This is what Kṛṣṇa explains. Another important thing: How should we approach an Enlightened spiritual Master or ācāryopāsana?

He talks about this in another verse also—tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā (4.34). It means that we should approach the Master with questions and request him to answer the questions. Why? Why does Kṛṣṇa say that? What is the need? Again and again, spiritual literature emphasizes the Master. It is not only in the KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 951 Bhagavad Gītā. In all integrated spiritual traditions, the living Master plays an important role. Why? Especially in Vedānta, the Vedic system, the Master plays a major role. Why? Unless we see someone continuously living in the consciousness and continuously expressing that consciousness, our unconscious refuses to believe it is possible. Whenever we read or hear about these truths, our conscious mind believes in them, but the unconscious says, ‘All these things are old theories!

Some crazy person might have writtenallthesethings!’Ourunconsciousmindwon’tacceptthetruthand possibility of Enlightenment. Our head and heart fight with each other becauseofthis.WhenweseealivingEnlightenedMaster,ouremotionsalso automatically start experiencing it. Our unconscious, which continuously questions, becomes silent when we see a living Master. With books we learn through verbal language; with a Master we learn through his body language. He is a living example that proves the truth can become a reality for us in our life. Listen. Three things happen when we meet an Enlightened Master: First, we see in front of our own eyes that it is possible to live in eternal bliss or in bliss consciousness all 24 hours of the day. The assurance and inspiration to achieve that state is there.

We understand the possibility. Next we ask, ‘All right, it is possible for the Master. But is it possible for me?’ That assurance is also given when we reach the Master. The Master instills the confidence in us by showing us, ‘If I can achieve, why not you?’ It is like this: the seed is afraid to sprout and thinks, ‘I may die if I rupture and sprout.’ But the tree says, ‘No, you must break open. Only when you break open can I happen.’ The tree within the seed is waiting for the seed to break so that it can come out, but the seed is waiting for the tree to happen!

The seed thinks, ‘Who knows whether the tree will happen?’ The tree says, ‘Open, only then can I happen,’ and the seed tells the tree, ‘No, let me see you happen and only then will I open.’ A Master represents the tree in the analogy. In our life too, we are afraid to jump because we look for a guarantee that Enlightenment is possible if we take the jump. We are afraid of being caught in an ‘in-between situation’! Then neither would we become enlightened nor would we be able to return to our normal lives. We are afraid of the insecurity and uncertainty. But the Master offers this guarantee.

The Master has already become a tree. He gives confidence to the disciple. He says, ‘Don’t worry. I also struggled like you. Look at me, I have flowered. I have not died. I have become a tree. If you open, you will also become a tree.’ He sits with us and assures us that he will take care. He creates the energy and gives confidence to open and become a tree. He reminds us, ‘When I have achieved, why not you?’ Third, the Master creates the right space or technology for the tree to happen. He creates the right conditions, the right soil, water, etc. All that we need to do is trust the master and break open.

That is why Masters create ashrams. An ashram is a space that allows the seed to open sothatthetreecanhappen.Theashramisaspacewheretheconditionsare controlled, and in a secure and safe way we can enter into the consciousness. The Master makes us experience the Truth which is in our very being. So first, he assures us of the possibility through his body language. Next, he makes us understand that it is possible for us also. Third, he creates a space in which it can happen. Fourth, he ensures that we are established in that consciousness. These are the responsibilities of an Enlightened Master. That is why the vedic way of life, insists that we reach a living Enlightened Master. This is what Kṛṣṇa calls ācāryopāsana. He gives the important guidelines for us to experiment with the technology. Consciousness Is Eternal

Verses 13.13–13.18

13.13

ज्ञेयं यत्तत्प्रवक्ष्यामि यज्ज्ञात्वामृतमश्रुते | अनादिमत्परं ब्रह्म न सत्तन्नासदुच्यते

jñeyaṁ yat tat pravakṣyāmi yaj jñātvāmṛtam aśnute / anādi matparaṁ brahma na sat tan nāsad ucyate / / 13.13

I shall fully give you the understanding about the know- able with which one can taste eternal bliss or the being or the consciousness that has no beginning. A life beyond the cause and effect and the material world.

jñeyaṁ — knowable · yat — that · tat — which · pravakṣyāmi — I shall now explain · yat — which · jñātvā — knowing · amṛtaṁ — nectar · aśnute — taste · anādimat — that which has no beginning · paraṁ — the supreme · brahma — spirit · na — neither · sat — cause · tat — that · nā — nor · asat — effect · ucyate — is called

13.14

सर्वत: पाणिपादं तत्सर्वतोऽक्षिशिरोमुखम् | सर्वत: श्रुतिमल्लोके सर्वमावृत्य तिष्ठति

sarvataḥ pāṇipādaṁ tat sarvato ’kṣiśiromukham / sarvataḥ śrutimalloke sarvamāvṛtya tiṣṭhati / / 13.14

With hands and feet everywhere, with eyes, heads and mouths everywhere, with ears everywhere, He exists in the worlds, enveloping all. The Paramātman (supreme spirit) is all pervading.

sarvataḥ — everywhere · pāṇi — hands · pādaṁ — legs · tat — that · sarvataḥ — everywhere · akṣi — eyes · śiro — head · mukham — face · sarvataḥ — everywhere · śrutimat — hearing · loke — in the world · sarvaṁ — everything · āvṛtya — covering · tiṣṭhati — exists

13.15

सर्वेन्द्रियगुणाभासं सर्वेन्द्रियविवर्जितम् | असक्तं सर्वभृच्चैव निर्गुणं गुणभोक्तृ च

sarvendriya-guṇābhāsaṁ sarvendriya-vivarjitam / asaktaṁ sarva-bhṛccaiva nirguṇaṁ guṇabhoktṛ ca / / 13.15

The Paramātman is the original source of all the senses. Yet, He is beyond all the senses. He is unattached. Although the consciousness is the maintainer of all the living beings, yet He transcends the modes of the nature and at the same time He is the master of the modes of our material nature.

sarva — all · indriya — senses · guṇa — qualities · ābhāsaṁ — original source · sarva — all · indriya — senses · vivarjitam — being without · asaktaṁ — without attachment · sarvabhṛt — maintainer of everyone · ca — also · eva — certainly · nirguṇaṁ — without material qualities · guṇabhoktṛ — simultaneously master of the gunas · ca — also

13.16

बहिरन्तश्च भूतानामचरं चरमेव च | सूक्ष्मत्वात्तदविज्ञेयं दूरस्थं चान्तिके च तत्

bahir antaśca bhūtānām acaraṁ carameva ca / sūkṣmatvāt tad avijñeyaṁ dūrasthaṁ cāntike ca tat / / 13.16

The supreme truth exists both within and without, it is present in everything mobile or immobile. It is not knowable through the senses as it is very subtle. Though far, yet it is the nearest.

bahiḥ — outside · antaḥ — inside · ca — also · bhūtānām — of all living entities · acaraṁ — not moving · caraṁ — moving · eva — also · ca — and · sūkṣmatvāt — on account of being subtle · tat — that · avijñeyaṁ — unknowable · dūrasthaṁ — far away · ca — also · antike — near · ca — and · tat — that

13.17

अविभक्तं च भूतेषु विभक्तमिव च स्थितम् | भूतभर्तृ च तज्ज्ञेयं ग्रसिष्णु प्रभविष्णु च

avibhaktaṁ ca bhūteṣu vibhaktamiva ca sthitam / bhūta-bhartṛ ca tajjñeyaṁ grasiṣṇu prabhaviṣṇu ca / / 13.17

Though appearing fragmented it is indivisible whole. Though He is the maintainer of every living entity, it is to be understood that He consumes and creates all.

avibhaktaṁ — without division · ca — also · bhūteṣu — in every living being · vibhak- taṁ — divided · iva — as if · ca — also · sthitam — situated · bhūta bhartṛ — maintainer of all living entities · ca — also · tat — that · jñeyaṁ — to be understood · grasiṣṇu — devours · prabhaviṣṇu — develops · ca — also

13.18

ज्योतिषामपि तज्ज्योतिस्तमस: परमुच्यते | ज्ञानं ज्ञेयं ज्ञानगम्यं हृदि सर्वस्य विष्ठितम्

jyotiṣām api tajjyotis tamasaḥ paramucyate / jñānaṁ jñeyaṁ jñāna-gamyaṁ hṛdi sarvasya viṣṭhitam / / 13.18

He is the source of light in all luminous objects. He is beyond the darkness of matter and is formless. He is knowledge, He is the object of knowledge, and He is the goal of knowledge. He is situated in everyone’s heart.

jyotiṣām — in all luminous objects · api — also · tat — that · jyotiḥ — source of light · tamasaḥ — of the darkness · paraṁ — beyond · ucyate — is said · jñānaṁ — knowledge · jñeyaṁ — to be known · jñānagamyaṁ — to be approached by knowledge · hṛdi — in the heart · sarvasya — of everyone · viṣṭhitam — situated

Kṛṣṇa says, ‘I shall explain the knowable, knowing which, you will taste the eternal Being, the beginning-less consciousness that lies beyond the causes and effects of this material world.’ In the previous verses, Kṛṣṇa talks about the qualities that happen with the flowering of the divine consciousness within. Now He reveals to Arjuna that this consciousness is eternal. Please understand that our mind associates a time and space with every incident or event. The mind can only think chronologically. It is like an inner reference chart and all incidents are placed in this chart of time and space. Modern science asks questions like, ‘How did this happen? What was there before this?

What came after this? What triggered this?’ When they asked about the creation of this Universe, they explained it with the Big Bang theory. They said that a tiny mass of fire exploded and gave rise to our Universe. What they could not answer was, ‘What existed before that?’ Kṛṣṇa says that this universal energy, the ultimate consciousness, always existed. It manifested in various forms as planets, as humans and so on, but it is eternal. It will continue to manifest itself and return to the Source and it will always exist. The concept of time and space that we have is based on our mind and senses. Whatever we perceive is a projection of our mind.

This understanding of time is different from an enlightened Master’s understanding. He measures time in terms of kṣaṇa. Kṣaṇa is the time between two thoughts. It is the space between two thoughts. Buddha referred to this time and space as śūṇya. Ādī Śaṅkarācārya referred to it as pūrṇa. It is the no-mind zone, the mindful zone, the space of completion in which we touch base with ourselves. It is the present moment, in which we come face to face with the divinity within, by which we recognize the Cosmic energy that is our essential nature. When we are caught in chasing one material pleasure after anotherwehavesomuchstress,tensionandworrybombardingourheads every second. Our kṣaṇa is very small because of the high number of KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 955 thoughts inside us.

This is why we get a suffocated, panicking feeling. We constantly feel time is running out. We are greedy for more and more experiences before this body dies and we are afraid that we might lose whatever we have come to possess. We feel this way because we associate ourselves with the kṣetra, the temporary body and mind. Please understand that the body and mind are made up of the five elements and they return to their source once they have served their purpose. On the other hand, an enlightened Master knows he is kṣetrajña. He knows that he is not the body-mind system. He has realized that he is the ultimate consciousness.

He has no urgency to run in the rat race because he knows that life goes on, even if this body perishes. He has become a witness to the mind. Any thought that springs up will be only an action-oriented authentic thought, never an unproductive thought. He expresses the power of words, vāk śakti. The moment the thought happens, it immediately expresses itself as an action. No thoughts accumulate inside him. He experiences eternity because of this thoughtless zone that he stays in. This is the beginninglessness of the consciousness that Kṛṣṇa explains here. The Master Exists Everywhere When we are in front of an Enlightened Master, one who is in a no-mind state of completion, the number of thoughts in us also comes down and our kṣaṇa becomes longer.

The gaps between thoughts increase. So without even trying, we become calmer, more peaceful, and more aware! The knowable that Kṛṣṇa explains is beyond any changes. It is eternal because it does not follow the laws of creation and destruction like other objects around us. It has always been there and will always continue to exist. Whatever physical matter we see around us follows a particular cause-effect relationship. However, our deepest core is untouched by these changes. Please listen! Every thought inside us affects the functioning of the whole Cosmos. Whether we want to accept it or not, we do not operate as separate islands. Thoughts that are present in the space that we live in affect our mental setup, that is the way we think and operate.

