Chapter 13: Ksetra Ksetrajna Vibhaga Yoga

Sanskrit Transliteration:

arjuna uvācha prakṛitiṁ puruṣhaṁ chaiva kṣhetraṁ kṣhetra-jñam eva cha etad veditum ichchhāmi jñānaṁ jñeyaṁ cha keśhava

Translation:

Arjuna said: O Keshava, I wish to know about Prakriti (nature) and Purusha (the conscious self), the field and the knower of the field, knowledge and what is to be known.

Commentary:

Arjuna asks fundamental philosophical questions: What is nature? What is the conscious self? What is the field (body) and who knows it? What constitutes knowledge and what should be known? These are the core questions of spiritual philosophy.

Learning:

Ask the fundamental questions. Before details, understand the basic categories. What is matter? What is spirit? What is knowledge? What should be known? These questions establish the framework for everything else.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

śhrī bhagavān uvācha idaṁ śharīraṁ kaunteya kṣhetram ity abhidhīyate etad yo vetti taṁ prāhuḥ kṣhetra-jña iti tad-vidaḥ

Translation:

The Supreme Lord said: This body, O son of Kunti, is called the field. One who knows this field is called the knower of the field by those who know.

Commentary:

Krishna defines the key terms: the body is the kṣhetra (field)—the arena where actions are performed and experiences occur. The one who is aware of this body is the kṣhetrajña (knower of the field)—the conscious witness distinct from what it observes.

Learning:

You are not your body; you are the one who knows your body. This distinction is fundamental. The body is the field of experience; you are the experiencer. Confusing the two is the root of spiritual ignorance.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

kṣhetra-jñaṁ chāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣhetreṣhu bhārata kṣhetra-kṣhetrajñayor jñānaṁ yat taj jñānaṁ mataṁ mama

Translation:

O Bharata, know Me also as the Knower of the field in all fields. The knowledge of the field and the knower of the field—this I consider to be true knowledge.

Commentary:

Krishna reveals that he is the ultimate Knower in all bodies—the supreme consciousness present in every being. True knowledge is understanding both the field (matter) and its knower (spirit), and recognizing Krishna as the universal Knower.

Learning:

The same consciousness that knows your body knows all bodies. Your individual awareness is a spark of universal consciousness. Knowing this—both the field and knower, individual and universal—is true knowledge.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

tat kṣhetraṁ yach cha yādṛik cha yad-vikāri yataśh cha yat sa cha yo yat-prabhāvaśh cha tat samāsena me śhṛiṇu

Translation:

What that field is, of what nature, what are its modifications, from what source it arises, who the knower is, and what are his powers—hear this from Me in brief.

Commentary:

Krishna promises a summary of the field's nature, characteristics, transformations, origin, and the identity and powers of its knower. This comprehensive overview will follow in the subsequent verses.

Learning:

A complete understanding includes: what something is, its nature, how it changes, where it comes from, who perceives it, and what powers are involved. This multi-dimensional analysis reveals the full picture.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

ṛiṣhibhir bahudhā gītaṁ chhandobhir vividhaiḥ pṛithak brahma-sūtra-padaiśh chaiva hetumadbhir viniśhchitaiḥ

Translation:

This has been sung by the sages in many ways, in various Vedic hymns distinctly, and also in the words of the Brahma Sutras, reasoned and conclusive.

Commentary:

This knowledge isn't new—sages have taught it in many forms: Vedic hymns, philosophical sutras, reasoned arguments. The teaching has been verified through multiple authoritative sources and logical analysis.

Learning:

Valid spiritual knowledge has multiple confirmations. It's taught by sages, found in scripture, supported by philosophy, and confirmed by reason. When multiple authorities converge, confidence increases.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

mahā-bhūtāny ahaṅkāro buddhir avyaktam eva cha indriyāṇi daśhaikaṁ cha pañcha chendriya-gocharāḥ ichchhā dveṣhaḥ sukhaṁ duḥkhaṁ saṅghātaśh chetanā dhṛitiḥ etat kṣhetraṁ samāsena sa-vikāram udāhṛitam

Translation:

The five great elements, ego, intellect, the unmanifest, the ten senses and the mind, and the five sense objects; desire, hatred, pleasure, pain, the aggregate, consciousness, and determination—this field has been briefly described with its modifications.

