SECTION XXXVII
[(Bhagavad Gita, Chapter XIII)]
"The Holy One said, 'This body, O son of Kunti, is called Kshetra. Him
who knoweth it, the learned call Kshetrajna.[260] Know me, O Bharata, to
be Kshetras. The knowledge of Kshetra and Kshetrajna I regard to be
(true) knowledge. What that Kshetra (is), and what (it is) like, and what
changes it undergoes, and whence (it comes), what is he (viz.,
Kshetrajna), and what his powers are, hear from me in brief. All this
hath in many ways been sung separately, by Rishis in various verses, in
well-settled texts fraught with reason and giving indications of Brahman.
The great elements, egoism, intellect, the unmanifest (viz., Prakriti),
also the ten senses, the one (manas), the five objects of sense, desire,
aversion, pleasure, pain, body consciousness, courage,--all this in brief
hath been declared to be Kshetra in its modified form. Absence of vanity,
absence of ostentation, abstention from injury, forgiveness, uprightness,
devotion to preceptor, purity, constancy, self-restraint, indifference to
objects of sense, absence of egoism, perception of the misery and evil of
birth, death, decrepitude and disease,[261] freedom from attachment,
absence of sympathy for son, wife, home, and the rest, and constant
equanimity of heart on attainment of good and evil, unswerving devotion
to me without meditation on anything else, frequenting of lonely places,
distaste for concourse of men,[262] constancy in the knowledge of the
relation of the individual self to the supreme, perception of the object
of the knowledge of truth,--all this is called Knowledge; all that which
is contrary to this is Ignorance.[263] That which is the object of
knowledge I will (now) declare (to thee), knowing which one obtaineth
immortality. [It is] the Supreme Brahma having no beginning, who is said
to be neither existent nor non-existent; whose hands and feet are on all
sides, whose eyes, heads and faces are on all sides, who dwells pervading
everything in the world, who is possessed of all the qualities of the
senses (though) devoid of the senses, without attachment (yet) sustaining
all things, without attributes (yet) enjoying (a) all attributes,[264]
without and within all creatures, immobile and mobile, not knowable
because of (his) subtlety, remote yet near, undistributed in all beings,
(yet) remaining as if distributed, who is the sustainer of (all) beings,
the absorber and the creator (of all); who is the light of all luminous
bodies, who is said to be beyond all darkness; who is knowledge, the
Object of knowledge, the End of knowledge and seated in the hearts of
all. Thus Kshetra, and Knowledge, and the Object of Knowledge, have been
declared (to thee) in brief. My devotee, knowing (all) this, becomes one
in spirit with me. Know that Nature and Spirit are both without beginning
(and) know (also) that all modifications and all qualities spring from
Nature.[265] Nature is said to be the source of the capacity of enjoying
pleasures and pains.[266] For Spirit, dwelling in nature enjoyeth the
qualities born of Nature. The cause of its births in good or evil wombs
is (its) connection with the qualities.[267] The Supreme Purusha in this
body is said to be surveyor, approver, supporter, enjoyer, the mighty
lord, and also the Supreme Soul.[268] He who thus knows Spirit, and
Nature, with the qualities, in whatever state he may be, is never born
again. Some by meditation behold the self in the self by the self; others
by devotion according to the Sankhya system; and others (again), by
devotion through works. Others yet not knowing this, worship, hearing of
it from others. Even these, devoted to what is heard, cross over
death.[269] Whatever entity, immobile or mobile, cometh into existence,
know that, O bull of Bharata's race, to be from the connection of Kshetra
and Kshetrajna (matter and spirit). He seeth the Supreme Lord dwelling
alike in all beings, the Imperishable in the Perishable. For seeing the
Lord dwelling alike everywhere, one doth not destroy[270] himself by
himself, and then reacheth the highest goal. He seeth (truly) who seeth
all actions to be wrought by nature alone in every way and the self
likewise to be not the doer. When one seeth the diversity of entities as
existing in one, and the issue (everything) from that (One), then is one
said to attain to Brahma. This inexhaustible Supreme Self, O son of
Kunti, being without beginning and without attributes, doth not act, nor
is stained even when stationed in the body. As space, which is
ubiquitous, is never, in consequence of its subtlety tainted, so the
soul, stationed in every body, is never tainted.[271] As the single Sun
lights up the entire world, so the Spirit, O Bharata, lights up the
entire (sphere of) matters. They that, by the eye of knowledge, know the
distinction between matter and spirit, and the deliverance from the
nature of all entities, attain to the Supreme.[272]
--------------------END OF PARVA 6 : UPA-PARVA 37 ---------------------