This positivity and negativity, creation and destruction, are all properties of the changing world around us, of the kṣetra that we live in. The minute we know that we are not this changing kṣetra but the eternal and unmoving kṣetrajñya (the consciousness that runs the kṣetra), we are liberated. Kṛṣṇa calls this eternal bliss jñeya, knowable. When the knowing happens, the knowable (jñeya), knower (jñātā), and the knowledge (jñāna) merge. In this experience, the knower, known, and knowledge become one. No separate experience, experiencer or object of experience exists. It is called triputi, where no difference between the three entities exists. It is like this: Imagine that you love driving and are sitting in a nice new car with all automatic systems and you are driving on a highway at full speed.

You are so immersed in that joy of driving the car that you forget yourself. After some time you suddenly realize you are not even driving; the driving is simply happening. You have become the experience of driving and there is no more a sense of you doing the driving. The car is moving forward on its own and you have become the experience. Similarly, if you are immersed and involved deeply in any other passion, the experience, experiencer and object of experience suddenly merge into the Eternal consciousness. You call it being in ‘the space of completion.’ Kṛṣṇa explaines that His eternal nature, the eternal Self, is not bound by time.

Now He says that He exists everywhere, sarvam āvṛtya tiṣṭhati and He is not bound by space. Normally we understand the presence or absence of an object or person in terms of physical attributes. We function in our lives based upon what we see, smell, touch, taste and hear. If our pañca indriya, five senses, cannot sense anything, we think KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 957 nothing exists. sarvataḥ pāṇi-pādaṁ tat sarvato ‘kṣi-śiro-mukham I sarvataḥ śrutimal loke sarvam āvṛtya tiṣṭhati II 13.14 One important and surprising thing is that an Enlightened Master is more present in his absence than in his physical presence. This means that his energy never dies nor does it know any barriers.

Many disciples in different parts of the world tell me, ‘Swamiji, we wish to be with you more often, please visit us.’ I tell them, ‘Truly, sixty six percent of Nithyananda is in the mission and the message; only thirty three percent is in this body.’ If we limit an enlightened Master to his form, we miss him completely. His energy transcends time and space and is always available everywhere, forever! When you are in the energy field of an enlightened Master who is no longer in his body, as in a jīva samādhi, the final resting place of the Master’s body, without even making an effort, you become calmer and experience that space of peace within.

Many great temples such as Tirupati, Tiruvannamalai, Mantralaya and Pazhani in India are built around the final resting places of Enlightened Masters. That is why these places serve as powerful energy centers today, drawing millions of people every year. Although physically the Master is no longer in the body, we feel his presence. Why? Because he is not bound in space by the body. The cosmic energy that he manifests transcends space and time. Only we know physical barriers. Here, Kṛṣṇa uses the phrase, ‘Hands and feet everywhere, sarvataḥ pāṇi-pādaṁ, eyes, heads, faces, ears everywhere, sarvato akṣi-śiromukham (13.14).’ What does He mean by this? This is beyond the comprehension of the human mind and needs a little bit of internalization.

We understand only one body—the physical body—because we associate ourselves with it completely. Let me explain with a small diagram: This diagram shows the seven energy bodies or layers that we have in us. The outermost layer is the physical layer, with which we associate ourselves all the time. We know this body as having a pair of eyes, hands, legs, one nose, head, etc. Now let us take a few points on that layer. Let us call them ‘you’, ‘me’, ‘your neighbor’, ‘Kṛṣṇa’, ‘Buddha’ etc. So, at the gross layer, you are different from your neighbor; your neighbor is different from me and different from the various forms of God.

You can see each point being distinct from the others. We are so rooted in this physical gross layer and so we see many barriers between us and everything around us, because everything appears to be different from the other in this layer. Now, for each point, if we follow the corresponding points in the inner layers, as we go deeper and deeper, we suddenly realize that we all merge in the nirvanic layer. It is here that the Universal Energy connects every being. There is no difference in this space between you and me. This is the space of consciousness that Kṛṣṇa talks about. Here, Kṛṣṇa and Buddha are no different.

All are various forms of God, all are manifestations of the same divinity. The women who used to look after the cowherds during Kṛṣṇa’s time, that is the gopīs, were great devotees of Kṛṣṇa. Despite their other household chores, they were soaked in devotion for Kṛṣṇa all the time. In the Rās līlā, divine play of Kṛṣṇa, He gave the experience of Universal consciousness to the gopīs; Kṛṣṇa danced with each of the hundred thousand gopīs in Briṇdāvan. Kṛṣṇa manifested a form for each of the gopīs KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 959 in order to dance with them individually. It was not merely one form, one body of Kṛṣṇa, but one hundred thousand forms manifesting simultaneously.

Please understand the deeper meaning in this līlā. Each gopī was so deeply connected with that divine consciousness, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that each one felt His presence. When we go within, into our core, we see divinity in everything. The gopīs saw Kṛṣṇa everywhere and in everything they did. This universal consciousness knows no physical barriers. That is why Kṛṣṇa says He is ‘all pervading, sarvam āvṛtya tiṣṭhati.’ He is all enveloping. He is omnipresent. That is why I say, ‘All those who I ordain as healers are my hands, all our ācāryas (initiated teachers) are my vāk (energy of power of words), and all our organizers are my mind.’

I can only heal a limited number of people with these two physical hands. I can only conduct a limited number of programs with this one mouth, and I can only organize a limited events with this one brain. That is why I operate through my healers, teachers and organizers. The Cosmic Nithyananda operates through them! For a phone connection to happen from one country to another, we need to have the infrastructure: all the cables installed below the sea and so forth. But for this cosmic connection to happen, nothing is needed. If we simply connect to the Self within, suddenly there will be no barriers. We will simply fly!

Kṛṣṇa goes on to give further qualities of the Self. But understand that all this is said only to inspire us to experience it first hand ourselves. If somebody asks us, ‘What does sugar taste like?’ and if he has never tasted anything sweet before, how will you explain to him? You may tell him, ‘It will be in the form of white cubes, transparent, very sweet.’ When he asks, ‘What does ‘sweet’ mean?’ You can continue to tell him other things, ‘Sugar is made from sugar cane, which is full of sugary syrup, it is fibrous, you can chew on it.’ What is the use? Instead if he puts a handful of sugar in his mouth, he will automatically say, ‘This is how sugar tastes!

This is how something sweet tastes!’ Unless he experiences what ‘sweet’ means, things will remain a theory for him, although the conviction about sugar might grow in him. In Chapter 11, when Kṛṣṇa gives His Cosmic form vision, the Viśvarūpa Darśan, Arjuna feels intimidated within a few moments and cannot handle the energy. He pleads with Kṛṣṇa, ‘I cannot understand You. I cannot withstand Your glory.’ But Arjuna wants to know what Kṛṣṇa is talking about. So once again Kṛṣṇa gives all kinds of descriptions to penetrate Arjuna’s doubts and fears. The compassion of an Enlightened Master is so great. In spite of the doubts and skepticism, he quietly and patiently sits with the disciple until, one by one, all doubts are washed away.

You see, our self-doubts and questions arise from our mind, forming a thick layer over us. A Master’s grace gently dissolves this layer. Kṛṣṇa says all life happens because of the thread of the Universal energy flowing through. You see, so many things are happening around us, on their own, beyond our awareness. The life force that conducts the whole show, that controls every breath we take, the same energy that maintains an order in the chaos of the Universe, is pure intelligence. In Saṃskṛit, there is a saying that means not even a blade of grass can move without the will of the Divine. Kṛṣṇa is sending a message to us about how much we depend on Him, who is the Cosmic intelligence, for anything to happen.

At the same time, without getting involved, the Universal energy is a witness to all activities and all life forms. If we look deeper, we realize that whatever we see and perceive as objects, are creations of the mind along with the senses. We create a world of our own. Deep down, the true Self watches the whole thing without getting involved. The mind projects some people as good, some as bad, some incident as painful, others as joyful, etc. and then runs after or away from the people and experiences. For an enlightened being, a knower of the truth, everything is the same. He stops labeling because he has moved KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 961 beyond names and forms, and beyond the dualities of good and bad.

Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahamsa gives a beautiful analogy. When we stand in a valley, we see pits and depressions on the ground if we look down, and mountain cliffs when we look up. But when we climb up to the summit, we observe that all the ups and downs below no longer matter. We have transcended the ups and downs that we saw when we were on the ground. How to climb to the summit above all the ups and downs? You must relax. You must realize that you are already on the summit. You are beyond the ups and downs. But no, we don’t want to believe it. Our mind tells us, ‘No.

What is he saying? I have important things to do in life. How can I relax?’ We love our tensions and problems too much. We like to clutch onto our lives. We do not want to let go because we think this is all there is. We do not realize that if we relax, we can fly. A small story: A hunter in a forest came across a clearing where there were many birds. He took a twig and tied a rope at the center of the twig. Then he took the two ends of the rope and tied them firmly to a pole on each side. Now the twig was hanging by the rope.

He sprinkled a few grains around the setup. He was a clever hunter. Happily, he went away for a nap. After some time, a bird was attracted by the grains and sat on the twig. The minute it sat on one side of the twig, the whole twig turned upside down due to the bird’s weight. The bird now saw the whole world upside down and became frightened. It thought it was trapped! It clasped to the twig harder than ever and prayed to God to be set free. After an hour, the hunter returned leisurely and caught hold of the bird. After that, you know what happened. This is what we do in our lives.

The bird did not realize that it was always free! All it needed to do was let go of the twig and fly away. We do the same thing. We grasp and clutch onto our past. We clutch onto the pains and joys and keep missing the space of completion. We miss eternity. We miss our Consciousness inside. The supreme truth is inside and outside all living entities. It is moving and non-moving on account of being subtle. It is near and far. Kṛṣṇa uses all these terms and concepts such as moving and non-moving, near and far, inside and outside because these are the only terms we can understand.

He is giving us an idea to tell us that Supreme Consciousness is beyond these concepts and terms that we know. The Indivisible Space Within You see the world full of objects with different qualifiers because you associate yourself with a fixed entity. You say something is far or near based on the physical boundaries, with respect to the coordinates of your body. Whatever you do, what you think, is based on this reference point. You live in this space enclosed by your physical boundary called ghaṭākāśa. There are three spaces we can live in: The space that is covered by the body, the space that is covered by the mind, and the space that cannot be covered by body and mind.

The first is ghaṭākāśa, or the space enclosed by this physical body. Most of us live in this space nearly all the time. The next is cidākāśa, the space that you are aware and conscious of. Right now, if you are aware of this hall it is your cidākāśa. This is the space of the thoughts and mind. The third is mahākāśa. This is the whole space, cosmos, everything put together. The ghaṭākāśa is made up of the five elements that are: earth, water, fire, air and ether. These elements become subtler as we move up, from earth, to water, to fire, to air, to ether. None of the first four reflect consciousness.

Ether, the subtlest element, connects with consciousness. It reflects consciousness. And that is the reason why we are alive. The problem is, we think consciousness is bound by ghaṭākāśa. We think it is limited to this body. That is why we make this body the reference when we view the outer world. We think this body is the ‘I’ that sees the rest of the world. You see, KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 963 all science had this as its basic foundation: we are separate entities defined by physical boundaries. Enlightened Masters who have moved beyond ghaṭākāśa into mahākāśa understand that all this division of space is due to our ignorance. Please understand that space can never be divided.

Yet we divide it into boundaries and associate terms: within, inside, outside, near, far, etc. because of our limited understanding. This is the cause for our suffering. First of all, we divide the space because of our ignorance. Second, we try to possess the space that we think is in our control. And third, we fear that the space might be taken from us. All fears, including the fear of death, happen because we constantly try to protect the space covered by our body and mind. Understand the basic truth that space cannot be divided. When we understand that we are mahākāśa, we transcend all boundaries. Whatever space we may be in, the possibility of achieving a higher space is available to every one of us.

Man, as such, is only potentiality. He is not actuality. He is not what he is supposed to be. As of now we are in seed form and have not expressed our potential fully. We have not become trees yet. But that does not mean we cannot grow and become trees. When we transcend these relative boundaries we will understand through experience what Kṛṣṇa says. Kṛṣṇa says that the supreme truth is inside and outside all living entities, bahir antaś ca bhūtānām. It is moving and non-moving on account of being subtle, acaraṁ caram eva ca (13.16). This is the space of mahākāśa, which includes the space of everything. This space is absolute.

