The Path of Discernment between Nature and Its Knower

Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa began His teachings by explaining the distinction between the body and the self. In Chapter 2, the emphasis was on the description of the ātman, the individual self, who is the subsidiary knower of the body and the world, known as the kṣetrajña (literally, “the knower of the field”). In this chapter, the emphasis is on the enumeration of the nature and functions of the Supreme Immanent Self, Paramātmā, who is the primary kṣetrajña.
In the previous chapter, Kṛṣṇa stated that the goal of those who worship the imperishable, unmanifest Brahman is more difficult to attain than that pursued by His devotees who worship only Him (12.5). This arduous path is that of jñāna-yoga. In Chapter 13, the first of the third set of six chapters, Kṛṣṇa describes jñāna-yoga in detail. There are thirty-four verses in this chapter, all spoken by Kṛṣṇa. Jñāna (knowledge) here specifically means knowledge of oneself as a conscious being, distinct from the body and bodily extensions. Kṛṣṇa builds on this knowledge by explaining the characteristics of matter, which constitutes the body.
First Śrī Kṛṣṇa focuses on the topic of discrimination between kṣetra (the body) and kṣetrajña (the inner self). There are two types of kṣetrajña — the individual self and Paramātmā (2). That which undergoes modifications is the kṣetra, the body (3). Kṛṣṇa then describes sequentially this kṣetra (5–6), jñāna (7–11), and jñeya, or the knowable (12–18).
Both prakṛti (material nature) and puruṣa (the individual self), as well as their conjunction, are without beginning (19). The individuated puruṣa experiences happiness and distress while trying to enjoy material nature by associating with prakṛti and its modifications. This association with the guṇas of prakṛti is the cause of the puruṣa’s various types of births (21). Paramātmā, or the Supreme Immanent Self, is the witness, the maintainer, and the regulator within the body and is the superior puruṣa. One who knows puruṣa and prakṛti along with its guṇas becomes liberated (23).
Whatever is born, regardless of whether it is mobile or immobile, is a combination of kṣetra and kṣetrajña (26). Kṛṣṇa then explains the presence of Paramātmā in everything. One who sees Him in this way and renounces the ego of doership of actions, which are actually accomplished by prakṛti, attains the Supreme Brahman (27–30). Kṛṣṇa then describes the characteristics of Paramātmā (31–33). Those who know the distinction between kṣetra and kṣetrajña become liberated (34).

