Bhagavad-gītā 13.4

Pradyumna: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [leads chanting of verse] [Prabhupāda and devotees repeat]

tat kṣetraṁ yac ca yādṛk ca yad vikārī yataś ca yat sa ca yo yat prabhāvaś ca tat samāsena me śṛṅu [Bg 13.4]

[break] [leads chanting of synonyms]

tat—that; kṣetram—field of activities; yat—as; ca—also; yādṛk—as it is; ca—also; yat—what is; vikāri—changes; yataḥ—from which; ca—also; yat—one; saḥ—he; ca—also; yaḥ—one; yat—which; prabhāvaḥ ca—influence also; tat—that; samāsena—in detail; me—from Me; śṛṅu—understand.

[02:27]

Translation: "Now please hear My brief description of this field of activity and how it is constituted, what its changes are, whence it is produced, who that knower of the field of activities is, and what his influences are."

Prabhupāda: Tat kṣetram [Bg 13.4]. Idaṁ śarīraṁ kaunteya kṣetram ity abhidhīyate [Bg 13.2]. So Kṛṣṅa has already explained, kṣetra means idaṁ śarīram. Śarīram means this body. Tat kṣetram. First of all, you have to understand that this body or any field of action, anywhere, the three things are there: the field of activities, the owner of the field and the supervisor of the field. You can check and tally anywhere. So Kṛṣṅa says, kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi. There are two kṣetrajñaḥ and one kṣetra: one field of activity and two personalities, kṣetrajñaḥ. One is to be supposed as occupier, and the other is supposed to be the owner.

Just like in this house we are occupier. The house is kṣetra, field of activities; the landlord is the owner; and we are the occupier. Two kṣetrajñaḥ. This property is interest for two persons. One is the occupier and the other is the owner. Similarly, anywhere, any part of the world, anywhere you go, you will find these three things: one, the field of activities, and the other two means one occupier and one owner. If one understands these three things, and he can study everywhere these three things, then, kṣetra-kṣetrajñayor yad jñānam. This knowledge, to understand everywhere that there is a field of activity and two persons are interested in that field of activity... One is the owner, another is the occupier. If you study these three things only, then, taj-jñānaṁ. Jñānam. That is knowledge. Otherwise all rascals and fools, that's all. Mataṁ mama.

[aside:] Don't sit like that.

This is jñānam. But ask anybody at the present moment who is the owner, who is the occupier and what is the field of activities. If you ask three things, nobody will be able to answer. That means everyone is rascal at the present. Or they do not know. Kṣetra-kṣetrajñayor yaj-jñānam. Kṛṣṅa says, "This relationship between the field of action and the owner." Just like in agriculture. The land is owned by the state or the king, and it is rented or occupied by somebody else. And the land is the field of action.

So Kṛṣṅa is giving direction. Kṛṣṅa is giving direction, and the living entity is there. He is acting according to that direction. So both Kṛṣṅa and the living entity are sitting in one tree. That is stated in the Upaniṣad. Two birds are sitting in one tree. One is eating the fruit of the tree and other is simply witnessing. The witnessing bird is Kṛṣṅa, and the bird who is eating the fruits of the tree, he is the living entity. The Māyāvādī philosopher, they cannot distinguish between the jīva soul, jīvātmā, and Paramātmā. They know it, but because they are monists, to establish their theory, they say there is no two; there is one. No. Kṛṣṅa says two. One kṣetrajñaḥ, the jīvātmā, and the other kṣetrajñaḥ He is, Kṛṣṅa. The difference between the two is that the individual living entity knows only about his kṣetra, or body, but the other living entity, the supreme living entity, He knows all the bodies, everywhere, anywhere, throughout the whole creation. Sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo [Bg 15.15].

[I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas am I to be known; indeed I am the compiler of Vedānta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.]

This is the difference.