Everything is included in this space. When there is no ‘two,’ how can we compare? How can we say something is near or far when there is only one? The truth is absolute and one. avibhaktaṁ ca bhūteṣu vibhaktaṁ iva ca sthitam I bhūta-bhartṛ ca taj jñeyaṁ grasiṣṇu prabhaviṣṇu ca II 13.17 Although the supreme spirit appears to be divided as the Cosmic and individual entities, it is never divided, avibhaktaṁ ca bhūteṣu. It is the basis of generation, maintenance and destruction of life. When we pour water into containers of different shapes and sizes, it takes on their shapes. If we carefully examine their contents, all of them contain the same water.

Similarly, the world of many forms and shapes, so many species of plants and animals, appears as though there is so much variety. Underlying them all is the same energy. The prāṇa śakti, life force, running in each of them is the same. If we understand this simple tattva (principle) of life—that we came from the same Source and we return to it—we will realize that we are connected to something much greater than our individual self. I am the Source of All Light The Universal consciousness manifests in numerous ways and is also responsible for destruction. When the same Universal energy is unmanifest, unexpressed, it exists in potential form.

This is referred to as puruṣa in the scriptures. When this energy manifests itself in this world, taking various names, forms, and shapes, it expresses itself as prakṛti. Prakṛti is the creative expression of puruṣa. The life force that caused us to be born also maintains us. Every little thing happening within us is carried out by the same intelligence that brought us into this world. Similarly, the same intelligence accompanies us when we leave the body. The water of the ocean is the puruṣa and the waves that dance and play are prakṛti. The water appears to be divided in the form of waves of many shapes and sizes.

In reality it is one mass of the same water. Similarly, Kṛṣṇa reminds Arjuna that the supreme spirit appears to be divided into puruṣa and prakṛti because of the different creations and expressions of prakṛti. However, He is beyond all this and exists undivided. At their core, all are creations of the universal energy. Kṛṣṇa says, ‘He is the Supreme Self, or witnessing consciousness that is the source of all light in all luminous objects. He is knowledge, He is KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 965 the object of knowledge, and He is the goal of knowledge. He is situated in everyone’s heart.’ jyotiṣām api taj jyotis tamasaḥ param ucyate I jñanaṁ jñeyaṁ jñana-gamyaṁ hṛdi sarvasya viṣṭhitam II 13.18 The sources of light as we understand them are the sun, moon, lightning, fire or artificial means like electricity.

All these produce light, which makes life possible. An object that is around us becomes visible because of the light energy. The cakṣu, the energy behind vision, can perceive that object when the surroundings are lit up. The light energy from the sun is responsible for the birth and growth of all living beings. All beings on planet Earth depend on the sun for their survival. What gives these sources of light the energy to run? What drives them? The Universal consciousness gives energy to all sources of light. Kṛṣṇa calls this Self the ‘Source of light—jyotiṣam api taj jyotis’. The sources of light—the sun, the moon and lightning derive their energy from that self-luminous Self.

That is why there is a common adjective given to the Self as ‘effulgent’ or ‘luminous’. In a deeper sense, when the Self is referred to as luminous, it is not what we normally understand. The Self is pure intelligence and this knowledge dispels ignorance. An Enlightened Master sees everything with clarity. He sees truth as it is. You see, when you are in a dark room you are ignorant of what is present in that room. When the lights are switched on, you become aware of things around you. An Enlightened Master uses the lamp of consciousness to see the truth as it is, without any filters. Using this lamp, he experiences his surroundings in totality, in completion with the whole.

This lamp is not like any other lamp; it cuts the layers of ignorance, however deep they may be. That is why the Master sees 360 degrees around him. He does not filter what he sees like we do. Please understand, the filtering that we do is the cause of our problems, our incompletions. We do not see whatever exists as it exists. We distort it to suit our inadequate, limited ideas, that are born out of our root thought patterns. The ego is like darkness; it has no positive existence. Just as darkness is the absence of light, the ego is the absence of awareness. To struggle to kill the ego is like struggling to push darkness out of the room.

To expel the darkness, what you need to do is to forget about dealing with the darkness. Focus your energy on light instead. Bring a small lamp into the room and the darkness will leave on its own! This lamp of Consciousness is available to all of us. It lies within us. Forget all about the ego. Instead, focus on bringing the lamp into your being. When your entire Consciousness has become a flame, the ego is no more. Understanding The Energy

Verses 13.19–13.24

13.19

इति क्षेत्रं तथा ज्ञानं ज्ञेयं चोक्तं समासत: | मद्भक्त एतद्विज्ञाय मद्भावायोपपद्यते

iti kṣetraṁ tathā jñānaṁ jñeyaṁ co ’ktaṁ samāsataḥ / madbhakta etadvijñāya madbhāvāyopapadyate / / 13.19

Thus the field of activities, knowledge and the knowable has been summarily described by Me. It is only when we can understand the true nature of our supreme Self and the material world with which we have created false identities that we can go beyond this and attain the supreme Self itself.

iti — thus · kṣetraṁ — the field of activities (the body) · tathā — also · jñānaṁ — knowl- edge · jñeyaṁ — the knowable · ca — also · uktaṁ — described · samāsataḥ — in sum- mary · madbhaktaḥ — My devotee · etad — all this · vijñāya — after understanding · madbhāvāya — My nature · upapadyate — attains

13.20

प्रकृतिं पुरुषं चैव विद्ध्यनादी उभावपि | विकारांश्च गुणांश्चैव विद्धि प्रकृतिसम्भवान्

prakṛtiṁ puruṣaṁ caiva viddhyanādī ubhāvapi / vikārāṁś ca guṇāṁś caiva viddhi prakṛti saṁbhavān / / 13.20

Prakṛti or the field and its attributes and the puruṣa or the knower or the supreme consciousness are both without beginning. All the transformations of nature that we see are produced by the field or prakṛti.

prakṛtiṁ — material nature · puruṣaṁ — living entity · ca — also · eva — certainly · viddhi — must know · anādī — without beginning · ubhāu — both · api — also · vikārān — transformations · ca — also · guṇān — three modes of nature · ca — also · eva — certainly · viddhi — know · prakṛti — material nature · saṁbhavān — produced of

13.21

कार्यकारणकर्तृत्वे हेतु: प्रकृतिरुच्यते | पुरुष: सुखदु:खानां भोक्तृत्वे हेतुरुच्यते

kārya-kāraṇa-kartṛtve hetuḥ prakṛtirucyate / puruṣaḥ sukha-duḥkhānāṁ bhoktṛtve heturucyate / / 13.21

In the production of the body and the senses, prakṛti is said to be the cause; In the experience of pleasure and pain, puruṣa is said to be the cause.

kārya — effect · kāraṇa — cause · kartṛtve — in the matter of creation · hetuḥ — instru- ment · prakṛtiḥ — material nature · ucyate — is said to be · puruṣaḥ — the living entity · sukha — of happiness · duḥkhānāṁ — and distress · bhoktṛtve — in enjoyment · hetuḥ — the instrument · ucyate — is said to be

13.22

पुरुष: प्रकृतिस्थो हि भुङक्ते प्रकृतिजान्गुणान् | कारणं गुणसङ्गोऽस्य सदसद्योनिजन्मसु

puruṣaḥ prakṛtistho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān-guṇān / kāraṇaṁ guṇasaṇgosya sadasadyonijanmasu / / 13.22

The living entity in the material nature follows the way of life, enjoying the moods of nature. Due to association with the material nature it meets the good or evil among various species.

puruṣaha — the living entity · prakṛtisthaḥ — being situated in the material energy · hi — certainly · bhuṅkte — enjoys · prakṛtijān — produced by the material nature · guṇān — modes of nature · kāraṇaṁ — cause · guṇasaṇgaḥ — association with the modes of nature · asya — of the living entity · sadasad — good and bad · yoni — species of life · janmasu — births

13.23

उपद्रष्टानुमन्ता च भर्ता भोक्ता महेश्वर: | परमात्मेति चाप्युक्तो देहेऽस्मिन्पुरुष: पर:

upadraṣṭānumantā ca bhartā bhoktā maheśvaraḥ / paramātmeti cāpyukto dehe’sminpuruṣaḥ paraḥ / / 13.23

Yet, in this body there is a transcendental energy. He who is divine, who exists as a owner or the witness, supporter, enjoyer and the pure witnessing consciousness, is known as the Paramātman.

upadraṣṭā — overseer · anumantā — permitter · ca — also · bhartā — master · bhoktā — supreme enjoyer · maheśvaraḥ — the supreme Lord · paramātmā — supersoul · iti — also · ca — and · apyuktaḥ — is said · dehe — in this body · asmin — this · puruṣaḥ — enjoyer · paraḥ — transcendental

13.24

य एवं वेत्ति पुरुषं प्रकृतिं च गुणै: सह | सर्वथा वर्तमानोऽपि न स भूयोऽभिजायते

ya evaṁ vetti puruṣaṁ prakṛtiṁ ca guṇaiḥ saha / sarvathā vartamānopi na sa bhūyobhijāyate / / 13.24

One who understands this philosophy concerning material nature, the living entity and the interaction of the modes of nature is sure to attain liberation. He will not take birth here again, regardless of his present position.

yaḥ — he who · evaṁ — thus · vetti — understands · puruṣaṁ — the living entity · prakṛtiṁ — material nature · ca — and · guṇaiḥ — modes of material nature · saha — with · sarvathā — by all means · vartamānaḥ — situated · api — in spite of · na — never · saḥ — he · bhūyaḥ — again · abhijāyate — takes his birth

Kṛṣṇa delivers this discourse of the Bhagavad Gītā to Arjuna standing in a chariot on the battlefield of kurukṣetra. If you look a little deeper, this is a beautiful picture of each of us. Kṛṣṇa represents the Self, the charioteer, knower of the field, kṣetrajña, the one who runs the show. If the charioteer does not know how to take charge, the horses start to pull the chariot in different directions. These horses symbolize the senses and the mind pulling us to different places as they please, thus leaving us in a state of confusion in everything that we do. If we are not ready to control the horses, the horses will control us.

This is what happens in our lives. Due to our lack of understanding about how to drive the chariot, we conveniently give the horses the authority. The very understanding about the kṣetra, meaning the material things around us, teaches us how to control them. The minute we understand the kṣetra, the body-mind, we realize we are not the kṣetra! If we are the kṣetra, then how can we understand it? You see, we can read this book because we are not the book. There is a separation between the book and us. In the same way, only when we understand the kṣetra, do we understand that we are not the kṣetra.

This understanding that we are not the kṣetra brings with it the understanding that we are the kṣetrajña. When we realize that we are the kṣetrajña, we have transcended the kṣetra. How do we understand the kṣetra? It is important to gain knowledge about our material world. Until then, we are in ignorance. When we are in ignorance, our senses and societal conditioning drive us. Life Is A Dream Actually, there is no such thing as kṣetra. It is a projection of the mind, just like a dream. You see, when we go to bed we know that we are so-and-so, husband or wife of so-and-so, working in such-and-such company, etc.

We know our whole identity with solid clarity when we go to sleep. We know that even if we have dreams, they are not real. We will wake up the next day and continue our life at the office, with our children and so on. KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 969 But the minute we drift into the dream state, we start to think that the dream is real. The more we get into the dream, the more our identity completely changes to suit the role in the dream. What happens in the dream may not be related to what we do in real life. Yet we start to believe it all. If a lion in the dream attacks us, we feel fear and worry and we may even sweat as though it is really happening to us!

In the same way, we think this life is real. If I tell you now that the life that you are leading is nothing but a creation of your mind, will you believe me? No! You are so immersed in this dream that you think is real. See, when we wake up from a dream, why do we suddenly understand that it was not real? It is because suddenly we perceive a separation between the dream and us. The understanding that it was merely a dream, puts us into reality. Similarly, the understanding that this world is nothing but a projection of the mind, the understanding that this is not our real identity, will put us into reality.

Let us say we dream of winning some award in front of thousands of people. The mind is so powerful that it can create the entire picture including every detail of the auditorium, all the thousand people sitting and clapping, the speeches, everything that we would normally see in an auditorium. The mind is so powerful to be able to give life to the scene around us and not just to our identity in the dream. This is what the mind does in the so-called real world also. The only difference is that we wake up easily from our night dreams. However, we do not know how to wake up from this bigger day dream that we now think is reality.