All Verses

  1. Verse 0Arjuna said: O Keśava, I wish to know about material nature (prakṛti) and the individual conscious living being (puruṣa), about the presentational field (kṣetra) and the knower of the field (kṣetrajña), as well as about knowledge ( jñāna) and the knowable ( jñeya).
  2. Verse 1Śrī Bhagavān said: This body, O son of Kuntī, is called the field (kṣetra), and the one who knows it is called the knower of the field (kṣetrajña) by those who have directly intuited both the field and its knower.
  3. Verse 2O descendant of the Bharata dynasty, know Me also as the kṣetrajña situated within all kṣetras whatsoever [in addition to the individuated knowers]. In My view, knowledge of the field [the body] and [both these] knowers of the field [the individual living being and the omniscient Lord] is what is meant by [true] knowledge ( jñāna).
  4. Verse 3What is the field (kṣetra), what are its fundamental characteristics, what are its modifications, from what has it arisen, and what is its distinct nature? Additionally, who is the knower of the field [kṣetrajña] and what are his intrinsic powers? Please hear all of this from Me in brief.
  5. Verse 4This [truth regarding the field and its knower] has been sung by the sages in many ways. It has also been separately described by the various Vedic hymns and set forth by the logical and conclusive words of the Brahma Sūtras.
  6. Verse 5-6The five great elements, the conditional I-sense, the intellect, the unmanifest [prakṛti], the ten sense faculties and the mind, the five sense objects, desire, aversion, happiness, distress, the aggregate [of the elements, called the body], awareness, and fortitude — all this is described in brief as the field of action along with its modifications.
  7. Verse 7-11Humility, freedom from deceit, non-violence, forbearance, simplicity, service to an authentic teacher, purity [internal and external], steadiness, restraint of the body, dispassion for sense objects, disidentification with the conditional I-sense, contemplation of the miserable defects of birth, death, old age, and disease, detachment from and disidentification with children, wife, home, and so on, constant even-mindedness in favorable and unfavorable circumstances, undeviating pure devotion unto Me with exclusive absorption, residence in a secluded place, non-attachment to the association of worldly people, constancy in the culture of knowledge pertaining to the Self, and deliberation on the goal of knowledge regarding the Absolute — all this is declared to be knowledge. Whatever is different from this is ignorance.
  8. Verse 12I shall now describe the object of knowledge ( jñeya), knowing which, one attains immortality. That Brahman, which is beginningless and subordinate to Me cannot be described either as the cause or as the effect.
  9. Verse 13It [Brahman], with hands and feet everywhere, with eyes, heads, and faces all around, and with ears in all directions, exists, pervading everything in the world.
  10. Verse 14Brahman illuminates all the sense faculties and their qualitative objects, and yet It is bereft of all [material] senses. It is unattached, and yet the sustainer of everything; It is devoid of [material] qualities, and yet is the master of [transcendental] qualities.
  11. Verse 15Brahman is both interior to and outside of all living beings. It is moving and also non-moving. Being subtle, It is incomprehensible. Although far away, It is also very near.
  12. Verse 16It is without any divisions, and yet It exists as if divided in all beings. It is to be understood as the sustainer, the destroyer, as well as the originator of all beings.
  13. Verse 17It is the light of all luminous objects whatsoever and is said to be beyond darkness [ignorance]. It is knowledge, the knowable, and capable of being directly intuited through enlightened awareness. It is situated in the hearts of all beings.
  14. Verse 18Thus, the field [the body], knowledge, and the knowable have been described in brief. Knowing this, My devotee becomes eligible to attain love for Me.
  15. Verse 19Know that both primordial nature and the conscious living beings are beginningless. Know also that all modifications as well as the objects derived from the material guṇas are born of material nature.
  16. Verse 20Material nature is said to be the cause in regard to the agency related to the body [as effect] and the senses [as immediately preceding cause]. The conscious living being is said to be the cause in the matter of the experiential capacity for happiness and misery.
  17. Verse 21Being situated in matter [the body], the living being (puruṣa) experiences the objects (guṇas) born of material nature. Attachment to material objects [the by-products of the guṇas] is the cause of its birth in higher or lower species.
  18. Verse 22In this body there is another puruṣa who is also referred to as the witness, the sanctioner, the sustainer, the protector, the Almighty Ruler and the Supreme Immanent Self (Paramātmā).
  19. Verse 23One who knows in this manner the puruṣa and prakṛti, along with its guṇas, does not take birth again, regardless of whatever his present condition of life may be.
  20. Verse 24Some directly perceive the ātmā [the Supreme Self] self-disclosed within the heart through meditation [on the Supreme], others do so through the path of analytic knowledge (sāṅkhya), others through the path of aṣṭāṅga-yoga, and still others through the path of motiveless action (karma-yoga).
  21. Verse 25Others, however, being unacquainted with such methods, engage in worship upon hearing about them from others [teachers]. They also, being devoted to the process of hearing, certainly cross over even death.
  22. Verse 26O best of the Bharatas, whatever living being is born, be it moving or non-moving, know that as having been generated from the conjunction of kṣetra and kṣetrajña.
  23. Verse 27One who sees the Supreme Regulator as equally situated in all living beings and as the imperishable within the perishable actually sees.
  24. Verse 28Verily, seeing the Lord equally situated everywhere, one does not degrade the self by the mind, and consequently, one attains the supreme goal.
  25. Verse 29A person who sees that all actions are performed exclusively by material nature and that the self is the non-doer actually sees.
  26. Verse 30When one recognizes the diversity of living beings as situated in a singularity [prakṛti], and that their emanation is from that one alone, such a person realizes Brahman.
  27. Verse 31O son of Kuntī, this imperishable Supreme Self, being beginningless and devoid of material qualities, neither acts nor is implicated [in the karma performed by the body], although dwelling in the body.
  28. Verse 32Just as all-pervading space remains uncontaminated due to its subtle nature, so also the ātmā, though situated in all bodies, is not tainted by the attributes of those bodies.
  29. Verse 33O descendant of Bharata, just as the one sun illuminates this entire world, in the same way, the self illuminates the complete kṣetra.
  30. Verse 34Those who thus know, through the eye of discrimination, the difference between the body and the knower of the body, as well as the living being’s means of deliverance from material nature, attain the supreme destination.