BHAGAVAD-GITA 13:6-7

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BHAGAVAD-GITA 13:6-7

 

maha-bhutany ahankaro

buddhir avyaktam eva ca

indriyani dasaikam ca

panca cendriya-gocarah

 

iccha dvesah sukham duhkham

sanghatas cetana dhrtih

etat ksetram samasena

sa-vikaram udahrtam

 

WORD FOR WORD

 

maha-bhutani--the great elements; ahankarah--false ego;

buddhih--intelligence; avyaktam--the unmanifested; eva--certainly;

ca--also; indriyani--the senses; dasa-ekam--eleven; ca--also;

panca--five; ca--also; indriya-go-carah--the objects of the senses;

iccha--desire; dvesah--hatred; sukham--happiness; duhkham--distress;

sanghatah--the aggregate; cetana--living symptoms; dhrtih--conviction;

etat--all this; ksetram--the field of activities; samasena--in

summary; sa-vikaram--with interactions; udahrtam--exemplified.

 

TRANSLATION

 

The five great elements, false ego, intelligence, the unmanifested,

the ten senses and the mind, the five sense objects, desire, hatred,

happiness, distress, the aggregate, the life symptoms, and

convictions--all these are considered, in summary, to be the field of

activities and its interactions.

 

PURPORT

 

>From all the authoritative statements of the great sages, the Vedic

hymns and the aphorisms of the Vedanta-sutra, the components of this

world can be understood as follows. First there are earth, water,

fire, air and ether. These are the five great elements (maha-bhuta).

Then there are false ego, intelligence and the unmanifested stage of

the three modes of nature. Then there are five senses for acquiring

knowledge: the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. Then five working

senses: voice, legs, hands, anus and genitals. Then, above the senses,

there is the mind, which is within and which can be called the sense

within. Therefore, including the mind, there are eleven senses

altogether. Then there are the five objects of the senses: smell,

taste, form, touch and sound. Now the aggregate of these twenty-four

elements is called the field of activity. If one makes an analytical

study of these twenty-four subjects, then he can very well understand

the field of activity. Then there are desire, hatred, happiness and

distress, which are interactions, representations of the five great

elements in the gross body. The living symptoms, represented by

consciousness and conviction, are the manifestation of the subtle

body--mind, ego and intelligence. These subtle elements are included

within the field of activities.

 

The five great elements are a gross representation of the false ego,

which in turn represents the primal stage of false ego technically

called the materialistic conception, or tamasa-buddhi, intelligence in

ignorance. This, further, represents the unmanifested stage of the

three modes of material nature. The unmanifested modes of material

nature are called pradhana.

 

One who desires to know the twenty-four elements in detail along with

their interactions should study the philosophy in more detail. In

Bhagavad-gita, a summary only is given.

 

The body is the representation of all these factors, and there are

changes of the body, which are six in number: the body is born, it

grows, it stays, it produces by-products, then it begins to decay, and

at the last stage it vanishes. Therefore the field is a nonpermanent

material thing. However, the ksetra-jna, the knower of the field, its

proprietor, is different.

 

Copyright 1983 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust International. Used with

permission.