Bhagavatgita a detailed study chapter13.The field and the knower

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12.jneyam yath thah paravakshyaamiyath jnaathvaa amrtham

aSnuthe

 

anaadhimath param brahmana sath thath na sath uchyathe

 

 

I shall declare that which is to be known, knowing which one attains the

immortality. It is the Supreme Brahman, with no beginning, and is said to be

neither being nor non-being.

 

In the foregoing slokas Krishna was explaining what are the necessary steps to

attain the knowledge of Brahman.. From this sloka he is elaborating on the

Brahman itself

 

 

In Bhagavatgita we always find the highest philosophical concept outlined here

and there which may sound baffling to the ordinary intellect. Krishna was also

aware of it and subsequently starts elucidating.

 

The Supreme Brahman is anadhi as declared by the upanishad, 'sadheva soumya

idhamagra aseeth ekameva adhvitheeyam,(ch.6-6-1) that Being , meaning Brahman,

alone existed in the beginning ,one only without a second.' Also it is said that

by knowing that everything else becomes known.

 

Again it is said in the upanishad 'asath vA idham agra aaseeth;,thathO vai sath

ajaayatha,( Tait.2-7) in the beginning there was non-existence from which the

being came into existence.' Then to say that the Supreme Brahman is neither

sath nor asath seems to be contrary to the Upanishadic declarations, which

themselves sound self contradictory.

 

This has to be examined in the light of the real nature of Brahman outlined in

the Upanihads. It is said 'yathO vaacho nivarthanthe aprapya manasaa saha, both

speech and mind are returning without able to reach the Supreme reality.' That

is, .Brahman cannot be limited by words or thought. This is the meaning of the

phrase 'neither sath nor asath.'

 

There is a term that describes Brahman 'sva abhAva aprthiyogi.' A thing is the

prathiyogi , counter-correlate of its own non-existence. For instance a pot is

the prathiyogi of its non-existence, ghatabhava. Now Brahman being the only one

without a second, there can be no non-existence of it , that is , no sva abhAva

of Brahman. So Brahman cannot be the prathiyogi of its own non-existence. Only

an existent thing can be a prathiyogi of its nonexistence, . hence Brahman is

neither existent nor non-existent.

 

What it really means is that Brahman cannot be proved by any pramana as being

existent as all the pramanas, means of valid existence, have limited scope and

cannot determine something which is not limited by expression. Similarly it

cannot be proved as non-existent since there can be nothing without it.

 

To put this in simple words, to say that something exists, it has to be shown

to exist through some valid means of cognition. There are four valid means of

cognition, namely, perception, inference, comparison and verbal testimony.

Perception or prthyaksha is what is understood by sense contact. The sense

objects are seen, heard, smelt, tasted and touched. But the Brahman could not be

cognized by the senses because it is beyond sense cognition, atheendhriyam.

 

Next comes inference. We understand fire by means of the smoke. The smoke is

perceived and the fire is inferred. Even this does not hold good in case of

Brahman as there is no perceptible sign like smoke through which Brahman could

be inferred.

 

The comparison serves as a means of cognition when we describe a thing by saying

it resembles something else. It means explaining something unknown by means of

something known as a comparison. But there is nothing like Brahman and the

comparison fails to serve as a means of cognition.

 

Lastly the verbal testimony is something which is understood from verbal

description. Vedas are the only testimony for Brahman but they only serve as

guidelines..

 

There are two kinds of lakshaNa .definition. svaroopalakshaNam is the definition

of the characteristics .Brahman is defined as sathyam jnanam anantham, existence

, knowledge and infinity. But here is a difference between existence and

existent. A thing is said to be existent, the existence of which is limited to

that alone. But existence as such is all pervading and that is Brahman.

Similarly knowledge means the knowledge of something but the Brahman is that

knowledge by which everything else is known. Anantham , infinity means not

limited by time, like saying a thing exists today and did not exist yesterday,

by entity, like saying that this is a pot and not a cloth, and by place, like

saying the pot is here and not there. Brahman is dhesakaalavasthu aparichinnam,

not conditioned by place, time and entity. Hence Brahman cannot be limited by

any description through words.