So material nature is actually the field of activities in our conditioned life. We have... Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṅi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati [Bg 15.7]. In the Fifteenth Chapter you'll find it, that who are these living entities, we? Kṛṣṅa says mamaivāṁśa: "They are all My parts and parcels." Mamaivāṁśa. Just like father and the son. A father has got many sons. Similarly, we are all sons of God. Mamaivāṁśa jīva-bhūtaḥ [Bg 15.7]. Sanātanaḥ. Sanātanaḥ. Sanātanaḥ means eternally. It is not that we are now part and parcel, and after liberation we'll become one, or equal—the Māyāvādī theory. No. That is not. Therefore this very word is used, sanātana, "eternally." Eternally, we are part and parcel.

"Then why they are not with You? Why they are here in this material world?" Now, manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṅi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati [Bg 15.7]. They have preferred to enjoy this material world, to lord it over the material world. Therefore, mind and senses, manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṅi, with these senses and mind, karṣati. Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṅi prakṛti-sthāni. Karṣati, karṣati means struggling, struggle for existence. This is our position. We are part and parcel of Kṛṣṅa. Now we have given up by misuse of our independence. We wanted to imitate Kṛṣṅa. Kṛṣṅa is the supreme enjoyer, so when we become envious of Kṛṣṅa... Tān ahaṁ dviṣataḥ krurān [Bg 16.19]: the demons are envious. They want to become Kṛṣṅa. Therefore, you will find so many demons, they will say, "Why Kṛṣṅa is alone God? I am God, you are God, all of us, we are God." So they are demons.

So demons cannot be allowed in the spiritual world. They are sent in this material world. Just like in some places, I've heard, in Europe there are many places, where the gamblers and the drunkards, without any license, they can go on with their business. Is there any place like that? Huh?

Bhagavān: Yes.

Prabhupāda: What is the name?

Bhagavān: Monte Carlo.

Prabhupāda: Yes. [chuckles] So we are given this place, Monte Carlo. [laughter] Go on with your sinful activities without any license. Go on. Demons. They'll not hear. They'll not accept Kṛṣṅa as the advisor, instructor.

na māṁ duṣkṛtino mūḍhāḥ prapadyante narādhamāḥ māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ āsuriṁ bhāvam āśritāḥ [Bg 7.15]

[Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons, do not surrender unto Me.]

The āsuriṁ bhāvam āśritaḥ means demons. There are two classes of men: demon and god. Not the Godhead, God. Those who are Vaiṣṅavas, means obedient to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they are also god, or godly. And those who are not obedient, they are demons. This is the difference between demon and god or godly. So there are two classes of men always in this material world. In the spiritual world, they are all gods, godly. Kṛṣṅa is the Godhead, and all living entities there, they are godly.

So in the spiritual world there is no facility for the demons. Therefore when Kṛṣṅa likes to fight... Because after many, many years not fighting... Because in the spiritual world there is no fight. All obedient servant, where is the possibility of fighting? Therefore sometimes He comes here to fight with the demons, [laughter] just to get the body fit. [laughter] Yes.

Therefore sometimes, when there are scarcity of demons, some of the devotees, they come and become a demon. Not become demon; just Kṛṣṅa wants to fight, so without demon, how Kṛṣṅa will fight? Therefore they play the part of demon so that Kṛṣṅa......That means they want to serve Kṛṣṅa. Kṛṣṅa wants to, just like sometimes big men, they keep some wrestlers to make mock fight. Similarly, to serve Kṛṣṅa, Kṛṣṅa has desire to fight, so they come down and become just like a demon and fight with Kṛṣṅa.

Just like Hiraṅyakaśipu. They were Jaya and Vijaya, attendant in Vaikuṅṭha. But Kṛṣṅa wanted to fight, so therefore they came down and became demons like Hiraṅyakaśipu, Rāvaṅa and fought with Him. This is... Kṛṣṅa has all the desires. Otherwise, this fighting desire, wherefrom we get unless it is there in Kṛṣṅa? There is.

