Bhagavad-gītā 13.1–2

Prabhupāda:

arjuna uvāca prakṛtiṁ puruṣaṁ caiva kṣetraṁ kṣetrajñaṁ eva ca etad veditum icchāmi jñānaṁ jñeyaṁ ca keśava [Bg 13.1]

So four questions. Arjuna wanted to know from Kṛṣṅa the answers of four questions. First, prakṛti, this material nature; puruṣam, the enjoyer of the material nature; kṣetram, the field of enjoying, or field of activities; and kṣetrajñam, one who is enjoying, or one who is acting on the field. Etad veditum icchāmi jñānaṁ jñeyaṁ ca keśava. Another two things: jñānam, what is knowledge, and jneyam, what is the object of knowledge, the aim of knowledge.

So Kṛṣṅa replied, idaṁ śarīraṁ kaunteya kṣetram ity abhidhīyate [Bg 13.2]: "This body is kṣetra." Etad yo vetti taṁ prāhuḥ kṣetrajñaḥ iti tad-vidaḥ: "And one who knows this body, he's kṣetrajña." The whole subject matter of Bhagavad-gītā is to know who is the proprietor of this body. Generally everyone, 99.9 percent, everyone knows that "I am this body." But that is not the fact. The owner of the body: one who knows that "I am not this body, but I am the proprietor of the body."

Just like I am sitting on this throne. I am not this throne, but I am a different person who is sitting on the throne. Similarly, when somebody asks me, "What you are?" if I give my identification...

[aside: These children must be removed.]

...with this body, that is my foolishness. In the śāstra it is said,

yasyātmā buddhiḥ kuṅape tri-dhātuke sva-dhīḥ kalatrādīṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicij janeṣv abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ [SB 10.84.13]

[One who identifies his self as the inert body composed of mucus, bile and air, who assumes his wife and family are permanently his own, who thinks an earthen image or the land of his birth is worshipable, or who sees a place of pilgrimage as merely the water there, but who never identifies himself with, feels kinship with, worships or even visits those who are wise in spiritual truth—such a person is no better than a cow or an ass.]

Go-kharaḥ. Go means cows and kharaḥ means asses. Person who is identifying this body as the self. This body is a bag of three dhātu: kapha, pitta, vāyu. According to Āyurvedic treatment, this body is made of kapha, pitta, vāyu. Otherwise, we can take it, this body is made of flesh, bone, blood, urine, stool, cough. If you analytically study this body, you'll find these are the ingredients of the body. Therefore these ingredients are not myself. This is the first ignorance. In spiritual knowledge, unless one understands fully that "I am not this flesh, blood, urine or other things in this body. I am separate from"; one who knows that "I am separate from this body. I am spirit soul. I am the part and parcel of the Supreme Lord," as it is stated, mamaivāṁśo jīva bhūtaḥ [Bg 15.7], then my knowledge is complete.

So education is given to the students, but this knowledge is absent from the educational institution. Nobody knows that "I am not this body." Therefore śāstra says, "Anyone who is identifying this body as his self," yasyātmā buddhiḥ kuṅape tri-dhātuke [SB 10.84.13], "and in relationship with the body, others also," sva-dhīḥ, "thinking, 'They are our own men,' " sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma ijya-dhīḥ, and bhauma, "the land of birth is worshipable," ijya-dhīh... So this is going on. At the present moment, throughout the whole world, everyone is identifying himself with this body, and the land in which the body is born is taken as worshipable, bhauma ijya-dhīḥ, and persons who are in relationship with this body, "They are our own men, or kinsmen." This is going on. But according to śāstra, anyone who is accepting this identification, body as self and the country or the land as worshipable and the kinsmen or relatives, "They are our only own men," in this way this misconception of life is being accepted.

Therefore, according to Vedic civilization, this is a civilization of the cows and the asses. Sa eva go-kharaḥ [SB 10.84.13]. So in other words, it is an animal civilization. So you cannot be happy in animal civilization, in the societies of animals. Just like in the jungle there are animals. There is no peace. There is always struggle for existence, fight between one animal... Still, they are peaceful. But at the present moment, throughout the whole world, we have become less than the animals, because we do not know what is the basic principle of civilization, what is the ultimate goal of life, what is our perfection. These things we are lacking in knowledge.

Therefore Arjuna inquires, "What is jñānam, what is knowledge, and what is the object of knowledge?" So Kṛṣṅa replied that "This body, śarīram, idaṁ śarīraṁ kṣetra, this is our field of activities." We have got different types of body. Yesterday I have explained, there are 8,400,000 forms of body, and according to our desire, nature is supplying a type of body for our activity. That is explained in another place in the Bhagavad-gītā: īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati [Bg 18.61].

[The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.]