 

thatasTha lakshaNa on the other hand means indicative definition such as

pointing out to a field where a crane is seen sitting and saying that it is the

field of Devadatta. The definition of Brahman given in the Vedas as yatho vaa

imaani bhoothaani jaayanthe, yena jaathaani jeevanthi yasmin abhisamviSanthi,

meaning, Brahman is that from which all beings come out ,by which they are

sustained and into which they merge back, is thathatasTha lakshana.

 

Brahman cannot be called asath, because there is no such thing as non existence

of Brahman which is anantha, and everything else exists because of Brahman.

 

In the subsequent slokas Krishna explains the implications of the above slok

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The

last topic, namely the discrimination between the Self and the Prkrthi was

elaborated in the slokas 26 to 30.

The

discourse on kshethra and kshethrajna is concluded with a definition and

description of the nature of Brahman in the following slokas.

 

31.anaadhithvaath nrguNathvaath paramaathmaa

ayam

avyayaH

 

SareerasTho api kountheya na karothi na lipyathe

 

 

The

SupremeSelf, who has no beginning, no guNas and who is immutable, dose not do

anything nor affected by any action even though He dwells

in the body.

 

32.yaThaa sarvagatham sokshmyaath aakaaSo

na upalipyathe

 

Sarvathra cha sThitho dhehe thaThaathmaa na upalipyathe

 

Just

as the sky is not contaminated by the things that are in it because of its

subtlety, so too the Self, though dwelling in the body , is not affected by

the actions of the body.

 

33. yaThaa prakaasayathi ekaH

krthsnam lokam imam raviH

 

Ksethram kshethree thaThaa krthsnam prakaaSayathi

Bhaaratha

 

Just

as the one Sun illumines the whole world, the Self, the kshethree or kshethrajna illumines the whole kshethra, the non-self.

 

 

The

supreme self , though dwelling in the body, is immutable, avyaya,, and beginningless. anaadhi.

Since it is without gunas, nirguNa,

it neither acts nor affected by the action. Krishna

gives two examples to illustrate how the self though dwelling in the body is

not affected by the actions of the body which are caused by the gunas.

 

1.

yaThaa sarvagatham soukshmyaath aakaaSam

nopalipythe'- The space is everywhere but being the subtlest it is not affected by the things that are in it and

connected with it. Similarly the Self is not affected by the body and its

actions.

 

2.yaTHaa

prakaaSayathi ekaH krthsnam lokam imam raviH- The Sun illuminates the whole

world. Similarly the Self illumines the whole field, that is, the body.

 

The

Lord who is the Self of all is the Sareeri or kshethrajna, as he says, kshethrajnam chaapi maam vidDhi

sarvakshethreshu, in sloka 2 of this chapter. The whole universe of the

sentient and the insentient is His

sareera or kshethra. This is according to the visishtadvaita doctrine.

According to advaita of course, the

world is an illusion and hence the Self which is identical to Brahman is not

affected by it.

 

Visishtadvaita concept is criticized by the opponents that

if the universe is the sareera of the Lord then he should be affected by the

modifications and the impurities of the sareera should adhere to Him. Ramanuja

answers in His Sribhashya that just as the self is not affected by the body and

its actions the Supreme Self is also not affected by its body which is the

universe. The examples given above illustrate this.

 

The

space is in everything and out of everything. But it is not contaminated by the

impurities or the modifications of the things in it. So too the Lord who is

inside and outside all beings is not affected by the impurities and the

modifications of the beings.

 

The

Sun even though He is seen only n one place and is one only, illuminates the

whole universe. So too, the Lord who is one only without a second and who is

the source of light of even the Sun pervades the whole world with His light by

which alone all actions are possible by all beings. But Just as the Sun is not

affected by the actions that happen in his light the Lord is not affected by

the actions of all beings.

 

34. kshethrakshethrajnyoH ethath

antharam

Jnaanachakshushaa

 

Bhoothaprakrthimoksham cha vidhuH yaanthi the param

 

 

Thus

knowing the difference between the kshethra and the kshethrajna through the

eyes of jnana, they who has the knowledge are freed from the bondage due to

prakrthi and its creations and attain moksha the supreme goal.

 

 

Thus

endowed with the knowledge of the Self, and the difference between the

non-self, kshethra and the knower, kshethrajna, one becomes free of bondage and

attaining the Supreme and the means of attainment is cultivation of the attributes like amanithvam

, adhambithvam etc. mentioned at the outset.