As long as we think this world is real, we suffer. The minute we realize this world is not real, we create a distance between the suffering and us. Only an enlightened Master who has experienced the truth can awaken us to reality. Out of their compassion, these masters descend on planet Earth to tell us that everything we see around us is a projection of our minds. The understanding of the kṣetra, the illusory world created by our minds, is important in helping us to differentiate between reality and non-reality. Kṛṣṇa says that we need to understand what kṣetra and kṣetrajña to realize the truth. Until then we blindly believe that the projection of our mind, the drama, is reality.

We have created our own drama and are acting in it. By and by, we forget that we created the drama. We forget that we are not the roles or characters we enact onstage. We start judging and reacting to everything about it. If a child is constantly reminded about the divinity within right from birth, it grows up to be a jīvan mukta, liberated while still in the body. This is how children were brought up in the vedic tradition. That is why the level of consciousness was so high. Prakṛti, the material world that we see, is without beginning. Puruṣa or supreme consciousness is also without beginning. All changes and transformations are produced by prakṛti.

All the transformations that we see, such as the change in seasons, concepts of time and space, our body, mind or anything that changes are different attributes of prakṛti. It is like the ebb and flow of the waves in an ocean. These attributes rise and fall. The time and space of the rise and fall is totally relative. The duration of the rise and fall of these attributes is also highly relative because it is purely a concept created by our senses. Our senses perceive time as moving. Our senses perceive the motion of time with respect to the material world, with relation to the speed of the planets, etc.

We have created this concept of time for our sensory perceptions. We have created the space and location also with the concept of comparative reality. For example, if we are sitting with someone we love, no matter how much time passes, we feel as if we were with that person for a short duration. We will not be aware how time passed so quickly. On the other hand, if we are sitting with a person who bores us or bothers us, we will feel like looking at our watch constantly. We would feel that time is not moving at all. As long as our mind moves, time moves. When we look deeply, we realize that the mind is a constant movement between past and future.

KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 971 The mind is a dilemma; it is constantly reviewing the past and planning for the future. We are constantly pulled towards the past or future and are never in the present moment. When we fall into the present moment, we fall into eternity and that eternity is a combination of past, present and future. There is no distinction. In this state we become the witness of all time and space-related happenings. We become the witnessing consciousness. We become the knower and we witness the field or kṣetra with complete detachment. We realize that everything in the outer world is a drama or a dream, and anything that we attempt to do in our lives is housekeeping in this dream.

Any effort that we make is another act in this dream. The whole idea is to not become entangled or emotionally attached to the housekeeping in this dream. The idea is to enjoy it and watch it by becoming one with our true self. Knowledge about the material world is necessary to help us step back from the dream and realize that we are unnecessarily attached and entangled in the field, kṣetra. All transformations in the field are related to time and space, which are in turn related to our mind. All transformations are the play of prakṛti or the field. Mind is a part of prakṛti. ‘Nature is the source of all material causes and their effects, whereas the living entity is the source of things such as sukha (pleasure), duḥkha (pain) and everything that is of the world.’

Kṛṣṇa puts us back into our consciousness through these words. This contains the gist of what He has been saying in the previous verses. He makes a clear statement that whatever we see is not us. He says, ‘Go beyond and beyond and beyond and beyond. When you are able to see the body, move beyond. If you are able to witness your thoughts, go further beyond. If you are able to see your moods, go further beyond. If you are able to witness your emotions, go further beyond. You are not that either.’ Witness the consciousness that is witnessing. When you watch, detach from the thoughts, sit back, relax and watch.

Do not try to create, nourish or destroy the thoughts. The ultimate consciousness that witnesses is beyond Brahma (Creator), Viṣṇu (Sustainer) or Śiva (Rejuvenator). When we learn to welcome thoughts and allow them to complete, they merely come and go. It is like watching clouds in the sky. Even if there is a thought saying that you are witnessing, watch that thought also. Watch the witnessing until that thought also disappears. Go beyond and beyond, deep into your being. Go beyond the thought that you are witnessing. Please listen. As long as you think in your mind that you are witnessing, you are not witnessing. When the thought that you are witnessing exists, you are not witnessing.

You are now caught in the thought, ‘I am witnessing.’ Drop that! This last thought that you are witnessing is like a bridge between you and God, between you and the thoughtless space. Initially, when you try to witness your actions and your thoughts, it is natural to think that you are watching. Let it be. Having this thought is better than having a hundred incomplete thoughts bombarding your inner space. But go beyond. Do not stop there. Witness the thought that you are witnessing. Then the pure, uncorrupted and untouched complete inner space happens in you. It is only in the uncorrupted and pure inner space of completion that God manifests and the Divine consciousness is perceived.

Understand, Completion is God. Witnessing is the Master Key Here Kṛṣṇa gives us a technique. As of now, we are like 18-carat gold, copper and gold mixed together. When we repeatedly put the 18-carat gold into the fire of witnessing consciousness, eventually it becomes 22-carat gold. If we continue to put that gold into the fire, the 22-carat gold becomes pure 24-carat gold. In the same way, if we put ourselves into the fire of witnessing consciousness, we become purified to a certain extent. Again and again, if we constantly put ourselves into this fire of KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 973 witnessing consciousness, our inner space eventually becomes completely pure, like 24-carat gold.

The essence of all religions and all spirituality, the whole thing is contained in this single verse that Kṛṣṇa presents here. Kṛṣṇa presents the master key that opens all locks, in this chapter: upadraṣṭānumantā ca bhartā bhoktā maheśvaraḥ I paramātmeti cāpy ukto dehe ‘smin puruṣaḥ paraḥ II 13.23 Witnessing the body and the mind, witnessing your being. Witnessing is the master key. If we can enter the witnessing technique and experience the witnessing space of completion for at least a few minutes, we will get a taste of it. However much we hear about witnessing, however much we talk about witnessing or however much we analyze the art of witnessing, unless we experience it ourselves, it is of no use.

You must test it on yourself. You must test it with your being. Reading or listening will not transform you. Reading or listening is like reading the menu and leaving the restaurant without tasting the food on the menu! If you listen to what I say without testing, it is like going away from a restaurant without eating. So now since we have read the menu card, it is time to taste the preparation. Your Cognition is Transformable, Be Complete Kṛṣṇa goes one step further. All along He told us how to cleanse our inner space and how to realize the Divine consciousness within. Now, in the last verse He says that one who does so attains liberation, regardless of his present position, sarvathā vartamāno ‘pi na sa bhūyo ‘bhijāyate (13.24).

Every being is moving towards the Divine, whether or not the being is aware of it. We take on this body to fulfill certain desires. If we truly put our energies into dissolving these desires, we have no reason to take another birth to fulfill these desires. The incompletion happens when we start to lead somebody else’s life and forget we are here to live our desires and not others’ desires. We constantly borrow other people’s desires and accumulate them in us. Then, before we start realizing our true nature, it becomes time to leave this body. We take with us the entire baggage of unfulfilled desires and take another body again.

The universe again and again tries to help us dissolve our desires so that we become free of them. But we resist by not feeling responsible for what happens within and around us. Kṛṣṇa says that an understanding of kṣetra or prakṛti straightaway liberates us. We are caught up in pursuing sense pleasures and accumulating desires as long as we associate ourselves with this body. The minute we understand that we are beyond the body and mind, we suddenly realize, ‘What stupidity to run in this rat race!’ All our problems, all our incompletions arise due to the ignorance of our true nature. The understanding that we are beyond all petty things like fighting for name, fame, money or power liberates us from them.

A cognitive shift happens that transforms and frees us from the bondage of material things. This cognitive shift can happen at any time, to anyone. It is not necessary that you be brought up in an ashram, listening to God’s name all the time. You could be anywhere, doing anything. And when it happens, it is a quantum jump in the level of consciousness. It does not happen gradually. It is spontaneous enlightenment. It is like pressing a switch and the whole room is lit up in one shot. Understand, your cognition is changeable, transformable is the first cognition you need. Whenever people realize that they are beyond the bondages of body and mind, that their cognition is changeable, spontaneous Enlightenment happens.

When people who go on doing completion, with their body and mind, along with the basic root-pattern that their cognition is not changeable; then finally, at one point, they break and understand that cognition is changeable, they become enlightened. That is called Enlightenment process, gradual KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 975 Enlightenment. People who immediately understand that cognition is changeable and awaken, are people who have become spontaneously enlightened, they have instant Enlightenment. Please listen. You go on believing that because you are seeing from the time of your birth, seeing is hardware of you like the eyes. You don’t separate eyes and seeing, you don’t separate ears and hearing, you don’t separate tongue and tasting.

You don’t separate kṣetra and kṣetrajñya , the one watching the kṣetra. You think that if it is there, it is there, which is not the truth. Cognition is changeable. Cognition is transformable. With this clarity that the cognition is transformable, now decide and be liberated. Just an understanding that our cognition is changeable and transformable, that we are beyond material pursuits is enough to liberate us. I tell you, just know your incompletions with this clarity that cognition is changeable, the incompletions of kṣetra will lose power over you. Incompletions will have power over you as long as you feel cognition is not changeable. With this understanding of kṣetrajña, start living and thinking.

Regardless of your present position, your very thinking will be completion. This is the science of spontaneous completion, instant completion. Technique For Spontaneous Completion Completion does not mean blindly accepting everything that happens in your life, in the kṣetra. It simply means not resisting life as it happens to us. The root of all our incompletions is the idea we carry— Life should not be this way. That is why we spend our whole life asking, ‘Why, why, why? Why is life so bad? Why did this happen to me? Why do bad things happen to good people?’ Spontaneous completion or instant completion means simply dropping the wrong understanding that is creating conflict for you in a particular situation.

It is possible! Next time you face a crisis or conflict in life, don’t ask, ‘Why is life this way? Instead, decide: this is life, so now what? Do I want to accept it and move on? Do I want to reject it and move on? Or do I change it the way I want? Whatever decision you make out of this cognition will be right for you. When you act out of completion, you are empowered to resolve any conflict that happens inside you or outside you. Manys People, Many Paths

Verses 13.25–13.27

13.25

ध्यानेनात्मनि पश्यन्ति केचिदात्मानमात्मना | अन्ये साङ् ख्येन योगेन कर्मयोगेन चापरे

dhyānenātmani paśyanti kecidātmānamātmanā / anye sāṅkhyena yogena karmayogena cāpare / / 13.25

Some perceive the Paramātman in their inner psyche through mind and intellect that have been purified by meditation or by metaphysical knowledge or by karma yoga.

dhyānena — by meditation · ātmani — in one self · paśyanti — see · kecit — some · ātmānam — Supersoul · ātmanā — by the mind · anye — others · sāṅkhyena — by phil- osophical discussion · yogena — by the yoga system · karmayogena — by activities without fruitive desire · ca — also · apare — others

13.26

अन्ये त्वेवमजानन्त: श्रुत्वान्येभ्य उपासते | तेऽपि चातितरन्त्येव मृत्युं श्रुतिपरायणा:

anye tv evam ajānantaḥ śrutvānyebhya upāsate / te ’pi ’cātitaranty eva mṛtyuṁ śrutiparāyaṇāḥ / / 13.26

There are those who, although not conversant in spir- itual knowledge, begin to worship the supreme personality upon hearing about Him from others. Through the process of hearing about the supreme Self, they also transcend the path of birth and death.

anye — others · tu — but · evaṁ — thus · ajānantaḥ — without spiritual knowledge · śrutvā — by hearing · anyebhyaḥ — from others · upāsate — begin to worship · te — they · api — also · ca — and · atitaranti — transcend · eva — certainly · mṛtyuṁ — the path of death · śrutiparāyaṇāḥ — inclined to the process of hearing

13.27

यावत्सञ्जायते किञ्चित्सत्वं स्थावरजङ्गमम् | क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञसंयोगात्तद्विद्धि भरतर्षभ

yāvatsañjāyate kiñcit sattvaṁ sthāvarajaṅgamam / kṣetra-kṣetrajña-saṁyogāt tadviddhi bharatarṣabha / / 13.27

Bhārata, know that whatever that is movable or immovable is born, It comes into existence by combination of kṣetra and kṣetrajña

yāvat — whatever · sañjāyate — takes place · kiñcit — anything · sattvaṁ — existence · sthāvara — not moving · jaṅgamam — moving · kṣetra — the body · kṣetrajña — knower of the body · saṁyogāt — union between · tadviddhi — you must know it · bhara- tarṣabha — O chief of the Bhāratas

In this verse, Kṛṣṇa gives various techniques for the path to Self-realization. He says various methods or paths may be used to realize our true Self. People say ‘As many Masters, so many paths.’ Actually it should be ‘As many disciples, so many paths!’ Each disciple can have his own path. This is what Kṛṣṇa says. We can attain the ultimate consciousness through different paths. Kṛṣṇa says that through meditation or yoga or knowledge or contemplation or surrendering to the Divine, you can attain liberation. All the different methods lead to the same goal. Each chapter of the Bhagavad Gītā gives a different technique to realize the Self. After our Inner Awakening meditation program, I give spiritual names to those who ask for it.