The Lord is situated in everyone's heart. Kṛṣṅa is situated outside and inside also. Kṛṣṅa, antar bahiḥ, He is situated outside and inside. Simply we have to make our eyes and senses perfect to see Him. Kṛṣṅa is not invisible. He is visible. But one who has got the eyes to see Him, one can see; otherwise not. Therefore in the Brahma-saṁhitā it is stated, premāñjana-cchurita bhakti-vilocanena santaḥ hṛdayeṣu sadaiva vilokayanti [Bs 5.38].

[I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, who is Śyāmasundara, Kṛṣṅa Himself with inconceivable innumerable attributes, whom the pure devotees see in their heart of hearts with the eye of devotion tinged with the salve of love.]

Those who have developed Kṛṣṅa consciousness, love of Godhead, they can see the Supreme Personality of Godhead, śyāma-sundaraṁ acintya-guṅa svarūpam, the reservoir of all transcendental qualities. Acintya-guṅa... Acintya means inconceivable. The qualities which Kṛṣṅa has got, that is inconceivable by us. He has got qualities...

Just like Kṛṣṅa says that patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati, tad aham aśnāmi [Bg 9.26].

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

Now, anyone offering Kṛṣṅa, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati, in devotion... So this quality, how Kṛṣṅa is eating? Just like at the present moment Kṛṣṅa is offered a dish. How Kṛṣṅa is eating, that we cannot see. But He is eating. Otherwise, Kṛṣṅa becomes a liar. He says, tad aham aśnāmi bhakty-upahṛtam [Bg 9.26]: "Anyone who is offering Me in devotion," tad aham aśnāmi, "I eat." But how He is eating? It is not that He is not eating, but how He is eating, that we do not know. Therefore acintya-guṅa-svarūpam. He has that quality which is inconceivable.

Just like our conception of eating, that we can eat through the mouth. Whatever eatables are offered to us, we pick them and put into the mouth. We know this is the process of eating. But Kṛṣṅa, because He is acintya-guṅa-svarūpam, His eating process is different from ours. That is also stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā: aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti [Bs 5.32]. He has the limbs of the body, different limbs of the body, they can work also for other limbs of the body. Just like with our eyes we can see. If I close our eyes, we do not see. But Kṛṣṅa, even He closes His eyes, He can see everything with His hand. Now, this is inconceivable. Acintya-guṅa-svarūpam.

Therefore it is called acintya. Aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti. So the foodstuff is offered there to Kṛṣṅa. He is eating by seeing. He can eat through His eyes. Just like we can eat through our mouth, not with our eyes, but Kṛṣṅa can eat through His eyes simply by seeing. Then you may argue that "The foodstuff is offered. If He has eaten, why it is lying as it is, as it was offered in the beginning?" That is answered in the Upaniṣad: pūrṅasya pūrṅam ādāya pūrṅam evāvaśiṣyate [Īśo Invocation].

[The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.]

Pūrṅasya. Kṛṣṅa can take the whole plate, but still the whole plate remains. It is not finished. That is spirituality. Pūrṅasya pūrṅam ādāya pūrṅam evāvaśiṣyate.

So this is a great science, spiritual science. Unfortunately, we have no educational system to understand this spiritual science. And especially in this age, everything is godlessness. Therefore people are not happy. Our this Kṛṣṅa consciousness movement is only to make people happy by becoming Kṛṣṅa conscious, understanding everything in the right ways. That is our mission. Therefore... That is the mission of every devotee. Just like Arjuna is asking herewith. He knows everything. He is Kṛṣṅa's friend, personal friend. He is always living with Kṛṣṅa. There cannot be any ignorance on the part of Arjuna. But he's asking this question just for our benefit. Kṛṣṅa will answer this question.

Why Kṛṣṅa's answers will be taken so seriously? Because He is the supreme authority, Supreme Personality of Godhead. If we receive knowledge from the Supreme, then it is perfect knowledge. Just like if you get some knowledge from the superior, one who is more educated than you, one who is more experienced, that knowledge is perfect. So in this material world there may be somebody supreme, but he is not ultimate supreme. But ultimate supreme is Kṛṣṅa. Īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṅaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha, anādir ādir govindaḥ sarva-kāraṅa-kāraṅam [Bs 5.1].

[Kṛṣṅa who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.]

So if we receive knowledge from the ultimate supreme, īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṅaḥ, then our knowledge is perfect. If we receive knowledge secondary, secondhand knowledge, that is also good. Secondhand knowledge means one who has received knowledge from Kṛṣṅa. That knowledge is perfect. But one who speculates, "It may be like that, it may be like this," that knowledge is not perfect.

