THE NATURE, THE ENJOYER and CONSCIOUSNESS

CHAPTER- 13.

THE NATURE, THE ENJOYER and CONSCIOUSNESS

Arjuna wanted to know from Krishna about the nature, the purusha and the field, knower of the field and knowledge and the object of knowledge.

Krishna explained- This body is called the field and the one who knows this body is called the knower of the field.

I am also the knower in all bodies. To understand this body and its knower is called knowledge and wisdom.

The knowledge of the field of activities and the knower of the activities is well described in various Vedic writings and well presented in Vedanta Sutra.

The field of activities consists of –false ego, intelligence, the unmanifested, the ten senses and the mind, the five senses-objects, desire, hatred, happiness, distress, the aggregate, the life symptoms and the convictions.

Humility, pridelessness, nonviolence, tolerance, simplicity, approaching bonafide spiritual Master, cleanliness, steadiness, self control, renunciation of the objects of sense gratification, absence of false ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age, and disease, detachment, freedom from bondage with children, wife, home and the rest, even mindedness, constant devotion to the Lord, detachment from the general mass of people, accepting the importance of self-realization and the search for absolute truth- all these are the knowledge and the opposites are ignorance.

Now I shall explain about that which ought to be known and the one which one attains the supreme bliss. - The Brahman who is beginning less and endless.

It has hands and feet on all sides, eyes and head and mouth in all directions, and ears all round and pervading the entire universe.

Though perceiving all sense objects, it is really devoid of all senses; it is the sustainer of all-though unattached, it is the enjoyer of all qualities though attributes less.

It exists without and within all beings and constitutes the animate and inanimate creations. In addition, because of its subtlety-it is incomprehensible, nearby yet farther away.

Though integral like space, yet it appears divided in all animate and inanimate beings.

Some perceive the Super soul within themselves through meditation, some others through the cultivation of knowledge and still others through working without fruitlike desires.

One who sees the Super soul accompanying the individual is said to be the light of all lights and entirely beyond Maya. That God is knowledge itself, worth knowing, and worth attaining through real wisdom and is particularly seated in the heart of all.

Prakriti and Purusha both these as beginingless and know that all modifications such as likes etc and all objects constituted of the three Gunas as born of prakriti.

Prakriti is responsible for bringing forth the evolutes and the instruments, while the individual soul is declared the cause of experience of joys and sorrows.

The Spirit dwelling in this body is really the same as the Supreme. He has been spoken of as the Witness, the true guide, the Sustainer of all, the Experiencer, the Over Lord and the Absolute.

He, who thus knows the Purusha and the Prakriti together the Gunas-even though performing his duties in every way, is never born again.

Some realize Me through meditation, others realize me through the knowledge and others realize me through the discipline of action.

Some dull-headed persons try to follow which they have heard from others and worship-they too are able to cross the ocean of existence in the shape of death.

He alone sees who sees all actions being performed in every way by Prakriti alone and the Self as the non-doer.

The indestructible Supreme spirit though dwelling in the body in fact does nothing and not contaminated.

The Self is not affected by the attributes of the body due to its attribute less character.

As the Sun illuminates the entire universe, so one Atma illuminates the whole Kshetra (Field)

Those who perceive with the eye of wisdom the difference between the Kshetra and Kshetrajgna and the phenomenon of liberation from Prakriti with her evolutes, reach the Supreme eternal Spirit

R.Jagannathan.