I give the names based on the energies of the devotees. The names depend on how they connect to the Cosmic Nithyananda. If I see that individuals act at an emotional level like devotion, I give names that suit that particular energy. The second category is intellectual people. Intellectual people are those who connect at a mental level. They need logical explanations for everything. The third category is of those who connect at the being level. When I ask for their names, I meditate on their energies and give them the spiritual names. The spiritual name gives them a path, and the path is different for each one. The name has significance.

The name reminds you of your path. We generally associate ourselves with our name. So whenever you utter your name or when somebody calls you by your spiritual name, it rings a bell in your head. It guides you to the destination. Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna about the paths. He gives alternatives: meditation,yoga,chantingmantra,learningandacquiringknowledgeand surrendering to the Cosmos. Follow Your Own Path Listen. You should know which path is good for you. Lots of people take up a spiritual path without knowing what it is. You can have a starting point but you should find out if you are on the right path. You should not blindly follow someone because someone you know is following that guru or that path.

A small story: On a dark night, a man discovered that the headlights of his car had failed. He decided to follow the car in front of him. It was dark outside and he could not see anything. If the car in front took a turn, he also took that turn. He managed quite well using the light from the car ahead of him. After some time, the lights of the lead car switched off and KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 979 came to a sudden halt. The second driver bumped into the car and shouted at the driver of the first car, ‘Why did you stop?’ ‘I’ve reached my house. What do you expect me to do?’ replied the other driver.

You see, if you follow something or someone blindly, you will not reach the correct destination. You must know your own path. There are different paths to realize the truth. However, we must understand what our path is. This is where a true Enlightened Master can enrich you. He knows exactly what the path is for you. He corrects you when you are on the wrong path. In this verse Kṛṣṇa gives different techniques, like meditation, yoga, knowledge. Lots of people do these things. Some people ask, ‘Swamiji, I am meditating daily for 21 minutes. I am still unable to feel anything. Why is it?’ I ask them, ‘Tell me with integrity and authenticity, are you meditating with full intensity and full awareness?

When you are meditating, is your mind with your body or are you thinking about the office?’ Naturally, they do not say anything after that. You see, all the techniques must be done out of completion. Meditation must be done with awareness. Everything you do can be meditation if you do it with awareness and intensity. Kṛṣṇa gives it as a path to attain the Ultimate consciousness. In this verse Kṛṣṇa talks about sāṅkhyena, through knowledge or philosophical discussion. He says you can attain the goal using knowledge. Understand, gathering knowledge and philosophical discussions can be done in two ways. Many people read a lot of books. These people are the intellectuals.

They collect knowledge like others collect stamps or coins. But if you look deeper, the knowledge will be just another manifestation of their ego. They would just show off. They would not have really assimilated the knowledge for themselves. If we discuss for the sake of showing our knowledge and ego, we have made no use of that knowledge. At the end of the verse, Kṛṣṇa gives a wonderful technique. He gives the ultimate technique, the technique of surrendering. He says, ‘Surrender the outcome of your actions to Me.’ This is the most effective technique. He talks about it throughout the Gītā. Just surrender the fruits of your actions to Him, the Universal Consciousness.

Most often, we take responsibility for the outcome of our actions. That is when our tensions and problems start. Just surrender everything to the Cosmic energy of Kṛṣṇa. Once we do, we will feel liberated. We will feel free. This is the easiest path to reach the truth. Listen. A person need not have any spiritual knowledge to start on a particular path. There is no prerequisite. Even if the person is totally new to spirituality, he can follow a spiritual path. Only a cognitive shift must happen. So many Enlightened Masters did not have any prior knowledge about spirituality. They just realized that their cognition is changeable. Let me tell you about the Enlightened Master, Mahaṛṣi Vālmikī who wrote the great epic Rāmāyaṇa.

Before Enlightenment, he was a highway robber. Whenever wealthy people crossed that jungle, he robbed them. One day the sage Nārada was passing through that jungle. Nārada is cosmically known for his devotion to Viṣṇu. All Nārada had was a small stringed instrument that he played while constantly singing the praises of Viṣṇu. When Vālmikī saw him, he stopped him and said, ‘Give me everything you have, otherwise I will kill you!’ Nārada told him, ‘I don’t have anything with me except this small instrument and God’s name. So I can’t give you anything.’ Vālmikī thought he was bluffing. He asked Nārada, ‘How can you not have anything?’ Nārada smiled and asked, ‘What do you do with all these KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 981 things that you rob from others?’

Vālmikī told him, ‘These are for my family, my children, my wife and my parents.’ Nārada asked, ‘You do all this for your children, wife and parents. Do you think they will stay with you forever?’ Vālmikī told Nārada, ‘Yes, of course, they will be with me. I get them wealth and food. They will always be with me.’ Nārada once again asked him, ‘Are you sure they will always be there for you?’ Vālmikī became irritated. He replied, ‘Can’t you understand? I am sure that they will always be there for me.’ Actually Nārada was only keeping Vālmikī engaged in a conversation and made him look at life from a different cognition.

Finally Nārada asked, ‘Okay, you have lots of trust that your family will always support you; they will always be there for you. Will they be there when you die? If you ask them to die with you, will they agree?’ Vālmikī confidently answered, ‘I am sure at least one of them will come if I ask them. I am robbing people only to support them. They are surviving because I get them this wealth. I am sure if I ask, they will die with me.’ Nārada said, ‘Okay, if you think they will do that for you, go and ask them and come back to me. If any one of them agrees, you can kill me.

I will not go anywhere. I will stay here.’ Vālmikī agreed and went home. He asked his wife first if she would die with him. His wife said, ‘Dear, it is true that I am your other half, but I don’t think it is fair to ask me to die with you. When it comes to your death, it is your death only.’ Vālmikī was shocked. Anyway, he thought his children would surely go with him, as they loved him very much. They said, ‘Father, we are young. We haven’t seen the world yet. You have seen everything but we haven’t. How can we die with you?’ Vālmikī became depressed.

His wife and children were saying they wouldn’t be there with him when he died. He then thought his parents would surely go with him as they had taken care of him and had raised him. So he went up to them and to his surprise, they said, ‘Why should we die with you? We are enjoying our life with our grandchildren.’ This shocked him. He went back to Nārada and told him what had happened. Nārada listened and told him, ‘The only person who can be with you always is God.’ This statement changed the whole life of Vālmikī. He realized the futility of what he was doing. He sat in the forest and meditated so deeply and for so long that an anthill formed on top of him.

That is how he got his name ‘Vālmikī’, which means ‘born from an anthill’. When he came out of meditation, he was enlightened! Vālmikī did not have any knowledge about spirituality. He was a robber. That one statement by Nārada made all the difference. He started looking inward after that, and became enlightened. Please listen! Just because someone has spiritual knowledge, it does not mean that he is actually a seeker. Actually, all they have is intellectual knowledge, not spiritual knowledge. When they speak, they do not speak out of experience. That is the difference between an Enlightened Master and a normal person. When an enlightened master speaks about spirituality, he speaks from his experience of the truth.

When a normal person speaks, it is his ego that is speaking. That is what Kṛṣṇa says. You do not need prior knowledge about spirituality to embark on a path. Even if someone simply tells you about it and you start following a path, it is enough. But be very clear, you should know what you are doing. Don’t do anything blindly. In the previous verse, we have talked about it. We should understand what our path is. That’s all. KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 983 Whatever you see is a combination of matter and energy. The whole Universe is seen as kṣetra and kṣetrajña, māyā and ātman, prakṛti and puruṣa, matter and energy, body-mind and consciousness.

Existence as we see it cannot be with only one of them. If we believe that what we see is simply matter, we are in illusion or māyā. Kṣetra is the body that we associate ourselves with and kṣetrajña is the consciousness. What we see as a human body is a combination of both. If there is no consciousness, the body is useless. The matter that we call a body comes to life because of consciousness. Both must be there. Prakṛti is the manifest and puruṣa is the unmanifest. Kṣetra is like prakṛti. It is the manifested, that which we can see. Along with what you see, there is something behind its existence.

It is puruṣa or the unmanifest, the energy behind the matter, which we do not normally see. We have seen in the earlier verses that all the millions of stars, planets and other celestial bodies exist in perfect harmony. How are they moving in such order? Look at our solar system. All the planets move in perfect paths. If we think they are rocks, dust or ice, if we think they are simply matter, how is such an order maintained in the Universe? They are not solely matter. There is something behind the existence of that matter. There is so much chaos; yet there is a beautiful order in that chaos.

Order is present because of kṣetrajña. If it were solely matter or kṣetra, there would not be any intelligence. There is intelligence in that matter. That intelligence or consciousness creates this existence. So the combination of kṣetra and kṣetrajña is necessary. Modern science has shown that matter and energy are the same. They are interchangeable. The outer-world scientists proved this recently. However, the inner-world scientists proved it thousands of years ago. Matter and energy coexist to create existence. We should understand that kṣetra and kṣetrajña are not separate entities when we analyze them at a deeper level. Kṣetra and kṣetrajña are comprised of the same thing. Kṣetra is the gross form of the energy that also makes up the subtle form of the kṣetrajña.

For existence to happen, both the subtle and gross forms must be there. How we look at things around us defines our lifestyle. We again and again look at things as only matter. When we see only this gross level, fear and greed creep into us. We then want to get more and more of this matter. We live a materialistic life when we think that all we see is solely matter. When we live at the kṣetra level, we live in an illusion or māyā. We want to possess the matter. But when we realize that it is energy also, we think, ‘How can I possess energy? Is it possible to possess it?’ No. We can’t hold energy in a bag. When this realization happens, we recognize the futility of running after different things that we think are only matter. We Are Brahman

Verses 13.28–13.31

13.28

समं सर्वेषु भूतेषु तिष्ठन्तं परमेश्वरम् | विनश्यत्स्वविनश्यन्तं य: पश्यति स पश्यति

samaṁ sarveṣu bhūteṣu tiṣṭhantaṁ parameśvaram / vinaśyatsvavinaśyantaṁ yaḥ paśyati sa paśyati / / 13.28

One who sees the supreme Spirit accompanying the individual soul in all bodies, who understands that neither the individual soul nor the supreme Spirit is ever destroyed, actually sees.

samaṁ — equally · sarveṣu — in all · bhūteṣu — living entities · tiṣṭhantaṁ — residing · parameśvaram — the supersoul · vinaśyatsu — in the destructible · avinaśyantaṁ — not destroyed · yaḥ — anyone · paśyati — sees · saḥ — he · paśyati — actually sees

13.29

समं पश्यन्हि सर्वत्र समवस्थितमीश्वरम् | न हिनस्त्यात्मनात्मानं ततो याति परां गतिम्

samaṁ paśyanhi sarvatra samavasthitamīsvaram / na hinastyātmanā ’tmanaṁ tato yāti parāṁ gatim / / 13.29

When one does not get degraded or influenced by the mind and when he can see the Supreme Spirit in all living and non-living things, One reaches the transcendental destination.

samaṁ — equally · paśyan — seeing · hi — certainly · sarvatra — everywhere · samavas- thitam — equally situated · īsvaraṁ — Supersoul · na — does not · hinasti — degrade · ātmanā — by the mind · atmanaṁ — the soul · tato yāti — then reaches · parāṁ — the transcendental · gatim — destination

13.30

प्रकृत्यैव च कर्माणि क्रियमाणानि सर्वश: | य: पश्यति तथात्मानमकर्तारं स पश्यति

prakṛtyaiva ca karmāṇi kriyamāṇāni sarvaśaḥ / yaḥ paśyati tathātmānam akartāraṁ sa paśyati / / 13.30

One who can see that all activities are performed by the body, which is created of material nature, sees that the Self does nothing, actually sees.

prakṛtyā — by material nature · eva — certainly · ca — also · karmāṇi — activities · kri- yamāṇāni — engaged in performing · sarvaśaḥ — in all respects · yaḥ — anyone who · paśyati — sees · tathā — so also · atmānaṁ — himself · akartāraṁ — non-doer · saḥ — he · paśyati — sees perfectly

13.31

यदा भूतपृथग्भावमेकस्थमनुपश्यति | तत एव च विस्तारं ब्रह्म सम्पद्यते तदा

yadā bhūta-pṛthag-bhāvam ekasthamanupaśyati / tata eva ca vistāraṁ brahma saṁpadyate tadā / / 13.31

When a person can see the supreme Self in all living entities then he will cease to see the separateness among the living entities. He will see that the whole universe is an ex- pansion and expression of the same truth.

yadā — when · bhūta — living entities · pṛthagbhāvaṁ — separated identities · ekasthaṁ — situated in one · anupaśyati — tries to see through authority · tata eva — thereafter · ca — also · vistāraṁ — expanded · brahma — the Absolute · saṁpadyate — attains · tadā — at that time

Kṛṣṇa says, ‘Anyone who has reached Self-realization or the ultimate consciousness sees that the Supreme Self is present in all living and non-living entities. He perceives the Supreme Self as the indestructible, beginning-less witnessing consciousness.’ The Existence that we see is not comprised of individual entities. We think that we are separate from others around us. In reality, we are all one. The same Supreme Self, Parameśvara that Kṛṣṇa speaks about is present in all of us and in everything we see around us. As I tell everyone, ‘I am not here to prove that I am God, I am here to prove that you are God.’ This is the truth.