Commentary:

The field consists of: five elements (earth, water, fire, air, space), ego, intellect, the unmanifest prakriti, ten senses (five of perception, five of action), mind, five sense objects, plus desire, hatred, pleasure, pain, the body aggregate, consciousness (as a field-modification), and willpower.

Learning:

The body-mind complex includes physical elements, psychological faculties, senses, mental states, and experiences. All these together constitute the "field"—the arena of experience that the true Self observes but is not.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

amānitvam adambhitvam ahiṁsā kṣhāntir ārjavam āchāryopāsanaṁ śhauchaṁ sthairyam ātma-vinigrahaḥ indriyārtheṣhu vairāgyam anahaṅkāra eva cha janma-mṛityu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣhānudarśhanam asaktir anabhiṣhvaṅgaḥ putra-dāra-gṛihādiṣhu nityaṁ cha sama-chittatvam iṣhṭāniṣhṭopapattiṣhu mayi chānanya-yogena bhaktir avyabhichāriṇī vivikta-deśha-sevitvam aratir jana-saṁsadi adhyātma-jñāna-nityatvaṁ tattva-jñānārtha-darśhanam etaj jñānam iti proktam ajñānaṁ yad ato 'nyathā

Translation:

Humility, unpretentiousness, nonviolence, patience, uprightness, service to the teacher, purity, steadfastness, self-control; detachment from sense objects, absence of ego, perception of the defects in birth, death, old age, and disease; non-attachment, non-identification with son, wife, home, and the like; constant equanimity in desirable and undesirable events; unwavering devotion to Me through exclusive yoga; resorting to solitary places, distaste for crowded assemblies; constancy in self-knowledge, perception of the goal of true knowledge—this is declared to be knowledge; what is contrary to this is ignorance.

Commentary:

Krishna lists twenty qualities that constitute "knowledge" (jnana)—not information, but the qualities that indicate wisdom and prepare for liberation. They include moral virtues, detachment, spiritual practices, and philosophical understanding. Whatever opposes these is ignorance.

Learning:

True knowledge is not data accumulation but character transformation. These twenty qualities—from humility to perception of truth—constitute the wise person. Cultivate these; their absence is ignorance regardless of how much you've read.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

jñeyaṁ yat tat pravakṣhyāmi yaj jñātvāmṛitam aśhnute anādi mat-paraṁ brahma na sat tan nāsad uchyate

Translation:

I shall declare what is to be known, knowing which one attains immortality. It is the beginningless supreme Brahman, said to be neither existent nor non-existent.

Commentary:

Now Krishna describes what should be known—the goal of knowledge. It is Brahman: beginningless, supreme, beyond the categories of existence and non-existence. It transcends ordinary conceptual categories.

Learning:

The object of ultimate knowledge transcends simple categories like "exists" or "doesn't exist." Reality is beyond our conceptual boxes. This doesn't mean it's unreal—it means it's more real than our categories can capture.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

sarvataḥ pāṇi-pādaṁ tat sarvato 'kṣhi-śhiro-mukham sarvataḥ śhrutimal loke sarvam āvṛitya tiṣhṭhati

Translation:

With hands and feet everywhere, eyes, heads, and faces everywhere, with ears everywhere, It exists in the world, pervading all.

Commentary:

Brahman is described with imagery of omnipresence: hands and feet everywhere (acting everywhere), eyes, heads, and faces everywhere (perceiving everywhere), ears everywhere (hearing all). It pervades and envelops all existence.

Learning:

The divine has no location because it is everywhere. Every hand is potentially divine action, every eye divine seeing. This imagery stretches the mind toward understanding all-pervasive presence.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

sarvendriya-guṇābhāsaṁ sarvendriya-vivarjitam asaktaṁ sarva-bhṛich chaiva nirguṇaṁ guṇa-bhoktṛi cha

Translation:

Appearing as the functions of all senses, yet devoid of all senses; unattached yet supporting all; free from qualities yet experiencing qualities.

Commentary:

Paradoxes describe Brahman: it appears through senses yet has no senses; it supports everything without attachment; it is beyond qualities yet experiences qualities. These contradictions point to a reality beyond ordinary logic.