Janmādy asya yataḥ [SB 1.1.1]. Everything that we find here, that is in Kṛṣṅa. Therefore Kṛṣṅa has got twelve different kinds of relationship. Akhila-rasāmṛta. Kṛṣṅa is the reservoir of all kind of rasa. Sometimes fighting is also pleasing; therefore the fighting spirit is there in Kṛṣṅa. And we have got also that fighting spirit also, in small quantity. We can fight also, but Kṛṣṅa can also fight. But when Kṛṣṅa fight, the opposite party means finished. [laughter] When we fight, that is different. I may be finished or he may be finished. That is different. So this is the position.

Therefore Kṛṣṅa in the next says, tat-kṣetram yac ca yadṛk. How this kṣetra, different types of body, they cannot explain. The so-called scientist, they cannot explain why there are different types of bodies. There are 8,400,000 different types of bodies. And the human race, they are 400,000. These 400,000 are distributed all over the universe. On this planet, may be some thousands, not 400,000's. Not all of them are here. Yet here also in the human forms we find so many differences: the Europeans, the Americans, the Africans, the Indians, the Chinese, the different forms. That also can be counted, maybe hundred, two hundred different types of forms of human beings. But there are four hundred thousand. Four hundred thousand. That is the human race.

And eight millions other forms. Eight millions—the aquatics, the trees, these plants, the grass and the insects. We have experience how many different types of insects are there in Māyāpur. During night, so many different types of insects come to the fire..., to the light. This is another illusion. These insects, they are coming, being attracted by the beauty of the light. The electric light, it is not open. Otherwise, these insects come in the burning fire and die. Beauty. Captivated by the beauty of the fire. So actually it is going on. We are attracted by the beauty of māyā, and exactly we are falling to the fire and dying.

So there are so many instructions. Even if you study simply these 8,400,000's different kinds of... So how to study them, Kṛṣṅa is explaining. Tat kṣetram. Tat kṣetram means that kind of, that body, there are so many. Tat kṣetram yac ca yadṛk. How they have attained different types of body? The soul is there. Soul, we have already explained, is the kṣetrajña. But except the followers of Vedic knowledge, nobody knows. Just like the Christian people, they say there is no soul of the animals. And how is not? Kṣetrajña. Soul is there, everywhere, but they have got their different types of body. Therefore Kṛṣṅa says, tat kṣetraṁ. Tat kṣetraṁ yac ca yadṛk ca. How they have got different, Kṛṣṅa has already explained in the Fifteenth Chapter. They are all Kṛṣṅa's part and parcel.

In another place Kṛṣṅa says,

sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayaḥ tāsāṁ mahad yonir brahma ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā [Bg 14.4]

[It should be understood that all species of life, O son of Kuntī, are made possible by birth in this material nature, and that I am the seed-giving father.]

He's the seed-giving father. Therefore, all living entities are Kṛṣṅa's part and parcel. It is foolishness to say that other living entities, other than the human being, they have no soul. It is foolishness. They have got souls. Every... Even the ant has got soul, even the microbe has got soul, even the germ has got soul. Everyone has got soul. But they have got different types of body only, outward. Therefore Kṛṣṅa says, yac ca yadṛk ca. How they have got different types of body.

So these subject matters are very subtle things. But there is no facility for studying this subject matter in the university or any educational institution. Therefore they are called mūḍhas. They do not understand what is God. Who was telling me? Some Bengali professor came here, and he said, "I am agnostic." Who told me just now, in the car? So mostly the so-called educated circle, they are agnostics. They do not believe in God, they do not believe in the soul, and still they are passing on as educationist, learned scholar, professor. This is the pity. Therefore one should learn from Kṛṣṅa. This education system at the present moment, you cannot learn anything positively. They are all vague.

Here Kṛṣṅa says, try to understand, each and every body, tat kṣetram. Why one soul has got a godly body and one soul has got dog body, one soul has got very beautiful body, another soul has got very ugly body? So one has got nails and jaws, one has very nice, beautiful hand, fingers. There are varieties. Kṛṣṅa says that sa ca yo yat prabhavaś ca. Prabhavaś ca. And each body has got a different type of influence. Each type of body. This is God's creation.

