Chapter 13: The Field and its Knower
क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञविभागयोग · 35 verses. Arjuna asked, "My Lord, who is God, what is Nature, what is Matter, and what is the Self? What is Wisdom, and what is worth knowing? I wish to have this explained."
- 13.1 Arjuna asked, "My Lord, who is God, what is Nature, what is Matter, and what is the Self? What is Wisdom, and what is worth knowing? I wish to have this explained."
- 13.2 Lord Shri Krishna replied: O Arjuna! The body of a person is the playground of the Self; and That which knows the activities of Matter, sages call the Self.
- 13.3 I am the omniscient Self that abides in the realm of matter; knowledge of matter and of the all-knowing Self is wisdom.
- 13.4 What is called Matter, of what it is composed, whence it came, and why it changes, what the Self is, and what its power - this I will now briefly set forth.
- 13.5 Seers have sung of it in various ways, in many hymns and sacred Vedic songs, weighty in thought and convincing in their arguments.
- 13.6 The five great fundamentals—earth, fire, air, water, and ether—personality, intellect, the mysterious life force, the ten organs of perception and action, the mind, and t…
- 13.7 Desire, aversion, pleasure, pain, sympathy, vitality, and the persistent clinging to life—these are, in brief, the constituents of changing matter.
- 13.8 Humility, sincerity, harmlessness, forgiveness, rectitude, service to the Master, purity, steadfastness, and self-control;
- 13.9 Renouncing the delights of the senses, being without pride, having a right understanding of the painful problem of birth and death, and of age and sickness;
- 13.10 Indifference, non-attachment to sex, progeny, or home, equanimity in both good fortune and bad;
- 13.11 Unswerving devotion to Me, with concentration on Me and Me alone, a love for solitude, and indifference to social life;
- 13.12 Constant yearning for the knowledge of the Self, and pondering over the lessons of the great Truth—this is wisdom; all else is ignorance.
- 13.13 I will now speak to you of that great truth which one ought to know, since by it one will attain immortal bliss—that which is without beginning, the eternal spirit which …
- 13.14 Everywhere are Its hands and feet; everywhere It has eyes that see, heads that think, and mouths that speak; everywhere It listens; It dwells in all the worlds and envelo…
- 13.15 Beyond the senses, it yet shines through every sense perception; bound to nothing, it yet sustains everything; unaffected by the qualities, it still enjoys them all.
- 13.16 It is within all beings, yet outside; motionless yet moving; too subtle to be perceived; far away yet ever near.
- 13.17 In all beings, undivided yet living in division, it is the upholder of all, both creator and destroyer alike.
- 13.18 It is the light of lights, beyond the reach of darkness; the wisdom, the only thing worth knowing or that wisdom can teach; the presence in the hearts of all.
- 13.19 Thus, I have briefly told you what Matter is, the Self worth realizing, and what Wisdom is. He who is devoted to Me knows, and he will assuredly enter into Me.
- 13.20 Know further that Nature and God have no beginning, and that differences in character and quality originate from Nature only.
- 13.21 Nature is the law that generates cause and effect; God is the source of all pleasure and pain.
- 13.22 God, dwelling in the heart of Nature, experiences the qualities that Nature brings forth; and His affinity towards these qualities is the reason for His living in a good …
- 13.23 Thus, in the body of man dwells the Supreme God; He who sees, permits, upholds, and enjoys is the Highest God and the Highest Self.
- 13.24 He who understands God and Nature, along with her qualities, whatever his condition in life may be, will not come back to earth.
- 13.25 Some realize the Supreme by meditating, with its aid, on the Self within; others by pure reason; and still others by right action.
- 13.26 Others, again, having no direct knowledge but only hearing from others, still worship, and, if they are true to the teachings, they too will cross the sea of death.
- 13.27 Wherever life is seen in things movable or immovable, it is the result of the combination of Matter and Spirit.
- 13.28 He who can see the Supreme Lord in all beings, the Imperishable amidst the perishable, he is the one who truly sees.
- 13.29 Beholding the Lord equally in all things, his actions do not mar his spiritual life but lead him to the heights of bliss.
- 13.30 He who understands that it is only the Law of Nature that brings action to fruition, and that the Self never acts, alone knows the Truth.
- 13.31 He who sees the diverse forms of life all rooted in One and growing forth from Him, shall indeed find the Absolute.
- 13.32 The Supreme Spirit, O Prince, is without beginning, has no qualities, and is imperishable. Though it is within the body, it does not act, nor is it affected by action.
- 13.33 As space, though present everywhere, remains unaffected due to its subtlety, so too the Self, though present in all forms, retains its purity unalloyed.
- 13.34 As the one Sun illuminates the entire earth, so the Lord illuminates the entire universe.
- 13.35 Those who, with the eyes of wisdom, thus see the difference between Matter and Spirit, and know how to liberate life from the Law of Nature, attain the Supreme.