Learning:

Ultimate reality transcends logical either/or. It is both present and absent, active and still, qualified and beyond qualities. Don't reduce the infinite to simple categories; hold the paradox.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

bahir antaśh cha bhūtānām acharaṁ charam eva cha sūkṣhmatvāt tad avijñeyaṁ dūra-sthaṁ chāntike cha tat

Translation:

Outside and inside all beings, moving and unmoving; because of subtlety, unknowable; far away yet near.

Commentary:

Brahman is both outside and inside all beings, in the moving and the still. Being supremely subtle, it eludes ordinary knowledge. It seems infinitely distant yet is actually the nearest—closer than your own self.

Learning:

What you seek is both infinitely far and immediately near. The divine seems far because it's so subtle you can't perceive it normally; yet it's nearest because it's your own essential nature. Look closest and furthest simultaneously.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

avibhaktaṁ cha bhūteṣhu vibhaktam iva cha sthitam bhūta-bhartṛi cha taj jñeyaṁ grasiṣhṇu prabhaviṣhṇu cha

Translation:

Undivided among beings yet appearing as divided; to be known as the sustainer, destroyer, and creator of beings.

Commentary:

Brahman appears divided among countless beings but is actually undivided—one presence appearing as many. It sustains beings, destroys them, and creates them. The entire cycle of existence is its activity.

Learning:

One presence appears as many without being divided. Like space appearing divided by vessels, consciousness appears divided by bodies. Know the sustainer, destroyer, and creator as one undivided reality.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

jyotiṣhām api taj jyotis tamasaḥ param uchyate jñānaṁ jñeyaṁ jñāna-gamyaṁ hṛidi sarvasya viṣhṭhitam

Translation:

The light even of lights, It is said to be beyond darkness. It is knowledge, the object of knowledge, and the goal of knowledge, seated in the hearts of all.

Commentary:

Brahman is the light illuminating all lights, transcending all darkness. It is simultaneously knowledge itself, what is to be known, and the destination of knowing. It resides in the heart of every being.

Learning:

The light by which you see is itself illumined by a greater light. That ultimate light is knowledge, its object, and its goal—all in one. It's not far away but seated in your heart right now.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

iti kṣhetraṁ tathā jñānaṁ jñeyaṁ choktaṁ samāsataḥ mad-bhakta etad vijñāya mad-bhāvāyopapadyate

Translation:

Thus the field, knowledge, and what is to be known have been briefly described. My devotee, understanding this, becomes qualified to attain My nature.

Commentary:

Krishna summarizes: the field (body), knowledge (the twenty qualities), and the knowable (Brahman) have been explained. Understanding these, the devotee becomes qualified to attain Krishna's divine nature.

Learning:

Understanding these teachings qualifies you for divine attainment. It's not just intellectual knowledge but transformative understanding that makes you eligible for union with God. Study with the intention to become what you learn.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

prakṛitiṁ puruṣhaṁ chaiva viddhy anādī ubhāv api vikārāṁśh cha guṇāṁśh chaiva viddhi prakṛiti-sambhavān

Translation:

Know that both Prakriti (nature) and Purusha (spirit) are beginningless. Know also that the modifications and the qualities are born of Prakriti.

Commentary:

Both matter (prakriti) and spirit (purusha) are eternal—without beginning. The transformations and qualities (gunas) that create the phenomenal world arise from prakriti, not from purusha.

Learning:

Neither matter nor spirit was created; both are beginningless. But transformations and qualities belong to matter, not spirit. Your changes happen in nature; your true self doesn't change.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

kārya-kāraṇa-kartṛitve hetuḥ prakṛitir uchyate puruṣhaḥ sukha-duḥkhānāṁ bhoktṛitve hetur uchyate

Translation:

Prakriti is said to be the cause regarding the effect, the instrument, and the doer. Purusha is said to be the cause regarding the experience of pleasure and pain.

Commentary:

Prakriti is responsible for all action: the body that acts, the instruments of action, and the apparent doer. Purusha (spirit) is responsible for experiencing—the pleasure and pain that result from action. Matter acts; spirit experiences.

Learning:

Your body and its activities belong to nature. Your experience of pleasure and pain involves spirit. The doer is nature; the experiencer is spirit. Confusing these creates bondage; distinguishing them liberates.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

puruṣhaḥ prakṛiti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛiti-jān guṇān kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

Translation:

Purusha, seated in Prakriti, experiences the qualities born of Prakriti. Attachment to the qualities is the cause of birth in good and evil wombs.