There are innumerable planets. Each planet has got a different atmosphere. Just like we have got experience within this planet, Europe has got another atmosphere, India has got another atmosphere. Similarly, all the planets, they are of different atmosphere, and each and every planet there are varieties of living entities. Just imagine the living entities are 8,400,000 species. So even if you divide so many thousands and hundreds, still, 8,000,000. This is God's creation. God's creation means all these living entities, they want to enjoy this material world in a different capacity, and God has given the facility, "Yes, you can enjoy. You can enjoy." He is giving facility. Sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo [Bg 15.15].

[I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas am I to be known; indeed I am the compiler of Vedānta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.]

He's sitting... God is so kind, Kṛṣṅa is so kind.

Just like you have seen the master taking his dog. The dog is allowed to do whatever he likes; the master waits. The real business of the dog is to obey the master's order. But the master gives the dog facility, "Yes, you can walk, you can run, you can pass urine, stool. I'll wait." As the master gives facility, similarly, Kṛṣṅa is so kind, Kṛṣṅa is so affectionate, that we have come to enjoy this material world, He is giving us the facilities, just like the master is giving the facility to the dog. Kṛṣṅa is so kind. But He wants..., Kṛṣṅa wants that every living entity should be obedient to Kṛṣṅa. Then that is Kṛṣṅa's enjoyment.

He's so kind that He's asking every living entity, especially the human being, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati [Bg 9.26].

[If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it.]

He's self-sufficient. He's not hungry. He is supplying necessities, food, to every living entity. Still He's hankering for a little flower, little fruit, from this living entity. "Please give Me." So this is the position. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati tad aham aśnāmi: "If you kindly give Me even little flower, a little fruit, little water, with faith and love, I will eat." Kṛṣṅa is so kind. And He's simply trying to turn the face of the living entity towards Him. Therefore He is always with us.

So this is another... Kṛṣṅa has come here in this temple to accept your offerings, so that you may again go back to home, back to Godhead. That is Kṛṣṅa's desire. He's so kind. In whatever way possible, He's trying to get us back to home, back to Godhead. That is Kṛṣṅa's mission. He's coming Himself as Kṛṣṅa, the Supreme Personality. He's coming Himself as the devotee, Lord Caitanya. He came, Kṛṣṅa, personally, and asked everyone, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṅaṁ vraja [Bg 18.66]:

[Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear.]

"You just... Why you are suffering here? You give up all these engagements." Because here, whatever you do will simply create entanglement and suffer, that's all. You cannot be free to do anything. That is not possible. So Kṛṣṅa therefore says that "Don't bother by manufacturing your ways of thinking."

Just like yesterday one boy and girl came, he's poet. I asked him, "What poetry you write? What is the subject matter?" "No subject matter. No subject matter." [laughter] This is pāgal. Pāgal means "mad." Piśācī pāile yena mati-cchana haya māyār grasta jīvera sei dāsa upajaya. Piśācī, ghost, ghostly haunted. A person, when he becomes ghostly haunted, he speaks all kinds of nonsense. So māyā grasta jīvera sei dāsa upajaya: those who have come to this material world under the influence of the external energy of Kṛṣṅa, māyā, they are all madmen.

It is not śāstra; it is the opinion of medical science also. The medical science. In India there was a case, a murderer. So his pleader, lawyer, pleaded that "This man, when committed this murder, he was insane." So the judge called for the civil surgeon to examine him whether he has got such tendency, insanity. So he gave evidence, "My lord, so far my knowledge concerned—I have tested so many men—everyone is insane. It is a question of degree. Now if you consider that he was insane, you..., that is your business to punish him or not punish him. But so far my knowledge is concerned, I have studied so many men and I have found they are all insane."

Actually that is the position. What does it mean, insanity? When his brain is not acting nicely. That is insanity. So anyone who is in this material world, they are against God consciousness. That is the sign of insanity. He's under the strict regulation of God, still he defies, "There is no God. There is no God. I am God." This is insanity. Piśācī pāile yena mati-cchana haya. So how these different types of insanity is visible, that will be explained, Kṛṣṅa. Tat kṣetraṁ yac ca yadṛk ca. Not one kind of body or one kind of insanity—different types of insanities. Yac ca yadṛk ca yad vikārī. This vikārī means transformation. Everyone's brain is vikārī, "not in order." Yat vikārī yataś ca yat. How such kind of transformation, vikārī, this derangement has taken place. Sa ca yo yat prabhavaś ca. And prabhavas, everyone, every living entity has got a particular type of prabhavaḥ.

