The Bhagavad-Gita
Chapters Thirteen through Fifteen
Arjuna said:
Prakrti and purusa, the field and the knower of the field,
knowledge and the object of knowledge, these I should like to
know, O Kesava (Krsna).
The Blessed Lord said:
This body, O Son of Kunti (Arjuna), is called the field and him
who knows this, those who know thereof call the knower of the
field.
Know Me as the Knower of the field in all fields, O Bharata
(Arjuna). The knowledge of the field and its knower, do I regard
as true knowledge.
Hear briefly from Me what the Field is, of what nature, what its
modifications are, whence it is, what he (the knower of the
field) is, and what his powers are.
This has been sung by sages in many ways and distinctly, in
various hymns and also in well-reasoned and conclusive
expressions of the aphorisms of the Absolute (brahmasutra).
The great (five gross) elements, self-sense, understanding as
also the unmanifested, the ten senses and mind and the five
objects of the senses.
Desire and hatred, pleasure and pain, the aggregate (the
organism), intelligence and steadfastness described, this in
brief is the field along with its modifications.
Humility (absence of pride), integrity (absence of deceit),
non-violence, patience, uprightness, service of the teacher,
purity (of body and mind), steadfastness and self-control.
Indifference to the objects of sense, self-effacement and the
perception of the evil of birth, death, old age, sickness and
pain.
Non-attachment, absence of clinging to son, wife, home and the
like and a constant equal-mindedness to all desireable and
undesirable happenings.
Unswerving devotion to Me with wholehearted disciplene, resort to
solitary places, dislike for a crowd of people.
Constancy in the knowledge of the Spirit, insight into the end of
the knowledge of Truth--this is declared to be (true) knowledge
and all that is different from it is non-knowledge.
I will describe that which is to be known, and by knowing which
life eternal is gained. It is the supreme Brahman who is
beginningless and who is said to be neither existent nor
non-existent.
With his hands and feet everywhere, with eyes, heads and faces on
all sides, with ears on all sides, He dwells in the world,
enveloping all.
He appears to have the qualities of all the senses and yet is
without (any of) the senses, unattached and yet supporting all,
free from the gunas (dispositions of prakrti) and yet enjoying
them.
He is without and within all beings. He is unmoving as also
moving. He is too subtle to be known. He is far away and yet is
He near.
He is undivided (indivisible) and yet He seems to be divided
among beings. He is to be known as supporting creatures,
destroying them and creating them afresh.
He is the Light of lights, said to be beyond darkness. Knowledge,
the object of knowledge and the goal of knowledge--He is seated
in the hearts of all.
Thus in the field, also knowledge and the object of knowledge
have been briefly described. My devotee who understands thus
becomes worthy of My state.
Know thou that prakrti (nature) and purusa (soul) are both
beginningless; and know also that the forms and modes are born of
prakrti (nature).
Nature is said to be the cause of effect, instrument and agent
(ness) and the soul is said to be the cause, in regard to the
experience of pleasure and pain.
The soul in nature enjoys the modes born of nature. Attachment to
the modes is the cause of its births in good and evil wombs.
The Supreme Spirit in the body is said to be the Witness, the
Permitter, the Supporter, the Experiencer, the Great Lord and the
Supreme Self.
He who thus knows soul (purusa) and nature (prakrti) together
with the modes, though he acts in every way, he is not born
again.
By meditation some perceive the Self in the self by the self;
others by the path of knowledge and still others by the path of
works.
Yet others, ignorant of this (these paths of yoga) hearing from
others worship; and they too cross beyond death by thier devotion
to what they have heard.
Whatever being is born, moving or unmoving, know thou, O Best of
Bharatas (Arjuna), that it is (sprung) through the union of the
field and the knower of the field.
He who sees the Supreme Lord abiding equally in all beings, never
perishing when they perish, he, verily, sees.
For, as he sees the Lord present, equally everywhere, he does not
injure his true Self by the self and then he attains to the
supreme goal.
He who sees that all actions are done only by nature (prakrti)
and likewise that the self is not the doer, he verily sees.
When he sees that the manifold state of beings is centred in the
One and from just that it spreads out, then he attains Brahman.
Because this Supreme Self imperishable is without beginning,
without qualities, so, O Son of Kunti (Arjuna), though It dwells
in the body, It neither acts nor is tainted.
As the all-pervading ether is not tainted, by reason of its
subtlty, even so the Self that is present in every body does not
suffer any taint.
As the one sun illumines this whole world, so does the Lord of
the field illumine this entire field, O Bharata (Arjuna).
Those who perceive thus by their eye of wisdom the distinction
between the field and the knower of the field, and the
deliverance of beings from nature (prakrti), they attain to the
Supreme.
The Blessed Lord said:
I shall again declare that supreme wisdom, of all wisdom the
best, by knowing which all sages have passed from this world to
the highest perfection.
Having resorted to this wisdom and become of like nature to Me,
they are not born at the time of creation; nor are they disturbed
at the time of dissolution.
Great Brahma (prakrti) is My womb: in that I cast the seed and
from it is the birth of all beings, O Bharata (Arjuna).
Whatever forms are produced in any wombs whatsoever, O Son of
Kunti (Arjuna), great brahma is their womb and I am the father
who casts the seed.
The three modes (gunas) goodness (sattva), passion (rajas), and
dullness (tamas) born of nature (prakrti) bind down in the body,
O Mighty-armed (Arjuna), the imperishable dweller in the body.
Of these, goodness (sattva) being pure, causes illumination and
health. It binds, O blameless one, by attachment to happiness and
by attachment to knowledge.