Commentary:

Spirit, dwelling in matter, experiences matter's qualities. When spirit identifies with and attaches to these qualities, that attachment causes rebirth in various conditions—high or low depending on the quality of attachment.

Learning:

Attachment to qualities of experience causes rebirth. The spirit isn't bound by being in matter but by identifying with matter's qualities. Release attachment and rebirth ends; maintain attachment and cycling continues.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

upadraṣhṭānumantā cha bhartā bhoktā maheśhvaraḥ paramātmeti chāpy ukto dehe 'smin puruṣhaḥ paraḥ

Translation:

The supreme Purusha in this body is called the witness, the permitter, the supporter, the experiencer, the great Lord, and the Supreme Self.

Commentary:

The supreme spirit in the body has many names: witness (observing all), permitter (allowing everything), supporter (sustaining life), experiencer (knowing pleasure and pain), great Lord (supreme controller), and Supreme Self (ultimate identity).

Learning:

The soul in you has multiple functions: witnessing experience, permitting actions, supporting existence, experiencing results, ruling as lord, and being your ultimate self. These aren't separate entities but aspects of one presence.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

ya evaṁ vetti puruṣhaṁ prakṛitiṁ cha guṇaiḥ saha sarvathā vartamāno 'pi na sa bhūyo 'bhijāyate

Translation:

One who thus knows Purusha and Prakriti along with the qualities, though existing in all conditions, is not born again.

Commentary:

This is the liberating knowledge: understanding spirit, matter, and the qualities. One who truly knows this distinction is not born again, regardless of their current life situation. Knowledge itself liberates.

Learning:

Understanding the difference between spirit and matter, experiencer and experienced, liberates regardless of your circumstances. You don't need to change your situation—just change your understanding. Knowledge itself is freedom.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

dhyānenātmani paśhyanti kechid ātmānam ātmanā anye sāṅkhyena yogena karma-yogena chāpare

Translation:

Some perceive the Self in the self through meditation by the self; others through the yoga of knowledge; and still others through the yoga of action.

Commentary:

Different seekers use different methods: some see the Self through meditation, some through philosophical analysis (Sankhya), some through selfless action (Karma Yoga). Multiple valid paths lead to Self-realization.

Learning:

There are multiple valid paths to Self-knowledge. Choose according to your nature and capacity. Meditation, philosophy, or selfless action—each can reveal the Self. The path that works for you is the right path.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

anye tv evam ajānantaḥ śhrutvānyebhya upāsate te 'pi chātitaranty eva mṛityuṁ śhruti-parāyaṇāḥ

Translation:

Others, not knowing these paths, worship having heard from others. They too cross beyond death, devoted to what they have heard.

Commentary:

Even those who don't know the philosophical paths but simply follow what they've heard from teachers—even they cross beyond death. Faithful following of instruction is also a valid path.

Learning:

You don't need philosophical sophistication to progress spiritually. Faithful adherence to what you've been taught also works. If you trust and follow qualified teaching, you too will transcend death.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

yāvat sañjāyate kiñchit sattvaṁ sthāvara-jaṅgamam kṣhetra-kṣhetrajña-saṁyogāt tad viddhi bharatarṣhabha

Translation:

Whatever being is born, whether moving or unmoving, know it to arise from the union of the field and the knower of the field, O best of the Bharatas.

Commentary:

Every existing thing—mobile or immobile, animate or inanimate—arises from the conjunction of matter (field) and spirit (knower of field). Existence requires both; neither alone produces manifest beings.

Learning:

All existence results from spirit and matter combining. Neither alone creates the world we experience. Understanding this union and its dissolution is the key to understanding birth, death, and liberation.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

samaṁ sarveṣhu bhūteṣhu tiṣhṭhantaṁ parameśhvaram vinaśhyatsv avinaśhyantaṁ yaḥ paśhyati sa paśhyati

Translation:

One who sees the Supreme Lord existing equally in all beings, the imperishable within the perishable—that one truly sees.

Commentary:

True seeing is recognizing the same divine presence equally in all beings—the unchanging within the changing, the immortal within the mortal. This vision of divine equality is genuine perception.

Learning:

See the same divine presence in all beings. The bodies perish; the inner presence doesn't. When you perceive the imperishable within all perishable forms, you're seeing reality as it is.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

samaṁ paśhyan hi sarvatra samavasthitam īśhvaram na hinasty ātmanātmānaṁ tato yāti parāṁ gatim

Translation:

Seeing the Lord equally present everywhere, one does not destroy the Self by the self, and thus reaches the supreme goal.