Just like a small bird, immediately he can fly in the sky. And although we are very intelligent, if I want and if you want to fly in the sky, no, you cannot. Although he's supposed to be very intelligent, scientist, but I cannot fly. But a small bird will immediately fly. That is his prabhavaḥ. You must have to admit that this is his special power. Similarly, a vulture, he goes four miles up, and his eyes are very small. But from the four miles away he will find out where there is a dead body, immediately jump over. And we have got so many big eyes, but we cannot say, after... This spectacle required. You cannot see even one feet. So this is his prabhavaḥ, influence. A vulture, most, but a nasty bird, still it has got so much influence that we cannot compete with him. So you'll find in every creature, every living entity, a special prerogative than the others. Than the others. So, with the body.

Just like the hog. The hog can eat stool very nicely. Very nicely. But although we say that everything is food, we can eat, then you eat the stool? You cannot eat. He has got the influence that he can eat the stool very nicely. Therefore we should not consider that all living entities are of the same status. They have got different status. You cannot say because the other living entity is eating something abominable, therefore I can also eat; it is eatable. No, you cannot do that. If you eat, you will be diseased. Therefore, it is called "One man's food is another man's poison." Prabhavaś ca. One can eat anything... Not anything; nobody can eat anything—his allotted food.

In the living entities lower than the human being, they follow the nature's way, their allotted food. Just like the tiger eats blood and flesh. If you offer him nice fruit, nice sweetrice, he'll not eat. Even the dog, they do not like the sweetrice or nice kachorī and siṅgāra. You'll see. They cannot eat. If they eat, they will fall diseased. In Bengal it is said, kukkure peṭe ghī sayanaya.[?] Too much fatty things, if you give to the dog, he'll not be able to digest. So similarly, we are also human being, we have got special food. Special food. Therefore Kṛṣṅa says, Kṛṣṅa's prasādam will be taken by whom? By the human being. No, it can be offered to any living entities, but worship of Kṛṣṅa is meant for the human being. Therefore a devotee will take the remnants of foodstuff offered to Kṛṣṅa.

Therefore Kṛṣṅa says, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati [Bg 9.26].

[If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it.]

Kṛṣṅa, as the Supreme Lord, He can eat anything. He can eat anything, because He is all-powerful, omnipotent. But we cannot do that. Therefore Kṛṣṅa says, "You give Me this vegetable, fruits, grains, milk, and I will take." Therefore indirectly it is said these are the foodstuff of the human being. Not any others things. You cannot say that "This is also eatable, therefore I shall eat." Then you become a hog. Those who have no discrimination of eating, they are going to be hog next life.

Therefore Kṛṣṅa says, yad vikārī yataś ca yat [Bg 13.4]. How one becomes a hog, dog, cat or demigod or Indra or Brahma, that will be explained. You are given the facility of human being, and if you misuse your facilities, then according to your mental condition, you'll be offered the next body. Yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran loke tyajyaty ante kalevaram [Bg 8.6], you'll find.

[Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail.]

Therefore, give up doggish mentality. That is Kṛṣṅa consciousness. Train up your mind, God, godly mentality. Then you'll be transferred next life back to home, back to Godhead. That is required. This Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is training the people for being promoted to the highest standard of life. This Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is so important. We are giving chance to the people not to become next life cats and dogs and vultures, but associate of Kṛṣṅa—to become a cowherd boy, to play with Kṛṣṅa, or gopī, to dance with Kṛṣṅa. This much facilities we are going to give.

So everyone should consider how much welfare movement is this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement, and they should follow the instruction of Kṛṣṅa and the ācāryas and make their life successful.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. [end]