XII
In this
discourse we have one of the most significant, most illuminating, most inspiring and most
mystical portions of the Bhagavad Gita. The Lord gives us a wonderfully revealing
insight into the human individual. It is the metaphysics of man, the unknown. The immortal
Soul, with its physical embodiment, is the main theme of this discourse. The supreme
transcendental Spirit, which is the eternal substratum beyond both, is also described in a
wonderful manner. The knower of the Supreme Reality is instantly liberated.
The blessed
Lord tells us that the knowledge of the Field and the Knower of the Field is the true
knowledge. This highest and the best knowledge grants us divine wisdom and spiritual
illumination that lead to divine beatitude. This body is the Field. The Immortal Soul
(yourself), dwelling in the body is the Knower of the Field. Verily, it is the Supreme
Being who has projected Himself and assumed the form of this Knower of the Field within
this body. This self is none other than That. Thus, Lord Krishna explains the mystery of
the individual soul dwelling within this mortal body. This knowledge constitutes the main
subject matter of all the scriptures and the highest philosophical works.
The five
elements, the ego, the mind, intellect and the ten organs, desire and aversion and such
factors constitute the Field. Next follows a wonderful summing-up of what constitutes true
knowledge. Then follows the declaration of the Supreme Soul, the knowledge of which grants
us immortality. That Supreme Reality is the one universal Essence present everywhere. It
pervades all. It shines within the inmost chambers of our heart, it is everything, it is
the one seer, the witness, the guide, sustainer, experiencer and Lord of all. One who
knows this mystery is not bound by activity even in the midst of life. When we perceive
this supreme Presence dwelling in all beings we cannot injure anyone. Krishna asks us to
see and know the difference between the Field (body or Prakriti) and the Knower of the
Field (Spirit or Purusha), and thus reach the Self. This is the teaching and the message
of this illuminating discourse.
Arjuna said:
1. I wish
to learn about Nature (matter) and the Spirit (soul), the Field and the Knower of the
Field, knowledge and that which ought to be known.
The Blessed Lord said:
2. This
body, O Arjuna, is called the Field; he who knows it is called the Knower of the Field by
those who know of them, that is, by the sages.
3. Do thou
also know Me as the Knower of the Field in all fields, O Arjuna! Knowledge of both the
Field and the Knower of the Field is considered by Me to be the knowledge.
4. What the
Field is and of what nature, what its modifications are and whence it is, and also who He
is and what His powers are—hear all that from Me in brief.
5. Sages
have sung in many ways, in various distinctive chants and also in the suggestive words
indicative of the Absolute, full of reasoning and decisive.
6. The
great elements, egoism, intellect and also unmanifested Nature, the ten senses and one,
and the five objects of the senses,
COMMENTARY:
Great elements: earth, water, fire, air and ether are so called because they pervade
all modifications of matter. The ten senses are: the five organs of knowledge (ears, skin,
eyes, tongue and nose), and the five organs of action (hand, feet, mouth, anus and
generative organ).
The one:
this is the mind. The five objects of the senses are sound, touch, form colour, taste and
smell.
7. Desire,
hatred, pleasure, pain, the aggregate (the body), fortitude and intelligence—the
Field has thus been described briefly with its modifications.
8.
Humility, unpretentiousness, non-injury, forgiveness, uprightness, service of the teacher,
purity, steadfastness, self-control,
9.
Indifference to the objects of the senses, also absence of egoism, perception of (or
reflection on) the evil in birth, death, old age, sickness and pain,
10.
Non-attachment, non-identification of the Self with son, wife, home and the rest, and
constant even-mindedness on the attainment of the desirable and the undesirable,
11.
Unswerving devotion unto Me by the Yoga of non-separation, resort to solitary places,
distaste for the society of men,
12.
Constancy in Self-knowledge, perception of the end of true knowledge—this is declared
to be knowledge, and what is opposed to it is ignorance.
