Bhagavadgita Parva — Descriptions of Kshetra & Kshetrajna

The great One said This body, O son of Kunti, is called Kshetra. The learned call him who knows it, Kshetrajna.

Know me, O Bharata. as Kshetrajna in all Kshetras. I consider the knowledge of Kshetra and Kshetrajna to be the true knowledge.

Hear from Me in brief what is Kshetra what it is like, what changes it undergoes, and whence it comes. Know also what is Kshetrajna, and what are his powers.

All this his, in many ways, been sung by many Rishis in various verses and well settled texts, full of reason and indicating Brahma.

The elements, egoism, intellect, Nature, ten senses, the mind, the five objects of senses.

Desire, aversion, pleasure, pain, body consciousness, courage, all these five have been declared to be Kshetra in its modified form.

Purity, constancy, self-restraint, forgiveness, uprightness, absence of vanity, ostentation and egoism, abstention from fear, indifference to objects of senses, perception of misery and evil of birth, death decrepitude and disease.

Freedom from attachinent, absence of love for son, wife, home and the rest and constant equanimity of heart in good and evil.

Unswerving devotion to Me without mediation on anything else, frequenting of lonely places and hatred for concourse of men.

The firin knowledge of the relation between the great Self and the Individual Self, perception of the object of true knowledge, all this is called knowledge; and all that is contrary to this is called Ignorance.

I shall now declare to you that which is the object of knowledge, and knowing which one obtains immortality. It is the Supreme Brahma, having no beginning, and who is neither existent nor non-existent.

(It is the Supreme Brahma) whose hands and feet are on all sides, whose eyes, heads and faces, are on all sides, who hears on all sides, who dwells pervading all in this world;

Who, being devoid of the senses, is possessed of all the qualities of the senses, who sustains all things but has no attachment for any thing, who having no attributes, possesses all attributes,

Who is within and without all creatures, immobile and mobile, who is not knowable, on account of his subtiety, who is remote yet near;

Who, being undistributed in any thing, remain as if distributed in every thing; who is the sustainer of all beings, and the destroyer and the creator of all;

Who is the light of all luminous bodies, who is beyond all darkness; who is knowledge, the object of knowledge and the end of knowledge; who is seated in the hearts of all.

Thus in brief Kshetra, Knowledge, and the object of knowledge are declared to you. Knowing all this, O my friend and devotee, attain to yoga (assimilation with Me).

Know that Prakriti and Purusha are both without beginnings; and know all modifications (of matter) and all qualities (pleasures and pain &c.) spring from Prakriti (Nature).

Prakriti is the source of the workings of cases and effects. Prakriti is the source of the capacity of enjoying pleasures and pains.

Self, dwelling in Nature (having a material body), enjoys the qualities that are born in Nature. The cause of the birth in good or in evil works is its connection with such qualities.

The supreme Purusha in then (human) body is the surveyor, adviser, supporter, and enjoyer; he is the mighty Lord and Supreme Self.

He who thus knows Prakriti and Purusha with the qualities, in whatever state he may be, is never born again.

Some by mediation see the Self in his(own) self by (his own)self by (his own) Self. Some again(see) by Sankhya Yoga and some again by Karma Yoga.

Others again worship Him, hearing of Him from others, although they do not know this (Mystery of Yoga). Even these men, if devoted to what is heard of the true Knowledge, pass over death, (and attain to final emancipation).

O best of the Bharata race, know whatever entity, movable and immovable comes into existence, it is out of the connection of Kshetra and Kshetrajna.

He sees truly who sees the supreme Lord alike in all beings and who sees the Imperishable in the perishable.

For he who sees the Great Lord dwelling alike in every thing and every where, does not destroy himself by himself and thus reaches the highest goal.

He sees truly who sees all actions worked by Nature alone, and self not to be the doer.

When one sees the various entities existing in One, and the birth of every thing from that one, he is then said to attain to Brahma.

This inexhaustible Supreme Self, O son of Kunti, without having beginning and without having attributes, does not act at all. It is in no way stained, even when it remains in (human body).

As space for its subtility and as it is ubiquitous is never tainted, so Self stationed in every body, is never tainted.

As the single sun, O Bharata, lights up all this entire world, so Purusha lights up the entire sphere of matters.

Those who, by the eye of knowledge, know the distinction between Prakriti and Purusha, and the release from the nature of all entities, attain to the Supreme.