So in the modern world every knowledge is speculative, hypothetical. There is no perfect knowledge. So if you want to be perfectly in knowledge, then you have to take knowledge from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is here delivered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṅa, in the form of Bhagavad-gītā. Therefore Arjuna is asking this question so that people may receive the perfect knowledge from Kṛṣṅa, and their life may be perfect in that way.

idaṁ śarīraṁ kaunteya kṣetram ity abhidhīyate etad yo vetti taṁ prāhuḥ kṣetrajña iti tad-vidaḥ [Bg 13.2]

kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata kṣetra-kṣetrajñayor jñānaṁ yat taj jñānaṁ mataṁ mama [Bg 13.3]

This is jñānam. What is that jñānam? Jñānam means to know the kṣetrajña, the owner of the body. Just like in ordinary sense if you understand that the..., this is a house, and the proprietor of the house is such-and-such gentleman, then that knowledge is perfect. So similarly, if we understand what is this body and who is the proprietor of this body, then our knowledge is perfect. So Kṛṣṅa says that this body, there is the proprietor, the soul, but there is another kṣetrajña. Just like a house, there is an occupier and there is an owner. These are very easy to understand. Any house you take in Bombay, there are so many tenants or occupier, but there is a proprietor also. Similarly, in this body we are not actually the proprietor; we are simply occupier.

Just like if I give my motorcar to you for use, you are not proprietor; you are occupier or driver. But the owner is different. Similarly, Kṛṣṅa says that kṣetrajñaṁ ca api māṁ viddhi: "I am also kṣetrajña. I am the proprietor indirectly of this body." Therefore Kṛṣṅa's name is Hṛṣīkeśa. Hṛṣīka means senses, and this body is full of senses. So actual proprietor is Kṛṣṅa, Hṛṣīkeśa. We are given for use. Therefore we are using this hand, but if the hand is paralyzed for some reason or other, we cannot repair it. This is not possible. Because the proprietor has withdrawn the power of this hand for activity, therefore it is no more working, although I am claiming, "This is my hand." This is not "I hand"; this is my hand.

Actually, it is not my hand. It is Kṛṣṅa's hand. That is knowledge. So long we are thinking that "I am this body" or "my body," that is not perfect knowledge. When you understand that it is Kṛṣṅa's body, then it is perfect knowledge. Kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu. Not that Kṛṣṅa is the proprietor or kṣetrajña only of the human form of body. Sarva-kṣetreṣu. There are 8,400,000 different types of body. Kṛṣṅa is present there. That is also explained in the Fourteenth Chapter:

sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya mūrtayaḥ sambhavanti yāḥ tāsāṁ mahad-yonir brahma aham 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.]

Just like father makes the body, father gives the seed and mother gives the body, similarly, Kṛṣṅa is the supreme father. He has given the seed. Just like the father impregnates within the womb of the mother, the seed is given by the father, the mother develops the body, similarly, in this material world we have come from Kṛṣṅa. He is the seed-giving father, and the material nature has given us this body. This is compared with a yantra, or a machine.

īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe 'rjuna tiṣṭhati bhrāmayaṁ sarva-bhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā [Bg 18.61]

[The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.]

Yantrārūḍhāni māyayā. So Kṛṣṅa has given us this body through the agency of material nature. So this is a body. This body is just like yantra.

So we are seated in this yantra, and we are traveling, yantrārūḍhāni māyayā, under the influence of māyā, seated on this car, this yantra. Bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni [Bg 18.61]: we are wandering throughout the whole creation. Sometimes we are getting this body of human form, sometimes we are getting the body of a demigod. Sometimes we are getting the body of a rich man, sometimes we are getting the body of a poor man. Sometimes we are getting the body of a cat, sometimes of a dog. Sometimes so many things—trees, plants, aquatics. There are eight million four hundred... This is our position. Dehino 'smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā, tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ [Bg 2.13].

[As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.]

As we are changing our body every moment, from childhood to boyhood, boyhood to youthhood, similarly, by changing this body we get another body. Dehāntara-prāptiḥ. But we do not know what kind of body we are going to get next life. We are blind. This is called ignorance.

Generally, they are thinking this body is all in all; there is no rebirth. No. The example is given here in the Bhagavad-gītā: Just like a child has his future, another body, boyhood body. The boy has got his future, another body, young man's body. The young man has got another future, old man's body. Similarly, the old man has got another body after death. Tatha dehāntara-praptiḥ.

But people have become so irresponsible that they do not know what kind of body he's going to get next life. He's blind. Therefore this knowledge is required, how I am getting this body, how I can get better body or lower body. This is knowledge, not that how to eat, how to sleep and how to have sex life. This is not knowledge. This knowledge there in the animals. Āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṁ ca [Hitopadeśa 25].

[Both animals and men share the activities of eating, sleeping, mating and defending. But the special property of the humans is that they are able to engage in spiritual life. Therefore without spiritual life, humans are on the level of animals.]

