The Lord said,
" O son of Kunti, this body is a terrain known as 'Kshetra' The one who knows it is called the 'Kshetrajnya' : the knower of the terrain. This is how the learned ones have used the terms 'Kshetra' and 'Kshetrajnya'.
Understand me. I am the knower. I know the terrain-the 'Kshetra' which is the body. The knowledge of the relationship between Kshetra and Kshetrajnya is the true knowledge according to me.
Which is the Kshetra? What is its nature? What are its volatile attributes? Where is its source?
Who is that Kshetrajnya? What is his power? I will tell you all about these things in a concise way.
Sages have composed innumerable lyrics in rhyme and meter which reflect the intuitive knowledge of the nature of the relationship between Kshetra and Kshetrajnya. The aphorisms about Brahma are threaded together by means of metaphors to throw light on the enigma of the relationship between Kshetra and Kshetrajnya.
The five subtle elements of nature, the awareness of existence as self ('Ahankar') , intellect, the ten organs of knowledge, the unmanifest, one mind and the ten kinds of objects which are known to the organs of knowledge, the compounded impact of desire, aversion,joy, sorrow, consciousness, and symbiosis (Dhruti) : these are the volatile attributes of this thing called Kshetra. This is how the Kshetra is specified in essence.
Not aspiring to positions of power, absence of vanity, not causing pain to any being, not being prone to anger, offering service to your teacher, cleanliness of the mind and the body, steadiness of mind, and complete control over the mind, total withdrawal from the voluptuous aspects of the objects of senses, absence of egoism, reflecting on the pain involved in birth, death, aging, sickness, sorrow, a general lack of interest in the objects of sensual pleasure, no specific involvement for one's children and wife and home, a balance of mind, indifference to favorable and adverse conditions, merging with me completely, preference for solitary surroundings, not choosing to live too often with crowd, realization of the permanence of of the knowledge of the Self, absorbing the essence of the knowledge gained in this way :
this in totality is what is called knowledge. Everything else is ignorance.
So far I spoke to you about what is considered to be knowledge. Now I shall tell you about what should be the object of inquiry. When you know the ultimate of all that can be known, you will be in possession of the nectar, the ultimate elixir of life. It is that Brahma which has neither beginning nor end. It neither exists nor does it not exist.
The Ultimate (Brahma) which you want to know is all pervasive. How? It has infinite number of hands spread in every imaginable quarter of the universe. Everything happens because of that all-pervasive energy. This (Brahma) has legs which support the entire edifice of the universe. It has no physical eye which we can see. Yet it can see everything. Because of the energy present in that spiritual eye, there is the potentiality of seeing. The same holds true of its spiritual attributes which function as head, ears, and mouth All that we perform in our physical body, with our bodily organs, even our thoughts, whether uttered or not uttered are stored recorded in the Universal Mind. It is that Brahma, the Universal mind-power, the spiritual energy which lives our existence and withdraws it into itself after its time on earth is over. It is everything and it seems to be nothing to our ignorant mind.
In mathematics, we have to take help of a circle to say this is zero, nothing. Even when we conceive of zero as nothing, we have to draw a circle to convey its meaning. Shunya, or zero is not nothingness or emptiness. It is the presence of life in the utmost , measureless quantity. It is not a symbol of lack or absence. It is a symbol of existence in accentuated way, in a powerful way. It is the presence of life abundant.
Think of the spirit that dwells in the body. Think of the spirit as the object of enquiry. We feel its existence in and through the senses, the mind, the intellect and the consciousness beyond them all.
Yet the spirit is all these things and distinct from these things.
In the same way, the Universal Consciousness ( Brahma ) pervades everything in the universe and yet it is distinct from everything. It has neither an inclination to act nor does it have a conceivable form . It pulsates through everything and propels everything, but it remains aloof from everything.
Because of our extreme dependence on the body and the bodily attributes (which is the only thing we experience, we regard the body and its functional and abstract organs like the mind and the intellect to be the end of the spectrum of knowledge. We, in the first place do not know that there is something waiting to be known beyond the physical world.