Passion (rajas), know thou, is of the nature of attraction,
springing from craving and attachment. it binds fast, O Son of
Kunti (Arjuna), the embodied one by attachment to action.
But dullness (tamas), know thou, is born of ignorance and deludes
all embodied beings. It binds, O Bharata (Arjuna), by (developing
the qualities of) negligence, indolence and sleep.
Goodness attaches one to happiness, passion to action, O Bharata
(Arjuna), but dullness, veiling wisdom, attaches to negligence.
Goodness prevails, overpowering passion and dullness, O Bharata
(Arjuna). Passion prevails, (overpowering) goodness and dulness
and even so dullness prevails (overpowering) goodness and
passion.
When the light of knowledge streams forth in all the gates of the
body, then it may be known that goodness has increased.
Greed, activity, the undertaking of actions, unrest and
craving--these spring up, O Best of the Bharatas (Arjuna), when
rajas increases.
Unillumination, inactivity, negligence and mere delusion--these
arise, O Joy of the Kurus (Arjuna), when dullness increases.
When the embodied soul meets with dissolution, when goodness
prevails, then it attains to the pure worlds of those who know
the Highest.
Meeting with dissolution when passion prevails, it is born among
those attached to action; and if it is dissolved when dullness
prevails, it is born in the wombs of the deluded.
The fruit of good action is said to be of the nature of
"goodness" and pure; while the fruit of passion is
pain, thefruit of dullness is ignorance.
From goodness arises knowledge and from passion greed, negligence
and error arise from dullness, as also ignorance.
When the seer perceives no agent other than the modes that spring
from the body, it is freed from birth, death, old age and pain
and attains life eternal.
Arjuna said:
By what marks is he, O Lord, who has risen above the three modes,
characterized? What is his way of life? How does he get beyond
the three modes?
The Blessed Lord said:
He, O Pandava (Arjuna), who does not abhor illumination, activity
and delusion when they arise nor longs for them when they cease.
He who is seated like one unconcerned, unperturbed by the modes,
who stands apart, without wavering, knowing that it is only the
modes that act.
He who regards pain and pleasure alike, who dwells in his own
self, who looks upon a clod, a stone, a piece of gold as of equal
worth, who remains the same amidst the pleasant and the
unpleasant things, who is firm of mind, who regards both blame
and praise as one.
He who is the same in honour and dishonour and the same to
friends and foes, and who has given up all initiative of action,
he is said to have risen above the modes.
He who serves Me with unfailing devotion of love, rises above the
three modes, he too is fit for becoming Brahman.
For I am the abode of Brahman, the Immortal and the Imperishable,
of eternal law and of absolute bliss.
The Blessed Lord said:
They speak of the imperishable asvattham (peepal tree) as having
its root above and branches below. Its leaves are the Vedas and
he who knows this is the knower of the Vedas.
Its branches extend below and above, nourished by the modes, with
sense objects for its twigs and below in the world of men stretch
forth the roots resulting in actions.
Its real form is not thus perceived here, nor its end nor
beginning nor its foundation. Having cut off this firm-rooted
Asvattham (peepal tree) with the strong sword of non-attachment.
Then, that path must be sought from which those who have reached
it never return, saying "I seek refuge only in that Primal
Person from whom has come forth this ancient current of the
world" (this cosmic process).
Those who are freed from pride and delusion, who have conquered
the evil of attachment, who, all desires stilled, are ever
devoted to the Supreme Spirit, who are liberated from the
dualities known as pleasure and pain and are undeluded, go to
that eternal state.
The sun does not illuminate that, nor the moon nor the fire. That
is My supreme abode from which those who reach it never return.
A fragment (or fraction) of My own self, having become a living
soul, eternal, in the world of life, draws to itself the senses
of which the mind is the sixth, that rest in nature.
When the lord takes up a body and when he leaves it, he takes
these (the senses and mind) and goes even as the wind carries
perfumes from their places.
He enjoys the objects of the senses, using the ear, the eye, the
touch sense, the taste sense and the nose as also the mind.
When He departs or stays or experiences, in contact with the
modes, the deluded do not see (the indwelling soul) but they who
have the eye of wisdom (or whose eye is wisdom) see.
The sages also striving perceive Him as established in the self,
but the unintelligent, whose souls are undisciplened, though
striving, do not find Him.
That splendour of the sun that illumines this whole world, that
which is in the moon, that which is in the fire, that splendour,
know as Mine.
And entering the earth, I support all beings by My vital energy;
and becoming the sapful soma (moon), I nourish all herbs (or
plants).
Becoming the fire of life in the bodies of living creatures and
mingling with the upward and downward breaths, I digest the four
kinds of food.
And I am lodged in the hearts of all; from Me are memory and
knowledge as well as their loss. I am indeed He who is to be
known by all the Vedas. I indeed (am) the author of the Vedanta
and I too the knower of the Vedas.
There are two persons in this world, the perishable and the
imperishable, the perishable is all these existences and the
unchanging is the imperishable.
But other than these, the Highest Spirit called the Supreme Self
who, as the Undying Lord, enters the three worlds and sustains
them.
As I surpass the perishable and am higher even than the
imperishable, I am celebrated as the Supreme Person in the world
and in the Veda.
He who, undeluded, thus knows Me, the Highest Person, is the
knower of all and worships Me with all his being (with his whole
spirit), O Bharata (Arjuna).
Thus has this most secret doctrine been taught by Me, O blameless
one. By knowing this, a man will become wise and will have
fulfilled all his duties, O Bharata (Arjuna).