The Field and Who Knows It

प्रकृतिं पुरुषं चैव क्षेत्रं क्षेत्रज्ञमेव च ।
एतद्वेदितुमिच्छामि ज्ञानं ज्ञेयं च केशव ॥1॥

Arjuna said: Nature and spirit, the field and the knower of the field, knowledge and what is to be known: all this I want to understand, Keshava.

इदं शरीरं कौन्तेय क्षेत्रमित्यभिधीयते ।
एतद्यो वेत्ति तं प्राहुः क्षेत्रज्ञ इति तद्विदः ॥2॥

The Lord said: This body, Kaunteya, is called the field; and the one who knows it, those who know call the knower of the field.

क्षेत्रज्ञं चापि मां विद्धि सर्वक्षेत्रेषु भारत ।
क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञयोर्ज्ञानं यत्तज्ज्ञानं मतं मम ॥3॥

Know me as the knower of the field in every field, Bharata. Knowledge of the field and its knower is, in my view, knowledge indeed.

तत्क्षेत्रं यच्च यादृक्च यद्विकारि यतश्च यत् ।
स च यो यत्प्रभावश्च तत्समासेन मे शृणु ॥4॥

What that field is, what it is like, how it changes and where it comes from; and who he is and what his power is: hear all this from me in brief.

ऋषिभिर्बहुधा गीतं छन्दोभिर्विविधैः पृथक् ।
ब्रह्मसूत्रपदैश्चैव हेतुमद्भिर्विनिश्चितैः ॥5॥

The seers have sung of it in many ways, in different metres, and it is set out too in the reasoned and settled words of the aphorisms on Brahman.

महाभूतान्यहङ्कारो बुद्धिरव्यक्तमेव च ।
इन्द्रियाणि दशैकं च पञ्च चेन्द्रियगोचराः ॥6॥

The five great elements, the sense of "I", the understanding, the unmanifest, the ten senses and the one mind, and the five fields of sense;

इच्छा द्वेषः सुखं दुःखं सङ्घातश्चेतना धृतिः ।
एतत्क्षेत्रं समासेन सविकारमुदाहृतम् ॥7॥

wanting, hating, pleasure, pain, the body as an assembled whole, awareness and steadiness: this, with its changes, is the field described in brief.

अमानित्वमदम्भित्वमहिंसा क्षान्तिरार्जवम् ।
आचार्योपासनं शौचं स्थैर्यमात्मविनिग्रहः ॥8॥

Not thinking much of oneself, not putting on a show, not harming, patience, straightness, serving one's teacher, cleanliness, steadiness, self-control;

इन्द्रियार्थेषु वैराग्यमनहङ्कार एव च ।
जन्ममृत्युजराव्याधिदुःखदोषानुदर्शनम् ॥9॥

turning away from what the senses want, absence of ego, and seeing again and again the pain in birth, death, age and illness;

असक्तिरनभिष्वङ्गः पुत्रदारगृहादिषु ।
नित्यं च समचित्तत्वमिष्टानिष्टोपपत्तिषु ॥10॥

not clinging, not being wrapped up in son and wife and home, and keeping an even mind through whatever comes, wanted or unwanted;

मयि चानन्ययोगेन भक्तिरव्यभिचारिणी ।
विविक्तदेशसेवित्वमरतिर्जनसंसदि ॥11॥

unswerving devotion to me with an undivided practice, keeping to quiet places, no taste for crowds;

अध्यात्मज्ञाननित्यत्वं तत्त्वज्ञानार्थदर्शनम् ।
एतज्ज्ञानमिति प्रोक्तमज्ञानं यदतोऽन्यथा ॥12॥

staying with knowledge of the self and looking to the point of knowing the truth: this is called knowledge. What runs contrary to it is ignorance.

ज्ञेयं यत्तत्प्रवक्ष्यामि यज्ज्ञात्वामृतमश्नुते ।
अनादिमत्परं ब्रह्म न सत्तन्नासदुच्यते ॥13॥

I will tell you what is to be known, knowing which one reaches what does not die. It is the highest Brahman, without beginning, of which it is said neither that it is nor that it is not.

सर्वतः पाणिपादं तत्सर्वतोऽक्षिशिरोमुखम् ।
सर्वतः श्रुतिमल्लोके सर्वमावृत्य तिष्ठति ॥14॥

Its hands and feet are everywhere, its eyes and heads and faces everywhere, its ears everywhere; it stands covering everything in the world.

सर्वेन्द्रियगुणाभासं सर्वेन्द्रियविवर्जितम् ।
असक्तं सर्वभृच्चैव निर्गुणं गुणभोक्तृ च ॥15॥

It appears to have the qualities of all the senses, and yet is without any sense at all; unattached, and yet carrying everything; free of the qualities, and yet enjoying them.

बहिरन्तश्च भूतानामचरं चरमेव च ।
सूक्ष्मत्वात्तदविज्ञेयं दूरस्थं चान्तिके च तत् ॥16॥

It is outside beings and inside them, unmoving and moving too. Being so fine, it is not known; it is far away and it is near.

अविभक्तं च भूतेषु विभक्तमिव च स्थितम् ।
भूतभर्तृ च तज्ज्ञेयं ग्रसिष्णु प्रभविष्णु च ॥17॥

Undivided among beings, it stands as though divided. It is to be known as what upholds beings, and what swallows them up, and what brings them forth.