" O son of Kunti, this body is a terrain known as 'Kshetra' The one who knows it is called the 'Kshetrajnya' : the knower of the terrain. This is how the learned ones have used the terms 'Kshetra' and 'Kshetrajnya'.
Understand me. I am the knower. I know the terrain-the 'Kshetra' which is the body. The knowledge of the relationship between Kshetra and Kshetrajnya is the true knowledge according to me.
Which is the Kshetra? What is its nature? What are its volatile attributes? Where is its source?
Who is that Kshetrajnya? What is his power? I will tell you all about these things in a concise way.
Sages have composed innumerable lyrics in rhyme and meter which reflect the intuitive knowledge of the nature of the relationship between Kshetra and Kshetrajnya. The aphorisms about Brahma are threaded together by means of metaphors to throw light on the enigma of the relationship between Kshetra and Kshetrajnya.
The five subtle elements of nature, the awareness of existence as self ('Ahankar') , intellect, the ten organs of knowledge, the unmanifest, one mind and the ten kinds of objects which are known to the organs of knowledge, the compounded impact of desire, aversion,joy, sorrow, consciousness, and symbiosis (Dhruti) : these are the volatile attributes of this thing called Kshetra. This is how the Kshetra is specified in essence.
Not aspiring to positions of power, absence of vanity, not causing pain to any being, not being prone to anger, offering service to your teacher, cleanliness of the mind and the body, steadiness of mind, and complete control over the mind, total withdrawal from the voluptuous aspects of the objects of senses, absence of egoism, reflecting on the pain involved in birth, death, aging, sickness, sorrow, a general lack of interest in the objects of sensual pleasure, no specific involvement for one's children and wife and home, a balance of mind, indifference to favorable and adverse conditions, merging with me completely, preference for solitary surroundings, not choosing to live too often with crowd, realization of the permanence of of the knowledge of the Self, absorbing the essence of the knowledge gained in this way :
this in totality is what is called knowledge. Everything else is ignorance.
So far I spoke to you about what is considered to be knowledge. Now I shall tell you about what should be the object of inquiry. When you know the ultimate of all that can be known, you will be in possession of the nectar, the ultimate elixir of life. It is that Brahma which has neither beginning nor end. It neither exists nor does it not exist.
The Ultimate (Brahma) which you want to know is all pervasive. How? It has infinite number of hands spread in every imaginable quarter of the universe. Everything happens because of that all-pervasive energy. This (Brahma) has legs which support the entire edifice of the universe. It has no physical eye which we can see. Yet it can see everything. Because of the energy present in that spiritual eye, there is the potentiality of seeing. The same holds true of its spiritual attributes which function as head, ears, and mouth All that we perform in our physical body, with our bodily organs, even our thoughts, whether uttered or not uttered are stored recorded in the Universal Mind. It is that Brahma, the Universal mind-power, the spiritual energy which lives our existence and withdraws it into itself after its time on earth is over. It is everything and it seems to be nothing to our ignorant mind.
In mathematics, we have to take help of a circle to say this is zero, nothing. Even when we conceive of zero as nothing, we have to draw a circle to convey its meaning. Shunya, or zero is not nothingness or emptiness. It is the presence of life in the utmost , measureless quantity. It is not a symbol of lack or absence. It is a symbol of existence in accentuated way, in a powerful way. It is the presence of life abundant.
Think of the spirit that dwells in the body. Think of the spirit as the object of enquiry. We feel its existence in and through the senses, the mind, the intellect and the consciousness beyond them all.
Yet the spirit is all these things and distinct from these things.
In the same way, the Universal Consciousness ( Brahma ) pervades everything in the universe and yet it is distinct from everything. It has neither an inclination to act nor does it have a conceivable form . It pulsates through everything and propels everything, but it remains aloof from everything.
Because of our extreme dependence on the body and the bodily attributes (which is the only thing we experience, we regard the body and its functional and abstract organs like the mind and the intellect to be the end of the spectrum of knowledge. We, in the first place do not know that there is something waiting to be known beyond the physical world.
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