THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER NUMBER 13
VERSE NUMBER 13
KSHETRA KSHETRAJNA VIBHAGA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE DISCRIMINATION OF THE KSHETRA AND THE KSHETRAJNA:
TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION:
sarvatah paanipaadam tat sarvato ‘kshisiromukham
sarvatah srutimal loke sarvam aavrrtya tishthati
SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH:
Sarvatah = everywhere: paani paadam = with hands and feet: tat = that: sarvatah = everywhere: akshi sirah mukham with eyes, head and mouth: sarvatah = everywhere: srutimat = with ears: loke = in the world: sarvam = all: aavrrtya = having enveloped: tishtthati = exists.
TEXT IN ENGLISH:
With hands and feet everywhere, with eyes and heads and mouths everywhere, with ears everywhere—He exists enveloping all.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
A river assumes the characteristics of the sea as it flows to its proximity. Before the Jivatman merges into the Nirguna Brahman he gets a panoramic view and realization of Iswara. While the multitudinous beings seem to have their own individualities, they are actually part and parcel of the pale of Iswara. One Supreme Purusha puts on the role of the innumerable.
SRIMAT SWAMI RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHAMSA AS QUOTED BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
As long as there is a trace of egoism in me, I see Iswara as the Owner of the universe and all the beings in it.
COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:
As the one subject of all objects of experience, He is said to envelop all and have hands and feet, ears and eyes everywhere. Without the seeing Light, there is no experience at all. As the Supreme has the two aspects. The one of transcendence and detachment and the other of immanence in each particular union with the not-self. It is described in a series of paradoxes. He is without and within, unmoving and moving, far away and near, undivided and yet divided. Mahabharata says that when the self is associated with the modes of nature, it is called kshetrajna; when it is released from these it is called the paramaatman or the Supreme Self.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:
He (the knower of the field or Para Brahman) pervades everything in this world. He fills and surrounds this world with Himself. He abides in the universe enveloping everything.
In the previous verse, it is said that the Brahman Which is to be known is neither being nor non-being. One may think that It is non-entity or void or nothing. In order to remove this misapprehension, the Lord says in this verse that the knowable has hands and feet everywhere, etc. It directs the mind and the senses to do their proper functions. This is only the manifest aspect of Saguna Brahman (Brahman with attributes).
Just as the engine-driver drives the engine, so also the knowable or the knower of the field, drives the body-engine. It is the Inner Ruler. It is the innermost Self. It is the support, substratum or basis for this world, body, mind, life-force and the senses. The existence of Brahman is determined or ascertained or indicated by the existence of the limiting adjuncts, viz., body, mind and senses, because there must be self-consciousness behind their activities. How can you call It non-existence then?
Just as the rope is not affected by the qualities or the defects of the illusory superimposed snake, so also Para Brahman (the knower of the field) is not affected by the superimposed world, body, senses, mind and the life-force. There is only one common consciousness in all beings or bodies. That common consciousness is eternal, self-luminous and all-pervading. That common consciousness is Para Brahman. The body, mind, senses and the life-force are by nature insentient. But they are moved by Brahman to action. They act on account of the mere presence of Brahman or the knower of the field. (The limiting adjuncts are illusory.) Hence they put on the semblance of consciousness, just as the iron piece puts on the semblance of a magnet when it is in the presence of a magnet.
The whole world is superimposed on Brahman like the snake on the rope. This is called Adhyaropa. It is sublated by the method (Yukti) of Apavada (negations or denial).
This verse is taken from the Svetasvataropanishad 3.16.
Comments by the blogger:
The present verse or sloka is, in a way, answer to the previous one. In 13.12 Sri Bhagavan stated the Supreme Brahman is beginning-less and it is not said to be ‘sat’ or ‘asat’. But in this sloka or verse, the Lord seems to be making a U-Turn and say that He occupies all here quite pervasively. These two slokas or verses should be read jointly as they are complementary to each other.
The Brahman has hands and feet everywhere; so all the activities are churn out by Him only. Only His activities are carried out through all the kshetras. We the human beings, of course, have a say or choice in how we would conduct ourselves. That is the obverse of the coin of each action by the human beings; but on the reverse, the Lord’s actions are ever carried out in this world. These two sides of actions mostly emanate from the Lord only. Our choice is there. We should not forget that. This is how the Creator has created human beings. The animals have no personal choice. They have their instincts and they can’t think for themselves. But we can think and our mind has a fair amount of choice to think as we select. But even by exercising our individual choice when we indulge in actions, those too should be understood as that of God’s. Because His hands are everywhere in this Universe. Even insentient planets behave as per His will.
The Lord has eyes everywhere; we cannot do anything outside the knowledge of the Brahman. So much so that every action is said to be that of Brahman only. God’s knowledge of this Universe is phenomenal. We do or indulge in actions and the Lord is there as a Witness to all our actions and very thinking and imagining about anything. The Universe revolves according to a plan owing to the proximity of the kshetrajna or the knower of the field.
The Lord has heads everywhere in this Universe: His Mind has been superimposed upon our minds. The plan for the Universe in every age is that of the Lord. So only it is very proper if we could come to believe that there is a Universal Will and we win or lose on this earthly plane according as how we synchronize our will with that of the Lord’s. We should willingly let our Lord Master to do things through us.
God has mouths everywhere; the vak or speech is a faculty peculiar to human beings. We not only indulge in thinking and imagining but we do think out a matter and act according to a plan. And it is God whose proximity makes us think and imagine according to a pattern. Dr.S.Radhakrishnan says the personal choice given to Man makes everyone’s life irrepeatable. We individually live exclusively in a pattern set mostly by us and this pattern is irrepeatable and as such very rich and original.
The Lord has ears everywhere; this facilitates His being a Witness to all happenings here. Without His knowing anything we cannot act. Our inside and outside are perfectly familiar to the Lord. There is no escaping from the Lord’s judgment at the end of every incarnation. In a way, we should be said to be writing our own Praraptha Karma for the next innings on this worldly plane. But God’s Nature sends us to that particular loka or world after our death where we should enjoy and suffer according as our actions and commissions and omissions.
Thus God envelops all here on the earth. When we do not want to indulge in any one of the five great sins like murder, we can enjoy this life as it is permitted by our Maker. In the previous sloka or verse, the Lord said God in his Turiya State is neither sat or asat. But in this sloka or verse, God is occupying this world pervasively. Both are true. This Universe itself is very much real for those who are heavily ensnared in compulsive actions continually and the Lord has hands and feet, eyes and heads and mouths everywhere. He also has ears everywhere. And for the spiritually elevated souls among us who view this Universe as a great Thought by the Lord, God is neither sat nor asat!
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