Matter and Spirit

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Bhagavad Gita

 

XIII. MATTER AND SPIRIT (Kshetra Kshetrajna Vibhaga Yoga)

 

THE BLESSED LORD SAID:

 

1. This, the body, O son of Kunti, is called Kshetra; him who knows

it, they who know of them call Kshetrajna.

 

2. And do thou also know Me as Kshetrajna in all Kshetras, O Bharata.

The knowledge of Kshetra and Kshetrajna is deemed by Me as the

knowledge.

 

3. And what that Kshetra is and of what nature and what its changes;

and whence is what; and who He is and what His powers; this hear thou

briefly from Me.

 

4. Sung by sages, in many ways and distinctly, in various hymns, as

also in the suggestive words about Brahman, full of reasoning and

decisive.

 

5. The Great Elements, Egoism, Reason, as also the Unmanifested, the

ten senses and one and the five objects of the senses.

 

6. Desire, hatred, pleasure, pain, the aggregate, intelligence,

courage - the Kshetra has been thus briefly described with its

modifications.

 

7. Humility, modesty, innocence, patience, uprightness, service of

the teacher, purity, stead-fastness, self-control;

 

8. Absence of attachment for objects of the senses and also absence

of egoism; perception of evil in birth, death and old age, in

sickness and pain;

 

9. Un-attachment, absence of affection for son, wife, home and the

like and constant equanimity on the attainment of the desirable and

the undesirable;

 

10. Unflinching devotion to Me in Yoga of non-separation, resort to

solitary places, distaste for the society of men;

 

11. Constancy in Self-knowledge, perception of the end of the

knowledge of truth. This is declared to be knowledge and what is

opposed to it is ignorance.

 

12. That which has to be known I shall describe; knowing which one

attains the Immortal. Beginningless is the Supreme Brahman. It is not

said to be 'sat' or 'asat'.

 

13. With hands and feet everywhere, with eyes and heads and mouths

everywhere, with hearing everywhere, That exists enveloping all.

 

14. Shining by the function of all the senses, (yet) without the

senses; unattached, yet supporting all; devoid of qualities.

 

15. Without and within (all) beings; the unmoving as also the moving.

Because subtle, That is incomprehensible; and near and far away is

That.

 

16. And undivided, yet remaining divided as it were in beings;

supporter of beings, too is That, the Knowable; devouring, yet

generating.

 

17. The Light even of lights, That is said to be beyond darkness.

Knowledge, the Knowable, the Goal of knowledge, (It) is implanted in

the heart of every one.

 

18. Thus the Kshetra, as well as knowledge and the Knowable, have

been briefly set forth. My devotee, on knowing this, is fitted for My

state.

 

19. Know thou that Prakriti as well as Purusha are both

beginningless; and know thou also that all forms and qualities are

born of Prakriti.

 

20. As the producer of the effect and the instruments, Prakriti is

said to be the cause; as experiencing pleasure and pain, Purusha is

said to be the cause.

 

21. Purusha, when seated in Prakriti, experiences the qualities born

of Prakriti. Attachment to the qualities is the cause of his birth in

good and evil wombs.

 

22. Spectator and Permitter, Supporter, Enjoyer, the Great Lord and

also spoken of as the Supreme Self, (is) the Purusha Supreme in this

body.

 

23. He who thus knows Purusha and Prakriti together with qualities,

whatever his conduct, he is not born again.

 

24. By meditation some behold the Self in the self by the self others

by Sankhya Yoga and others by Karma Yoga.

 

25. Yet others, not knowing thus, worship, having heard from others;

they, too, cross beyond death, adhering to what they heard.

 

26. Whatever being is born, the unmoving or the moving, know thou, O

best of the Bharatas, that to be owing to the union of Kshetra and

Kshetrajna.

 

27. He sees who sees the Supreme Lord, remaining the same in all

beings, the undying in the dying.

 

28. Because he who sees the Lord, seated the same everywhere,

destroys not the self by the self, therefore he reaches the Supreme

Goal.

 

29. He sees, who sees all actions performed by Prakriti alone and the

Self not acting.

 

30. When a man realises the whole variety of beings as resting in the

One and is an evolution from that (One) alone, then he becomes

Brahman.

 

31. Having no beginning, having no qualities, this Supreme Self,

imperishable, though dwelling in the Body, O son of Kunti, neither

acts nor is tainted.

 

32. As the all-pervading Akasa is, from its subtlety, never soiled,

so the Self seated in the body everywhere is not soiled.

 

33. As the one sun illumines all this world, so does the embodied

One, O Bharata, illumines all bodies.

 

34. They who by the eye of wisdom perceive the distinction between

Kshetra and Kshetrajna and the dissolution of the Cause of beings -

they go to the Supreme.