Commentary:

Seeing divine equality everywhere, the seer doesn't harm the Self through ego-driven action. This vision protects from self-destruction and leads to the highest destination.

Learning:

Equal vision protects you from self-harm. When you see the divine everywhere, you naturally stop actions that violate this unity. Vision changes behavior; right seeing leads to right living and the supreme goal.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

prakṛityaiva cha karmāṇi kriyamāṇāni sarvaśhaḥ yaḥ paśhyati tathātmānam akartāraṁ sa paśhyati

Translation:

One who sees that all actions are performed by Prakriti alone, and that the Self is not the doer—that one truly sees.

Commentary:

All actions are done by nature (prakriti), not by the Self (purusha). The Self observes; it doesn't act. One who understands that the Self is non-doer sees correctly.

Learning:

Your true Self doesn't do anything—nature does everything. You (as Self) witness; the body-mind acts. Understanding this removes false doership and its karmic consequences.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

yadā bhūta-pṛithag-bhāvam eka-stham anupaśhyati tata eva cha vistāraṁ brahma sampadyate tadā

Translation:

When one perceives the separate existence of all beings as resting in the One, and their expansion from that One alone, then one attains Brahman.

Commentary:

When diversity is seen as rooted in unity—all separate beings existing in and emanating from one source—then one attains Brahman. The vision of unity-in-diversity is the door to realization.

Learning:

See how diversity emerges from and rests in unity. All beings are in the One; the One manifests as all beings. This vision of simultaneous unity and diversity is the entrance to Brahman-realization.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

anāditvān nirguṇatvāt paramātmāyam avyayaḥ śharīra-stho 'pi kaunteya na karoti na lipyate

Translation:

Being beginningless and without qualities, this imperishable Supreme Self, though dwelling in the body, O son of Kunti, neither acts nor is tainted.

Commentary:

The Supreme Self is eternal (beginningless) and beyond qualities (nirguna). Though present in the body, it neither acts nor receives the stains of action. Its presence doesn't implicate it in the body's activities.

Learning:

Your deepest Self, though in the body, doesn't do what the body does and isn't stained by the body's actions. Understanding this brings freedom from guilt and karma.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

yathā sarva-gataṁ saukṣhmyād ākāśhaṁ nopalipyate sarvatrāvasthito dehe tathātmā nopalipyate

Translation:

As the all-pervading space, due to its subtlety, is not tainted, so the Self, though present everywhere in the body, is not tainted.

Commentary:

Space pervades everything yet remains untainted by what it contains. Similarly, the Self pervades the entire body yet is not stained by the body's condition or actions. Subtlety ensures non-contamination.

Learning:

Like space, your consciousness pervades your body without being contaminated by it. No matter what happens to or in your body, your essential nature remains pure. This understanding liberates.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

yathā prakāśhayaty ekaḥ kṛitsnaṁ lokam imaṁ raviḥ kṣhetraṁ kṣhetrī tathā kṛitsnaṁ prakāśhayati bhārata

Translation:

As the one sun illuminates this entire world, so does the Lord of the field illuminate the entire field, O Bharata.

Commentary:

One sun lights the whole world; similarly, one Knower (the Lord of the field) illuminates the entire field (body). Consciousness lights up experience just as sunlight reveals objects.

Learning:

Your awareness illuminates your entire field of experience, just as one sun lights the whole world. Consciousness isn't in experience; experience is in consciousness. This reversal is crucial to understanding.

Sanskrit Transliteration:

kṣhetra-kṣhetrajñayor evam antaraṁ jñāna-chakṣhuṣhā bhūta-prakṛiti-mokṣhaṁ cha ye vidur yānti te param

Translation:

Those who with the eye of knowledge perceive the distinction between the field and the knower of the field, and the liberation of beings from Prakriti—they attain the Supreme.

Commentary:

The chapter concludes: those who see with wisdom-eyes the difference between body and Self, and understand how beings are liberated from matter's bondage—they attain the supreme goal.

Learning:

Seeing the distinction between field and knower with wisdom-eyes leads to the Supreme. This isn't ordinary seeing but discernment that transforms. Understanding liberation from material bondage comes through this seeing.