When I say this, people say, ‘No, no, Swamiji. How can we be God? We have done many sins. We agree that you are God because you have healing powers. But how can we be God?’ Please understand one thing. It is not that you are not God because you have committed sins. Understand that you do not become a devil if you commit a sin. You are still God. Sins do not qualify or disqualify you from being a God. Your nature is Godliness. Sin is a concept developed by society to control people. The soul of a robber has the same qualification to reach the truth as that of a priest in a temple.

We create a barrier between God and us. We are not ready to believe that what we call God is inside us also. We happily accept someone else standing in front of us as God; however, we cannot accept that the same God is inside us. Society would find it difficult to keep us under control if we were to call ourselves Gods! Let me tell you an incident from my own life: I left home at seventeen with nothing, nothing at all, and traveled northwards in India. As I had vowed to carry no money, I traveled without a ticket on train. In the northern part of India, my saffron robe was a passport to free travel.

No one bothered me. However, once when I was traveling towards Kolkata, a ticket examiner asked for my ticket. In my broken Hindi mixed with the local language of Bengali, I asked him, ‘What ticket? I am Brahman (universal energy). This train is Brahman. You are Brahman. Why ticket?’ He was a good man. Not only did he let me travel without a ticket, he also bought food for me! Yes, we are all Brahman. God is everywhere. Divine energy fills and overflows in all places. The only problem is we do not see this. We only see one thing at a time. We see God as someone different and powerful.

We create a big gap between God and us. People in the West call Hindus ‘idol worshippers’. They make fun KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 987 of them. Actually there are people in India too who make fun of idol worship. All the so-called intellectuals and scientific people look down upon people who worship idols. Some so-called neo-vedantis preach Vedānta but consider idol worship unscientific. The same is true about performing rituals like homa (fire rituals) or abhiṣekha (water rituals). We should understand there is more than an idol in front of us when we worship. When we worship, we worship through the idol. We do not worship the idol itself. When we see the energy behind the idol and worship that energy, that worship has value.

That is the science also. Let me ask you, why do we feel a great sense of relief after we pray to God sincerely? Why do we feel a sense of satisfaction when we come out of the temple after prayers? Why do we feel light? When we see the energy behind the idol and worship that energy, we connect to that energy. When I say we connect to that energy, we create a channel for the soul that is inside us to connect to the supreme Self. This brief time of connection relieves us from our burdens of duties. We see the Supreme Spirit in the idol and pour out our problems in the form of prayers.

We feel relieved because we have full faith in the Supreme Spirit, Param Īśvara. We have full confidence that the Supreme Spirit will take care of us. We believe in the supreme spirit but we do not believe that the soul that we see in us is also the supreme spirit! We are not able to internalize this truth. Everything Is The Supreme Spirit, Parameśvara Kṛṣṇa says the soul, ātma that is in us and the soul, ātma that is in others is the Supreme Spirit and the Supreme Soul. But what do we do? We isolate our soul. We define a boundary for our soul and separate it from the Supreme Spirit, Parameśvara.

It is like this. There are ten pots of water and there is the reflection of the sun in all the ten pots. Each pot thinks that it holds the sun. All ten pots think that each one is holding a different sun. In the same way, we think the soul inside us is different from the soul outside us. When we see the same soul everywhere in everything, when we break the pots, we see what the supreme Self is. Kṛṣṇa says, ‘When we see that the Supreme Soul that resides in us and in everything around us—samaṁ sarveśu bhūteṣu tiṣṭhaṁ parameśvara, is indestructible—avinaśyantam, we see the truth.’ The only thing that lives forever is the soul.

We should understand that. Everything else must die one day. When we realize this truth, when we understand that only the soul can remain forever, our whole race to get more and more becomes worthless. We realize, ‘What is the use of running after things that we know are not going to be with us forever?’ When this is realized, we see the truth . The mind is the only obstacle on the path to reach the ultimate goal. In the previous verse, Kṛṣṇa tells us how we can see the truth. Here Kṛṣṇa talks about the hurdle that we must cross. He says that when we are not degraded or influenced by the mind, we can see the supreme spirit in everything.

Only when we can do that, can we reach the final destination. We talk about the mind as separate from ourselves. We say, ‘It is thinking a lot.’ We do not understand what the mind is and we start talking about it. What is the mind actually? It is only an organized structure gifted by God as a tool. The mind is man’s servant that helps satisfy his needs and necessities in order to lead a happy life. The reason for the incompletions is that the mind, which should be under the control of man, has become a structure that controls man. If a servant behaves like a master, what will happen?

An immature servant becoming a master is like catching a monkey and putting it on the throne. If we can keep the mind aside for a while, we see the truth as it is. Our mind cannot accept that the Supreme Soul is in everything around us. Our soul inside us knows that the Supreme Soul is everywhere. But our mind creates a strong sheath around it. Our mind takes control over us. It harbors past memories (saṁskāras) and creates an illusion that leads to wrong cognition. When we were children, the mind did not have much power. When we were children, we did not build new root thought patterns, saṁskāras.

KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 989 The conditioning by society builds layers and layers of these saṁskāras that give power to the mind. Actually when people say that a child is growing up, it only implies that the child is growing smaller and smaller, only the mind is growing up. The soul is being pushed into a corner and the mind, with its root thought patterns, is given more and more power. This mind prevents us from seeing the Supreme Soul in everything around us. Be very clear, if we are out of the clutches of the mind, we see reality. We are safe as long as we can separate the Self from the body and watch as the body reacts to materialistic things.

As long as we know that the soul is supreme and the body is a means to fulfill our worldly desires, we are safe. We are on the right path of completion. However, when we place the body over the soul, the incompletion starts. We give so much importance to this body, but we don’t really respect it. Instead we make use of it. We abuse our body. We consider our body to be a tool to experience the sense pleasures from the outside world. That is why we take care of our body. We want our body to be safe so that we can enjoy. We want our body to look good all the time.

We must understand why we assume this human body form and come to planet Earth. This birth that we have taken is to fulfill the carried-over desires of our previous births. These desires are called prārabdha karma. Our soul has taken this body to fulfill our prārabdha karma. When we die, our last thought decides our next birth. Our soul chooses the body that can fulfill the desires of our last birth. This is the truth. Understand that we assume a body to fulfill the desires carried over from our previous life. However, what happens is that we create new desires in this life as well. We use our body to experience the sense pleasures and we create more and more desires.

Because of this, we fall into the cycle of birth and death. Once we realize that our soul takes this body to complete a mission that it left unfinished in our previous birth, our attitude towards our whole body will change. People ask me, ‘Swamiji, why do Enlightened Masters take human birth? Why do they need a body if they are already enlightened, if they have fulfilled all their desires?’ There is a beautiful incident from Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahamsa’s life, the Enlightened Master, Incarnation. He told his disciples, ‘Once when I was returning from my village in an ox cart, some robbers stopped us. I started repeating all the names of Gods so that at least one would work.’

He then explains why even Enlightened Masters hold onto their body. He says beautifully, ‘A little of my mind is attached to the body so that it can enjoy the love of God and the company of the devotees.’ See how beautifully he says it. Please listen. An Enlightened Master holds onto his body out of pure compassion for others. An Enlightened Master wants to see transformation in others and he can do it more effectively when he is in the body. He does not have any other desire. He can leave his body any time. He holds his body through a thin thread of ego for enriching others. We always want to get more and more out of our body.

We want our eyes to see more television; we want our stomach to hold more food; we want our ears to hear louder music. We do all this out of greed. We want to experience more and more sense pleasures. Instead, if we look at our body with gratitude, when we thank our body every moment for the support it has given us, we connect with our body at a deeper level. The Self Does Nothing Our body is the temple of our soul. We should respect our body. We should look at our body with gratitude, not greed. We should thank our body, prakṛti for holding our spirit, our soul, ātma.

Then, we will see a different dimension of our body. Here Kṛṣṇa says, whatever we think we are enjoying, actually it is the body that is enjoying—prakṛtaiva ca karmāṇi kriyamāṇāni sarvaśaḥ KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 991 (13.30). Our body enjoys all the material comforts. Our soul can live without them. Our soul is pure consciousness. It does not need anything external to keep it happy. Actually our soul is always in a state of bliss. It is always ecstatic. Our body is an embodiment of bliss. Whatever material things we think we need, whatever material comforts we think we enjoy, they are needed and enjoyed only by our body. Our soul does not need any of them.

The problem starts when we think that our soul needs these material things. We associate the happiness from the external materials with our soul. This is where the problem begins. We think the happiness that we gain from material comforts is because our soul feels happy to have them. That is when we accumulate more and more of these material comforts. We run after them. Kṛṣṇa gives us a technique here. He says, when we watch our body enjoying the sense pleasures, when we watch only our body being associated with the external material comforts and not our soul, we see the truth. Just witness the body. Be aware of your body.

Observe the body when it reacts to external things. You will notice a sense of separation from the body. You will see what your body is. You will see that your soul has nothing to do with the pleasures you are enjoying. When you do this, you witness your body and mind as if you are an outsider. It is like watching a movie. When you watch a movie, you watch what happens on the screen. In the same way, when you watch your body and mind, you understand what Kṛṣṇa says. Only when you witness that the body experiences material pleasures and it is the body that does everything and the soul does not need anything, you see the truth.

Kṛṣṇa gives the great truth of advaita in this verse. He talks about collective consciousness. He says when we see the Supreme Soul in all living beings, we no longer see the separateness. We see everything as one single entity. We see the whole Universe as one single body, as one entity expressing the same truth of oneness. Please be very clear, we are all connected. Each and every living entity is connected to the other. Your thoughts affect the thoughts of the person sitting beside you. Whether or not you believe it, this is the truth. We think we are individual consciousness. We think we are separate islands. We think our thoughts are limited to us.

We think nobody watches our thoughts. Please listen. The whole Universe constantly responds to your thoughts. The whole Universe is made up of the same Universal consciousness. Actually there is nothing but Universal consciousness. Individual consciousness is a piece of the hologram of the universal collective consciousness. What happens when you break a hologram into five pieces? Each piece becomes a hologram again. Each piece shows the same thing as the whole piece showed you before. Our individual consciousness is like that hologram. The Universal consciousness hologram is broken into many small holograms or individual living things. But each one of us has the same consciousness as the universal consciousness.

You see, your individual consciousness is like an onion. What do you see in an onion? There are layers over layers of skin. When you peel the onion layer by layer, what is there inside? Nothing! You are just like that onion. You think the onion is solid. Only when you peel, you see that there is nothing inside it. In the same manner, if you peel all the individual body-mind layers, you experience that you are the collective consciousness. Once you remove all the layers, you see that every entity around you has the same consciousness. Everything is the same. From the beginning, from your birth, society starts creating new layers on you.

