Bhagavad Gita
Conversation 13
“Field” and “Knower of the Field”
Arjuna said:
13:1. About prakriti and purusha, and also about “field” and “knower of the field”, about wisdom and about all which is needed to know I would like to hear from You, O Keshava.
The Blessed Lord said:
13:2. This body, O Kaunteya, is called “field”. He who knows it is called by sages “knower of the field”.
13:3. Know Me as the “Knower of the field” in all the “fields”. True knowledge about the “field” and the “Knower of the field” is what I call wisdom, O Bharata.
13:4. What is this “field” and what is its nature, how it changes and where it is from, and also who is He and what is His Power — all this I am going to tell you in brief.
13:5. All this was sang by sages in various hymns and in the words of Brahmasutra full of reason.
13:6. Knowing the great elements, personality, mind, the Unmanifest, eleven indriyas and five “pastures” of the indriyas,
13:7. humility, honesty, kindness, all-forgiveness, simplicity, serving the teacher, purity, steadfastness, self-control,
13:8. dispassion towards worldly objects, absence of egoism, understanding the essence of suffering and the evil of new births, old age, and sickness,
13:9. absence of earthly attachments, freedom from enslavement by children, wife, and home, being ever in the state of peace among desired or undesired events,
13:10. steadfast and pure love to Me, wholehearted intent to abandon vain relations with people, being self-sufficient,
13:11. constancy in spiritual search, striving to gain the true wisdom — all this is acknowledged as true; everything else is ignorance.
13:12. I will reveal to you what has to be known, and having being known brings one to immortality: this is the Supreme Brahman Who has no origin and is beyond the limits of existence and non-existence (of beings).
13:13. His hands, feet, eyes, heads, mouths are everywhere; omniscient — He abides in the world, embracing everything.
13:14. He has no organs of perception, yet He perceives everything; bound by nothing and sustaining all beings, free from the three gunas and using the gunas,
13:15. inside and outside of all beings, non-movable and yet being in motion, elusive in His subtlety, being always near and yet at the unspeakable distance — such is imperishable He.
13:16. Not divided among beings and yet existing separately in everyone, He is cognized as the Helper of all. He embraces all beings with Himself and guides them in development.
13:17. About Him, about the Light of all lights, is said that He is beyond the darkness. He is Wisdom, the Goal of every wisdom, cognized by wisdom, residing in the hearts of all.
13:18. So are the “field”, the wisdom and the object of wisdom in brief. Having known them My devotee cognizes My Essence.
13:19. Know that both purusha and prakriti have no origin. Know also that advancement in the gunas happens thanks to existence in prakriti.
13:20. Prakriti is considered as the source of the origin of causes and effects. And purusha is the cause of experiencing pleasant and unpleasant.
13:21. Being in prakriti embodied purusha necessarily merges with the gunas that originate in prakriti. Attachment to a certain guna is the cause of incarnation of purusha in good or bad conditions.
13:22. Observing, Supporting, All-receiving, the Highest Ruler, and also the Divine Atman — this is how called the Supreme Spirit in this body.
13:23. He who cognized thus purusha, prakriti, and the three gunas — in whatever conditions he lives — he is not subject to new births anymore.
13:24. Some, meditating in the Atman, cognize the Atman from within the Atman. Others (cognize the Atman) through sankhya yoga. Others yet (go to this) through karma yoga.
13:25. Also those who are unaware about all this, but having heard from others worship this sincerely — they too become free from the way of death through partaking of what they heard.
13:26. O best of the Bharatas! Know that all existing — moving and non-moving — originates from interaction between the “field” and the “Knower of the field”.
13:27. He who sees the Supreme Lord non-perishing in the perishing and equally present in all beings — he sees that which is true.
13:28. He who truly sees Ishvara equally present everywhere — he cannot stray from the true path.
13:29. He who sees that all action are realized only in prakriti and that the Atman remains actionless — he truly sees.
13:30. When he comprehends that various existence of beings is rooted in One and originates from Him then he attains Brahman.
13:31. Eternal and non-bound by prakriti the Divine Atman, though residing in bodies, does not act and cannot be influenced, O Kaunteya.
13:32. Even as the omnipresent Void does not intermix with anything because of its subtlety so does the Atman residing in the bodies intermixes with nothing.
13:33. But as the Sun illuminates the Earth even so the Ruler of the “field” illuminates the entire “field”, O Bharata.
13:34. The one who see by the eyes of wisdom this difference between the “field” and the “Knower of the field” and knows the process of liberating the indriyas from prakriti — that one approaches the Supreme Goal.
Thus in the upanishads of the blessed Bhagavad Gita, the Science of Eternal, the Scripture of yoga, says the thirteenth conversation between Shri Krishna and Arjuna, entitled:
“Field” and “Knower of the Field”.