Where to find out one's food, where to sleep, how to have sex life, how to defend, these animals also, they know how to do it. So if we devote our time only for these four principles of bodily wants, then we are no better than the cats and dogs.

The real knowledge is to know, "What I am? What is this body? Why I am suffering? I want to be happy, but why sufferings are there, always some kind of suffering is always there?" These are the questions. But people have become so foolish they do not inquire how to make solution of these sufferings, how to make solution of the problems of the life. They are blindly being led.

andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānas te 'pīṣa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṅuṁ durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ [SB 7.5.31]

[Persons who are strongly entrapped by the consciousness of enjoying material life, and who have therefore accepted as their leader or guru a similar blind man attached to external sense objects, cannot understand that the goal of life is to return home, back to Godhead, and engage in the service of Lord Viṣṅu. As blind men guided by another blind man miss the right path and fall into a ditch, materially attached men led by another materially attached man are bound by the ropes of fruitive labor, which are made of very strong cords, and they continue again and again in materialistic life, suffering the threefold miseries.]

Durāśayā: they are hoping something, that by making arrangement in this material world they will be happy. That is not possible.

In the Western countries, Europe and America, they have made sufficient arrangement for living materially very happy, but that has not been possible. They are also disappointed, confused. So materially you cannot be happy. You must know. You must have full knowledge what you are, what is this body, how you'll be happy. Then your life is successful. If you live like cats and dog and try to adjust things like cats and dogs, that is a waste of life, waste of time.

Therefore kindly try to understand Bhagavad-gītā. There is full of knowledge. The knowledge is given by the most perfect, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There is no deficiency. In the knowledge received from imperfect person there are four deficiencies: illusion, mistake, cheating and imperfectness. So from so many deficiencies... You cannot get full knowledge, perfect knowledge from an imperfect person. You have to receive knowledge from the perfect. Then your life will be successful.

Therefore Arjuna is putting so many questions to Kṛṣṅa, and Kṛṣṅa will answer these things in the Thirteenth Chapter. In all the chapters Kṛṣṅa's answers are there. Especially in the Thirteenth Chapter, Kṛṣṅa is giving the knowledge, the knowable objective, the subject matter, and what is this body, who is the owner of the body. So Kṛṣṅa, here it is said that kṣetrajñaṁ cāpy māṁ viddhi: He is also there.

The Māyāvādī philosopher says that there is only one spirit. No, there are two. Kṛṣṅa says ca. Ca means "another." "And as the living, individual living soul is the proprietor of this body"—not proprietor, he is the occupier—"similarly, I also, I have got interest in everybody." Just like a landlord. Landlord has got many houses. I may occupy one of the houses. So I have got only interest in that particular house where I am living. But the landlord has got interest in so many houses. So Kṛṣṅa has got interest not only in my body or your body. He has got interest in each and every body. Because He says, sarva-yoniṣu, "in every species of life."

sarva-yoniṣu [kaunteya] sambhavanti murtayo yāḥ 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.]

These things are to be understood very clearly, how Kṛṣṅa is related. He is not related [only] with the human society; He's related with the animal society, dog society, cat society, demigod society, aquatic society, tree society, plant society, insect society. Everywhere Kṛṣṅa. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-dese 'rjuna tiṣṭhati [Bg 18.61].

[The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.]

That is... Kṛṣṅa is claiming here that "I am also one of the participator in this body." Kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi, kṣetra-kṣetrajñayor jñānaṁ yat taj jñānaṁ matam. If only one tries to understand what is the relationship between this body and the soul, the body and the Supersoul, Kṛṣṅa... Kṛṣṅa, when He says that "I am also kṣetrajna," He's the Supersoul, Paramātmā. Paramātmā. He can know everyone's pains and pleasure. I am the occupier of this body. I know the pains and pleasure of my body, but I do not know the pains and pleasure of your body. Neither you know that the pains and pleasure of my body.

Therefore you are individual, localized, but Kṛṣṅa is all-pervading. Kṛṣṅa knows the pains and pleasure of your body. Kṛṣṅa knows the pains and pleasure of my body. Kṛṣṅa knows the pains and pleasure of dog's body, cat's body, everyone's body. That is Kṛṣṅa. Sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata. Sarva-kṣetreṣu. He knows everything. That is Paramātmā feature. Paramātmā feature means He is even within the atom. Aṅḍāntara-stha-paramāṅu-cayāntara-shtaṁ govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi.

So this subject matter is very interesting. Of course, Bhagavad-gītā is the A-B-C-D of spiritual knowledge. If we do not understand even the A-B-C-D of spiritual knowledge, then where is the progress? Unfortunately, we are neglecting. But it is our duty to propagate this knowledge of Bhagavad-gītā. So we are doing our best, and we wish that everyone, especially Indians, should cooperate with this movement.

Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṅa. [end]