In the process, the innocent, childlike nature that sees the Self in everything is slowly lost in us. As a child you do lots of things through which you connect to the Self. You do not know you are different from soil or earth. That is why you play with mud. But what do parents do? They scold you. ‘Don’t do this. Don’t do that.’ They say, ‘You will get dirty. Your clothes will become dirty.’ We continuously impose societal conditions on the child. The child KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 993 does not know what is dirty or what is clean. The child sees the soil just the same as the floor.

He does not see any difference. He connects to the same energy when he plays on the dusty road or inside a clean house. Adults condition children to see the difference, the duality. When we remove these conditionings caused by our body-mind association, we see that everything is pure consciousness. Only then we see that we are all the same. Only then we experience the space of non-duality, Advaita. That is what Kṛṣṇa says here. When we see that the Supreme Soul resides in each of us, we see that all of us are connected to each other. When we see this, we see the truth of living Advaita. We see that the whole Universe is the expansion of the same consciousness—tata eva ca vistāraṁ brahma sampadyate tadā (13.31). The whole Universe is the expression of the same truth. Soul Situated in Body Does Nothing

Verses 13.32–13.35

13.32

अनादित्वान्निर्गुणत्वात्परमात्मायमव्यय: | शरीरस्थोऽपि कौन्तेय न करोति न लिप्यते

anāditvānnirguṇa tvāt paramātmāyamavyayaḥ / śarīrastho’pi kaunteya na karoti na lipyate / / 13.32

Those with the vision of eternity can see that the soul is transcendental, eternal, and beyond the modes of nature. Despite contact with the material body, O Arjuna, the soul neither does anything nor is attached.

anāditvāt — due to eternity · nirguṇatvāt — due to transcendental · paramātmā — supreme soul · ayaṁ — this · avyayaḥ — inexhaustible · śarīrastho ’pi — though dwell- ing in the body · kaunteya — O son of Kuntī · na karoti — never does anything · na lipyate — nor is he entangled

13.33

यथा सर्वगतं सौक्ष्म्यादाकाशं नोपलिप्यते | सर्वत्रावस्थितो देहे तथात्मा नोपलिप्यते

yathā sarvagataṁ saukṣmyād ākāśaṁ nopalipyate / sarvatrāvasthito dehe tathātmā nopalipyate / / 13.33

The sky, due to its subtle nature, does not mix with anything, although it is all-pervading. Similarly, the soul, situated in Brahman, does not mix with the body, though situated in that body.

yathā — as · sarvagataṁ — all-pervading · saukṣmyād — due to being subtle · ākāśaṁ — the sky · na — never · upalipyate — mixes · sarvatra — everywhere · avasthitaḥ — situated · dehe — in the body · tathā — such · ātmā — the self · na — never · upalipyate — mixes.

13.34

यथा प्रकाशयत्येक: कृत्स्नं लोकमिमं रवि: | क्षेत्रं क्षेत्री तथा कृत्स्नं प्रकाशयति भारत

yathā prakāśayatyekaḥ kṛtsnaṁ lokamimaṁ raviḥ / kṣetraṁ kṣetrī tathā kṛtsnaṁ prakāśayati bhārata / / 13.34

O son of Bhārata, as the Sun alone illumines the entire Universe, so does the living entity, one within the body, illumines the entire consciousness.

yathā — as · prakāśayati — illumines · ekaḥ — one · kṛtsnaṁ — the whole · lokaṁ — uni- verse · imaṁ — this · raviḥ — the sun · kṣetraṁ — this body · kṣetrī — the soul · tathā — similarly · kṛtsnaṁ — all · prakāśayati — illumines · bhārata — O son of Bhārata

13.35

क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञयोरेवमन्तरं ज्ञानचक्षुषा | भूतप्रकृतिमोक्षं च ये विदुर्यान्ति ते परम्

kṣetrakṣetrajñayor evam antaraṁ jñāna-cakṣuṣā / bhūta-prakṛti-mokṣaṁ ca ye viduryānti te param / / 13.35

Those, who see with the eyes of knowledge the difference between the body-mind, kṣetra and the knower of the body- mind, kṣetrajña, can understand the process. Are liberated from the bondages of the material nature and attain the Paramātman.

kṣetra — body · kṣetrajñayoḥ — of the proprietor of the body · evaṁ — that · antaraṁ — difference · jñānacakṣuṣā — by vision of knowledge · bhūta — living entity · prakṛti — material nature · mokṣaṁ — liberation · ca — also · ye — one who · viduḥ — knows · yānti — approaches · te — they · param — supreme

Kṛṣṇa again and again talks about the true nature of the Self. He tells Arjuna that the soul is free from all entanglements. It is eternal and transcendental. Kṛṣṇa says that though the soul has come into contact with the material body, it still is free. In the previous verses, we talked about how the body is the temple of our soul. We saw how the soul takes this body to fulfill the desires of our past birth. The soul actually does nothing. It does not entangle itself in the KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 995 web of greed and fear. It is the mind that continuously adds new desires to the list and keeps the body running after them.

Internally, the soul is always free. It has no bondage. It is like the lotus plant in a lake. Water droplets that fall on the lotus leaves do not get attached to the leaves. They simply roll off and merge with the water again. In the same way, the soul that rests inside this body is completely free from worldly joys and sorrows. It is like the drops of water. The soul, Ātma can simply merge into the Supreme Soul, Paramātma. Only the body is related to the worldly happenings. The soul is not involved at all. Kṛṣṇa uses the word nirguṇa meaning beyond the three attributes— nirguṇatvāt. The three attributes of satva (calmness), rajas passion and tamas (inactivity) are related to the mind and body.

The soul is free from these attributes. It is neither restless nor is it lazy. It is pure. Actually it is beyond purity. When we use the word pure, then it means that the soul can be associated with the attribute of calmness. But the soul is even beyond calmness. That is why I say it is beyond purity. Nothing can circumscribe it. One important thing we should know. Only when something is seen by the mind, do words come out. Words are an expression of the chatter that happens in our mind. When there is no mind, there are no words. When you go to the Himālayas surrounded by mountains, the first thing that happens is awe.

No words come out. We are silent. Our being enjoys the beauty. Our being does not try to relate it to anything. Our mind has not yet associated any word to it. After a few seconds we experience the ‘wow’ feeling; it cannot be expressed. In the same way, Enlightenment cannot be expressed in words. There is no Enlightened Master who can adequately explain what Enlightenment is, in words. Associating the soul with even the word calmness, requires the mind. But the soul is beyond this also. No word can describe it. It just IS, that’s all. All Enlightened Masters are triguṇa rahita meaning residing in a state that is beyond the three attributes.

They know that the soul is free from everything. They know that the body is the temple of the soul. They know that the body does not affect the soul. Kṛṣṇa gives an example to make this point clear. He says the space that is everywhere is unaffected by anything that is in that space. The subtle energy, space or ether, is present everywhere. Every molecule and atom has this subtle energy. Though it is present in everything that we see, it does not inherit the properties of what it resides in. Even if it is in a flower, it does not take up the scent of the flower. In the same way, the soul is not affected by where it resides.

People think that their soul will go to hell if they have committed sins. They think if they have lived a pious life, their soul will go to heaven. They think that the soul is affected by the deeds of the body. Our sins do not affect the nature of our soul. Please understand that by infusing awareness into what we do, we realize that the body does whatever we do. The soul is completely free from it. The soul is not affected by it. Kṛṣṇa says that just as the sun illuminates our whole world, one Supreme Self—Paramātma, that is one kṣetrajña, illuminates all beings in the Universe, whether they are animate or inanimate.

He says everything has the same consciousness. Kṛṣṇa gives more and more examples. The sun sheds light on the surrounding planets. The darkness on the planets is removed by the sun’s light. In the same way, the Supreme Self, kṣetrajña, lights up all beings in the Universe. The ultimate consciousness lights up the entire Universe. All beings of the Universe have this consciousness. We may wonder why Kṛṣṇa says the same thing over and over again. But He is trying to make the concept of kṣetra and kṣetrajñya clear to Arjuna. Kṛṣṇa knows that this is important and He wants Arjuna to understand it completely. Anyhow, Kṛṣṇa says something new here.

He says that just as the sun illumines the Universe, the soul in this body illumines not only this body but also everything surrounding it, the entire Universe. He says: KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 997 yathā prakāśayaty ekaḥ kṛtsnaṁ lokaṁ imaṁ raviḥ I kṣetraṁ kṣetrī tathā kṛtsnaṁ prakāśayati bhārata II 13.34 Kṣetri is the Self. This Self illumines all the kṣetra, all the bodies. Not just our body or kṣetra is illumined but all the kṣetra are illumined. The consciousness present in each of us is the hologram of the supreme Self. So there is no separation between the consciousness present in our body and the consciousness present in a plant or a rock.

Everything is the same energy. The sun lights up everything that is around. There is no partiality. It does not discriminate. Whatever comes its way, it removes the darkness from it. In the same way, the supreme Self present in us illuminates everything in the Universe. Our ignorance separates the soul from the Supreme Soul. Actually to even use two different words—soul and Supreme Soul, ātma and parmātma—is not correct. There are no two separate entities called soul and Supreme Soul. There is only soul. There is only one. Everything in this Universe has the Supreme Soul. Our mind draws boundaries. It is like creating borders between two countries. So many countries fight over boundaries.

One country fights with the other to acquire more land. They are drawing and erasing boundaries all the time. We think we can draw boundaries between the Self, which is present in us, and the supreme Self. We try to put our soul in a tight container made of greed and fear. We close the lid and are afraid to open it. Actually, we fear losing our identity. We associate ourselves with our individual ego. We want to show others how different we are. Our mind knows that if it opens the lid, the soul and the Supreme Soul will become one. Our mind knows that the soul in this body and the Supreme Soul are one and the same; there is no difference between the two.

So our mind fears that if it opens the lid, our whole identity will be lost and we will become the same as everyone else. Our mind does not want this to happen. So we continuously hold onto our individual ego. Only when we realize that we are all connected, that everything in this universe is the same universal consciousness, will we break open the container and merge with the Supreme Soul. Here Kṛṣṇa ends by saying, ‘If we can witness as pure consciousness, we will be liberated from the bondages of the body-mind and achieve the eternal consciousness.’ Kṛṣṇa gives a technique to realize the eternal consciousness. Witness and Be Liberated Please know that becoming the witness of the kṣetra is the only way to keep us away from the bondages of the body-mind.

We must witness as the kṣetrajña, consciousness. When we do that we will see the separation of the Self from the body and mind. Understand that all our movements, reactions and emotions are related to the body-mind system. The way we move our body is a reaction by our body-mind system. Our emotions like anger, laughter, sadness and happiness are reactions of our mind. All of them are movements created by our body-mind system. When we witness these movements happening in our system, we separate ourselves from the body-mind system. When we watch them like clouds in the sky, when we watch them like a movie on a screen, without getting attached, we see the truth.

Even the thought of witnessing our thoughts and our emotions is a thought that is controlled by our mind. Even that is our thought and implies that mind is still acting. Only when we go beyond that thought, do we experience the eternal consciousness. Let me explain the technique. The technique may take at least ten minutes. You are going to witness your body movements, breath movements and mind movements: movements of your body, movements of your breath and movements of your mind. You may ask what kind of body move- KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 999 ments do we have? Understand that by inhaling and exhaling, your belly will be moving continuously up and down.

There will be a slight movement of your belly during your breathing. Witness that movement. Next, watch the flow of your breath during inhaling and exhaling, without any attempt to control it. Third, watch your mind. Thoughts will be going on. Please do not judge your thoughts as right or wrong. Don’t be afraid of your thinking. For a few minutes, sit comfortably next to your mind, like a close friend. You can place a mirror in front of you and cognize that the person in the mirror is your incomplete half, your mind who is your close friend. Let it tell you whatever it wants to. Let it speak out loud whatever it wants.

Without speaking, your thinking will not have its clarity, depth and strength. Allow your mind to talk, talk and talk and make it as part of you by befriending it. Witness all these with no attachment. Do not stop, control or go behind anything. This is the self-completion process (svapūrṇatva kriya) with your mind. We continuously fight with our body and mind. We cannot get rid of the body and mind by constantly fighting with them. We can only go beyond them through friendliness. Only if we feel deeply friendly towards them, will we be able to go beyond body and mind. If we have a negative emotion of fear or greed towards the body-mind, we will naturally abuse and only have a violent relationship with it.