ज्योतिषामपि तज्ज्योतिस्तमसः परमुच्यते ।
ज्ञानं ज्ञेयं ज्ञानगम्यं हृदि सर्वस्य विष्ठितम् ॥18॥

It is the light of lights, said to be beyond the dark. It is knowledge, what is to be known and what knowledge reaches; it is seated in the heart of everyone.

इति क्षेत्रं तथा ज्ञानं ज्ञेयं चोक्तं समासतः ।
मद्भक्त एतद्विज्ञाय मद्भावायोपपद्यते ॥19॥

So the field, and knowledge, and what is to be known, have been told in brief. One devoted to me, understanding this, becomes fit for my being.

प्रकृतिं पुरुषं चैव विद्ध्यनादी उभावपि ।
विकारांश्च गुणांश्चैव विद्धि प्रकृतिसम्भवान् ॥20॥

Know that both nature and spirit are without beginning; and know that the changes and the qualities arise from nature.

Variant reading: कार्यकरणकर्तृत्वे (शंकराचार्य के पाठ में)

कार्यकारणकर्तृत्वे हेतुः प्रकृतिरुच्यते ।
पुरुषः सुखदुःखानां भोक्तृत्वे हेतुरुच्यते ॥21॥

Nature is said to be the cause in the matter of effect, instrument and doing; the spirit is said to be the cause in the experiencing of pleasure and pain.

पुरुषः प्रकृतिस्थो हि भुङ्क्ते प्रकृतिजान्गुणान् ।
कारणं गुणसङ्गोऽस्य सदसद्योनिजन्मसु ॥22॥

The spirit, seated in nature, experiences the qualities born of nature; and its clinging to those qualities is why it is born in this womb or that, high or low.

उपद्रष्टानुमन्ता च भर्ता भोक्ता महेश्वरः ।
परमात्मेति चाप्युक्तो देहेऽस्मिन्पुरुषः परः ॥23॥

The higher spirit in this body is called the onlooker, the one who consents, the upholder, the experiencer, the great lord, and the highest self.

य एवं वेत्ति पुरुषं प्रकृतिं च गुणैः सह ।
सर्वथा वर्तमानोऽपि न स भूयोऽभिजायते ॥24॥

One who knows the spirit and nature with its qualities in this way is not born again, however he may be living now.

ध्यानेनात्मनि पश्यन्ति केचिदात्मानमात्मना ।
अन्ये साङ्ख्येन योगेन कर्मयोगेन चापरे ॥25॥

Some see the self in themselves by themselves, through meditation; others through reasoning, and others through the practice of action.

अन्ये त्वेवमजानन्तः श्रुत्वान्येभ्य उपासते ।
तेऽपि चातितरन्त्येव मृत्युं श्रुतिपरायणाः ॥26॥

Others, not knowing it this way, worship having heard it from others; and they too, holding to what they have heard, cross beyond death.

यावत्सञ्जायते किञ्चित्सत्त्वं स्थावरजङ्गमम् ।
क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञसंयोगात्तद्विद्धि भरतर्षभ ॥27॥

Whatever comes into being, moving or unmoving, know that it arises from the joining of the field and the knower of the field, best of the Bharatas.

समं सर्वेषु भूतेषु तिष्ठन्तं परमेश्वरम् ।
विनश्यत्स्वविनश्यन्तं यः पश्यति स पश्यति ॥28॥

One who sees the highest lord standing the same in all beings, unperishing among the perishing, sees indeed.

समं पश्यन्हि सर्वत्र समवस्थितमीश्वरम् ।
न हिनस्त्यात्मनात्मानं ततो याति परां गतिम् ॥29॥

Seeing the lord present equally everywhere, he does not injure himself by himself, and so he reaches the highest goal.

प्रकृत्यैव च कर्माणि क्रियमाणानि सर्वशः ।
यः पश्यति तथात्मानमकर्तारं स पश्यति ॥30॥

One who sees that it is nature that does all the work, and that the self does nothing, sees indeed.

यदा भूतपृथग्भावमेकस्थमनुपश्यति ।
तत एव च विस्तारं ब्रह्म सम्पद्यते तदा ॥31॥

When he sees that the separate states of beings rest in one, and that their spreading out comes from that alone, then he reaches Brahman.

अनादित्वान्निर्गुणत्वात्परमात्मायमव्ययः ।
शरीरस्थोऽपि कौन्तेय न करोति न लिप्यते ॥32॥

Being without beginning and beyond the qualities, this unfading highest self neither acts nor is stained, Kaunteya, even while seated in the body.

यथा सर्वगतं सौक्ष्म्यादाकाशं नोपलिप्यते ।
सर्वत्रावस्थितो देहे तथात्मा नोपलिप्यते ॥33॥

As space, which reaches everywhere, is too fine to be stained, so the self, present throughout the body, is not stained.

यथा प्रकाशयत्येकः कृत्स्नं लोकमिमं रविः ।
क्षेत्रं क्षेत्री तथा कृत्स्नं प्रकाशयति भारत ॥34॥

As a single sun lights up this whole world, Bharata, so the owner of the field lights up the whole field.

क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञयोरेवमन्तरं ज्ञानचक्षुषा ।
भूतप्रकृतिमोक्षं च ये विदुर्यान्ति ते परम् ॥35॥

Those who know, with the eye of knowledge, this difference between the field and its knower, and know how beings are freed from nature, reach the highest.