13. I will
declare that which has to be known, knowing which one attains to immortality, the
beginningless supreme Brahman, called neither being nor non-being.
14. With
hands and feet everywhere, with eyes, heads and mouths everywhere, with ears everywhere,
He exists in the worlds, enveloping all.
15. Shining
by the functions of all the senses, yet without the senses; unattached, yet supporting
all; devoid of qualities, yet their experiencer,
16. Without
and within (all) beings, the unmoving and also the moving; because of His subtlety,
unknowable; and near and far away is That.
17. And
undivided, yet He exists as if divided in beings; He is to be known as the supporter of
beings; He devours and He generates also.
18. That,
the Light of all lights, is beyond darkness; it is said to be knowledge, the Knowable and
the goal of knowledge, seated in the hearts of all.
19. Thus
the Field as well as knowledge and the Knowable have been briefly stated. My devotee,
knowing this, enters into My Being.
20. Know
thou that Nature and Spirit are beginningless; and know also that all modifications and
qualities are born of Nature.
21. In the
production of the effect and the cause, Nature (matter) is said to be the cause; in the
experience of pleasure and pain, the soul is said to be the cause.
22. The
soul seated in Nature experiences the qualities born of Nature; attachment to the
qualities is the cause of his birth in good and evil wombs.
23. The
Supreme Soul in this body is also called the spectator, the permitter, the supporter, the
enjoyer, the great Lord and the Supreme Self.
24. He who
thus knows Spirit and Matter, together with the qualities, in whatever condition he may
be, he is not reborn.
25. Some by
meditation behold the Self in the Self by the Self, others by the Yoga of knowledge, and
others by the Yoga of action.
26. Others
also, not knowing thus, worship, having heard of it from others; they, too, cross beyond
death, regarding what they have heard as the supreme refuge.
27.
Wherever a being is born, whether it be unmoving or moving, know thou, O best of the
Bharatas (Arjuna), that it is from the union between the Field and its Knower.
28. He
sees, who sees the Supreme Lord, existing equally in all beings, the unperishing within
the perishing.
COMMENTARY:
Birth is the root cause of the modifications of change, growth, decay and death. The
other changes of state manifest after the birth of the body. But the Lord is changeless
and He is birthless, decayless and deathless.
29. Because
he who sees the same Lord dwelling equally everywhere does not destroy the Self by the
self, he goes to the highest goal.
30. He
sees, who sees that all actions are performed by Nature alone and that the Self is
actionless.
31. When a
man sees the whole variety of beings as resting in the One, and spreading forth from That
alone, he then becomes Brahman.
COMMENTARY:
A man attains to unity with the Supreme when he knows or realises through intuition
that all these manifold forms are rooted in the One. Like waves in water, like rays in the
sun, so also all forms are rooted in the One.
32. Being
without beginning and devoid of (any) qualities, the Supreme Self, imperishable, though
dwelling in the body, O Arjuna, neither acts nor is tainted!
33. As the
all-pervading ether is not tainted because of its subtlety, so the Self seated everywhere
in the body, is not tainted.
34. Just as
the one sun illumines the whole world, so also the Lord of the Field (the Supreme Self)
illumines the whole Field, O Arjuna!
35. They
who, through the eye of knowledge, perceive the distinction between the Field and its
Knower, and also the liberation from the Nature of being, they go to the Supreme.
COMMENTARY:
They who know through the eye of intuition opened by meditation and the instructions
of the Guru and the scriptures, that the Field is insentient, the doer, changing and
finite, and that the Knower of the Field is pure Consciousness, the non-doer, unchanging
and infinite, and who also perceive the non-existence of Nature, ignorance, the
Unmanifested, the material cause of being,—they attain the Supreme.
Thus in the
Upanishads of the glorious Bhagavad Gita, the science of the Eternal, the
scripture of Yoga, the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, ends the thirteenth
discourse entitled:
“The Yoga of the Distinction Between
The Field and the Knower of the Field”