Be complete with the body and the mind. Please listen, the Cosmos functions with a mutual law, dharma of—‘don’t give onto others what should not be given to you. If you don’t give to others what should not be given to you, what should not be given to you, will not be given to you by others.’ It is a cosmic law of life. Listen. Please internalize! When you don’t have fear of thinking, thinking will not give fear to you. Both of you, you and your thinking, you and your body and mind, come to a peace agreement—‘till today, we had war. Let us stop the war. Let us come to an agreement.

I will not be afraid of you and you don’t be afraid of me.’ This agreement is what I call as Integrity. You not having fear of thinking and thinking not having fear of you, this agreement is Integrity. Witness the mind like a friend with integrity. Let whatever is inside come out with friendliness. There’s nothing wrong. Neither support nor suppress. If we support, we will go after the garbage. If we suppress, we will end up analyzing the garbage and pushing it aside. Neither approach is going to work. Just witness and be complete. Witnessing acts like fire. All the thoughts are burned away and what remains is the pure space of completion.

Understand, neither suppressing nor supporting your thoughts will work. Only witnessing with integrity works. When we go deep into our being, into our space of completion, the witnessing consciousness automatically creates intelligence. Understand that we don’t need to be in that space all twenty-four hours of each day. Even if we get a few glimpses, that is enough. That energy will guide our whole life. If we understand the silence that happens to us when we are witnessing, even for a few seconds, we will taste it and start acting on it. Only out of these few moments does the energy of great creation and achievement happen. Listen! When we do completion, creation simply happens.

Enriching will just be our lifestyle. When we are in the space of completion, we will simply create and enrich everyone. All great things are achieved from the consciousness and intuition that is beyond the body-mind. They are products of the witnessing consciousness. This is true not only in the field of science but in arts, spirituality or any field. When we are beyond the body and mind, we bring the maximum powers out of our being. We start expressing the power of words through integrity, the power of thinking through authenticity, and KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 1001 ultimately the powers of feeling and living through responsibility and enriching. The ultimate expression of our being happens when we are Whole.

Whenever we are whole, we are holy. Understand that witnessing consciousness or being in the space of completion is the only path to Wholeness or Holiness. Let us pray to the Parabrahman, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the ultimate Universal consciousness, to give us the inner space of completion or the pure witnessing consciousness; to give us the ultimate experience and establish us in eternal bliss, Nityānanda. Thank you. Thus ends the thirteenth chapter named Kṣetra Kṣetrajña Vibhāga Yogaḥ, ‘The Yoga of Discrimination of the kṣetra, the field and kṣetrajña, the knower of the field,’ of the Bhagavad Gītā Upaniṣad, Brahmavidyā Yogaśāstra, the scripture of yoga dealing with the science of the Absolute in the form of Śrī Kṛṣṇārjuna saṃvād, dialogue between Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna.

Find Your Root Pattern And Complete Human Beings have the choice of being ignorant or enlightened, being incomplete or complete. Most often we exercise our freewill and choose to stay ignorant. Krsna explains how to choose to be complete and enlightened! c h a p t e r Guṇatraya Vibhāga Yogaḥ ... Asmall story: On the last day of the school term, all the students brought gifts to their teacher. The first student presented the teacher with a nicely wrapped gift. The student’s father owned the local bakery. The teacher looked at the package, shook it and asked, ‘Is this a box of pastries?’ The child said, ‘Yes.’ Next, a student, whose father was the owner of a clothing store, presented a beautifully decorated gift and again the teacher shook it close to her ears.

She then asked, ‘Is it a dress?’ The child said, ‘Yes.’ Another girl came up with a nicely wrapped box. Her father owned a liquor store. The teacher shook the box. She noticed that the package was leaking. She dipped her finger in the leaking fluid and asked the girl curiously, ‘Is this some kind of beer?’ The child said, ‘No.’ The teacher dipped her finger again in the fluid, tasted it carefully and asked, ‘Ah, this tastes quite exotic. What is it? Is it some kind of wine?’ The child again said, ‘No.’ Then the teacher said, ‘Alright, I give up. Please tell me, what is it?’ The child said in a worried tone, ‘It is a puppy.’

The moral of this story is simple: Please don’t put anything in your mouth unless you know what it is! What this really means is, don’t make major decisions in your life based on your past experiences. Everything has roots. The way you behave, the way you think, the way you react, the way you respond, the way you cognize and why you behave the way you Find Your Root Pattern And Complete Guṇatraya Vibhāga Yogaḥ FindYour Root PatternAnd Complete 1005 behave—everything has a root thought pattern! Whether you feel unhealthy or helpless, or emotionally weak, tired, bored, lazy, agitated or irritated, all these put together is what I classify as powerlessness, feeling powerless.

The good news is that you can live without any of these. The bad news is that you need to work for it! Our past experiences are stored in our unconscious as root thought patterns. They will only mislead you to a space of powerlessness, incompletion. In Saṃskṛit, the right technical word for these root thought patterns is mūla vāsanā or mūla vichāra dhārā. We make incomplete decisions when we make the major decisions through root thought patterns or mūla vāsanā. The teacher thought that the gift was a bottle of wine since the student’s father sold alcohol. In the same way, time and again, we make powerless decisions driven by our root thought patterns.

Before we put anything into our mouth, we should be sure to know what it is, else it can lead to a lot of trouble. Before we make any decisions, we should find the root of our incompletions and complete with it, else it will lead to more and more powerlessness, more and more suffering. When you are in the space of powerlessness, the only decision you have to take is to come out of powerlessness. Let me define ‘root thought pattern’. The first strong cognition you receive in your life, which influences you to continue to function based on the same cognition, is a root thought pattern! When the first attack of any strong emotion happens in you and imbalances your whole cognition of life, giving birth to your mind, the pattern you develop from that moment is the ‘root thought pattern’.

It is a pattern you develop when powerlessness takes you over for the first time in your life. Your pure cognition is imbalanced and that is the root on which the mind is born! I will give you a simple example for root thought pattern. In the young age, if your mother teaches you, ‘Don’t go in the rain. You will catch cold’. Naturally, at that age your immune system is yet to be developed. But even after you are twenty-five, when your immune system is at its peak, you don’t even go in the rain, you just see the rain through the window and you start sneezing, ‘hachoo’. What you internalized, what you cognized in the very young age, which has imbalanced your nature is root pattern.

Your natural existence is root thought pattern. Get out of your root thought pattern and complete with it. Please understand, it may be anything as simple as your mother not giving you the cake and giving it to your brother. It may be as simple as your mother making you sit on the dining table so that you will not run around and make a mess; or you trying your best and failing in your exam or some competition. It can be even that small! Understand, what is a pattern? It is an action that is unfulfilled as per your fantasy, either because of an outside hindrance or an inside hindrance, and is in incompletion.

If your expectations are not met by yourself or by others, it remains as an incompletion. For example, you always wanted to wake up early in the morning and practice yoga, but you never succeeded in that, so it remains as an incompletion. You always wanted your father to be very loving and caring, and he never honored your expectations, this remains as an incompletion. I tell you, the incompletions embedded in you, go on creating more and more incompletions. So, first find the root of incompletions, the root pattern. Please listen! The moment a root pattern enters your system you are dead. After that only the root pattern lives through you.

You don’t live. Your life is over. Your body may be functioning but your life is over. The first thing any human being should do is—learn this science of discovering the root pattern. I tell you, anything you discover is yours. Anything you have not discovered is not yours. When you discover your root pattern and complete with it, your whole being will be filled, your Guṇatraya Vibhāga Yogaḥ FindYour Root PatternAnd Complete 1007 being will have the space to live integrity, authenticity, responsibility and enriching. This whole chapter called Guṇatraya Vibhāga Yogaḥ, is about the science of completion—discovering your root thought patterns, mūla vichāra dhārā, your guṇas (root attributes) and completing with them to experience the space of completion, pūrṇatva.

Please listen! What is Completion? Completion means consciously reliving the same experience and relieving the powerful impact of the past, which makes you powerless in the present. The powerful impact of the past which makes you powerless in the present should be relieved from your system. Past should not bind you in the present. What we term perception is not the experience we perceive through our senses; perception is how we respond emotionally to the experience. This response is an incomplete, inadequate response based on our root thought patterns. Modern psychology tells us that almost 90% of our mind is unconscious. This means that we typically use 10% of our conscious mind.

In other words, our conscious mind drives only 10% of our thoughts, words and actions. The rest is driven by the unconscious. We have no control over how our unconscious mind functions. Many unconscious memories called root thought patterns are based on fear and pain. They rise up in moments of trauma or difficult situations. They influence decisions with no awareness on our part. All that we perceive is not true; all that we do not perceive is not unreal. It is a simple truth that what you cognize is only a fraction of what our five senses perceive. The rest goes directly into the unconscious as a pattern. Yet this does not mean that these perceptions and the memories of these perceptions are forgotten.

They remain as deep incompletions in us. And these memories strongly drive our actions. You don’t see what IS. You only see what you want. You create what you want. Human beings are in such an unfortunate space, they very strongly believe that only what ‘IS’ is perceived by them. What is your reality? It is just your perception—your perception about what you feel as you —your mamakāra, what you project to others as you – your ahaṁkāra, and what others expect about you—anyakāra. Please understand, all human beings need to know why you behave the way you behave, why you do the way you do, why you do what you do.

You may be a doctor, an engineer in the corporate field, or a politician, or in the field of finance or religion—whatever you may be, whether you act with softness, peace, agitation or irritation, it is your root thought pattern that is responsible for the way you react, the way you function. Understand this. The first strong cognition you go through in your life which influences you to continue to function based on the same cognition is root thought pattern. For example, at the age of three or four, for some reason, somebody tries to attack you. Shivering and frightened, you run and hide yourself. The cognition was so deep in you that your whole inner space was filled with fear for a few minutes.

The possibility for all other cognitions is shut down and this one cognition just fills you for a few moments. Even after that person has gone, you are still shivering in your hiding place. Please understand, if you had this kind of experience at that young age, you literally never came out of that hiding place after that! You may physically come out, but the suffering and shivering continue to happen. Even at the age of ninety-five, you will be shivering just like the three-year-old boy. Once some root thought pattern starts in you, your growth stops. After that, only that pattern grows in you, not you! Listen! Only pattern grows in you, not you.

If you had chosen to attack him back with whatever you got in your hand, even that will be a pattern. Find the root of your happening Listen! How you behave, how you feel, how you respond—this means the cognition that happens in you and fills you at a very young age and overpowers you. Sometimes it is fear, sometimes it is greed, some- Guṇatraya Vibhāga Yogaḥ FindYour Root PatternAnd Complete 1009 times it is jealousy and sometimes it is the decision to prove yourself. Sometimes it is just being blocked out with confusion and worry! The first thing you need to know is that only when you find your root thought pattern and complete with it, your life as a human being starts.

Otherwise, you go on cheating yourself most of the time. We tend to think that our actions are based on a logical sequence of thoughts. However, almost all our decisions have neither logic nor awareness. One of the worst things is that the root thought pattern becomes so much part of you that you don’t even realize that the root thought pattern and you are two different things! You just listen to your root thought pattern and behave as if the decision is your own. It is like some traitor becoming the power-center of that country! What will happen to that country? In the same way, root thought pattern is your traitor.

It means that it is your enemy. If your enemy becomes part of your decision-making mechanism, your life will be destroyed! Listen! Look in. Unless you find your root thought pattern and complete with it, your independent life does not start. Do not allow root patterns to get rooted in you. Look into the root patterns , into why you behave how you behave. Everything in Existence has a root. Everything you do has a reason, a root. There is a reason for every happening in Existence. Find out the root of your happening. When you find your root pattern and complete with it, you will understand your prārabdha, the purpose of your happening.

In this chapter called Guṇatraya Vibhāga Yogaḥ, Kṛṣṇa explains the root of our happening; why we do the way we do, why we perceive the way we perceive. Kṛṣṇa explains the three different guṇas (attributes) to Arjuna. How we act—actually I can’t say we ‘act’, I should say how we ‘react’ to every situation—is based on these three guṇas, the root patterns and how to complete with them. Why Krsna Repeats

iti śrīmadbhagavadgītāsūpaniṣatsu brahmavidyāyāṁ yogaśāstre śrīkṛṣṇārjunasaṁvāde kṣetra-kṣetrajña-vibhāgayogo nāma trayodaśo’dhyāyaḥ