THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER NUMBER 13
VERSE NUMBER 20
KSHETRA KSHETRAJNA VIBHAGA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE DISCRIMINATION OF THE KSHETRA AND THE KSHETRAJNA:
TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION:
kaarya kaarana kartrrtve hetuh prakrrtir uchyate
purushah sukhaduhkhaanaam bhoktrrtve hetur uchyate
SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH:
Kaarya kaarana kartrrtve = in the production of the body and the senses: hetuh = the cause: prakrrtih = Prakriti: uchyate = is said (to be): purushah = Purusha: sukha duhkhaanaam = of pleasure and pain: bhoktrrtve = in the experience: hetuh = the cause: uchyate = is said (to be).
TEXT IN ENGILISH:
In the production of the body and the senses, Prakriti is said to be the cause; in the experience of pleasure and pain, Purusha is said to be the cause.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
It is the father who transforms himself into the son. Subsequently, some of the doings of the son delight the father while some other activities pain him. It is the Purusha that poses to become the Prakriti. Modifications of the Prakriti are known as the body and the senses. The senses in their turn get themselves classified as the senses of perception and those of action. Both the forms of the senses are serviceable to the Jivatman to have contact and communication with Prakriti. The relationship created in this way begets pleasure and pain. The experience of pleasure and pain is the foremost factor in moulding the character of the Jivatman and in educating him for the life supramundane. Prakriti is the foster-mother leading the Jivatman from the unreal to the real, from ignorance to enlightenment and from death to immortality.
SRIMAT SWAMI RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHAMSA AS QUOTED BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
Plenitudes and blessings such as Brahma Jnana and the Bliss of Brahman come to us mortals because of the gracious mediation of Maha maya. But for Her intervention, none can have even a peep into the Beyond, what to speak of getting fixed into the Absolute! Experience of the transitory world also comes to man because of Her grace. The enjoyer and the enjoyment do not exist outside Her domain.
COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:
For kaaryakaranakartrtve, there is another reading “kaaryakaaranakartrtve.” See Franklin Edgerton: Bhagavadgita, Vol. 1. Page 187 note.
The body and the senses are produced by Prakriti and the experience of pleasure and pain is by the Purusha subject to certain limitations. The blissful nature of the self is stained by joy and sorrow on account of its identification with the objects of nature.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:
Pleasure and pain are the fruits of virtuous and vicious actions. The force of desire acts on the mind and the mind impels the senses to act to get the objects of desire. Good and evil actions proceed from Nature and lead to happiness or misery. Evil actions produce misery and sorrow. Virtuous actions cause happiness and joy. The soul is the enjoyer. The wife works and prepares nice palatable dishes; the husband silently enjoys the fruits of her labour. He sits quietly and eats them to his heart’s content. Even so Nature works and the soul experiences the fruits of Her labour, viz., pleasure and pain.
When harmony predominates, virtuous actions are performed. When there is a preponderance of Rajas, both virtuous and vicious actions are performed. When Tamas predominates, sinful, unlawful and unrighteous actions are done.
In the place of Kaarana which means ‘cause’, some read Karana which means ‘instrument’ such as the five organs of knowledge, five organs of action, mind, intellect and egoism (thirteen principles located in the body).
Karya: The effect, viz., the physical body. The five elements which form the body and the five senses and which form the sense-objects which are born of Nature come under the term ‘effect’. All qualities, such as pleasure and pain and delusion which are born of Nature come under the term ‘instruments’ because these qualities reside in the instruments, the senses.
In the production of the body, the senses and their sensations Nature is said to be the cause. Thus Nature is the cause of Samsara.
Sugarcane is the cause. Sugarcane juice, sugar and sugar candy are the effects or modifications of sugarcane. Milk is the cause. Curd, butter and ghee (melted butter) are the modifications of milk. Whatever is a modification of something is its effect, and that from which the modifications come is their cause. Nature is the source or cause of all modifications. She generates everything. The ten organs, mind and the five objects of the senses are the sixteen modifications or effects.
Mahat (intellect) is born of Mulaprakriti. From Mahat Ahamkara (egoism) is born. Mahat is the effect of Mulaprakriti and the cause of Ahamkara. Therefore Mahat is called Prakriti-Vikriti. Mahat, Ahamkara and the five Tanmatras (root-elements of matter) are the seven Prakriti-Vikritis. Each of these is a modification of its predecessor and is, in turn, the cause of its successor. The five root-elements generate the five gross elements. They are the subtle elements. These seven are both Nature and modification (Prakriti and Vikriti), cause and effect, and are included under the term ‘cause’.
The functions of the body, senses, life-force, mind and intellect are superimposed on the pure Self. So the ignorant man says: “I am black; I am fat; I am hungry; I am angry; I am deaf; I am blind; I am the son of so and so; I know; I am the doer; I am the enjoyer, etc.”
The intellect is very subtle. It is in close contact with the most subtle Self. The Consciousness of the Self is reflected in the intellect (Chidabhasa) and so the intellect which has the semblance of the Consciousness feels: “I am pure consciousness or Chaitanya. I experience pleasure and pain.” The attributes of the pure Self are superimposed on the intellect. There is mutual superimposition between the intellect and the Self, Nature and Spirit. This is the cause of Samsara.
Purusha, Jiva, Kshetrajna and Bhokta are all synonymous terms. Purusha here referred to is not the Supreme Self. He is the conditional souls, the soul subject to transmigration who experiences pleasure and pain. The Self or the Absolute is ever free from Samsara and is unchanging.
Prakriti and Purusha are the cause of Samsara. Nature generates the body, life-force, mind, intellect and the senses. The soul experiences pleasure and pain. Samsara is the experience of pleasure and pain. The soul is the Samsarin. He is the experience of pleasure and pain. (Cf. XV.9)
Comments by the blogger:
In the Absolute Brahman there never is action. Prakriti is full of action. And the individual Soul also is beyond action. But Jiva or kshetrajna identifies itself with this body and senses. The body and senses are the effects of the Prakriti. The Individual Soul is under delusion. It identifies itself with the body. Thereby egoism or I do this and that and this is how I am gets into action. Without egoism, there can be no action and karma in this world. The Self wrongly identifies itself with this body and senses and mind. And, as per the Saivism, Atman or Self cannot stand alone. In the beginning, prior to creation, we were actionless Atman. We were beyond action like the Absolute Brahman. But we were dependent on God or the Absolute Brahman. And when this Atman is tossed into a body and both are tossed into the Samsara of this World, Atman becomes subject to Ahamkara and this makes the Pure Atman to depend on Prakriti. According to Saivism, both Prakriti and individual Atmans or Souls are full of actions and come to this world embodied and work constantly for fruits of actions. The Atman forgets Its divine nature and gets confused and becomes egoistic and identifies Itself with Prakriti. That was how life in this world started. The part played by Prakriti is to delude the individual and instil the same into this action-oriented world.
Cause and effect are the basic law governing this world which is full of action. So Prakriti is the cause of this cause-and-effect world. Action is superimposed on the individual Soul. It forgets its divine nature and how, before creation, It was inhering in the proximity of the Absolute Brahman. The duty of the Prakriti is to get us yoked to ceaseless action on the plane of the earth and thus become the enjoyer of the fruits of action by the individual body. But the duty does not end here. Though Prakriti enslaves the individual Soul by its plenitude of things of enjoyment, that is not the real reason for the inhering of Prakriti. It makes us indulge in ceaseless action throughout our earthly lives and through so many thousands of births and deaths, Prakriti makes us become independent of Prakriti itself and work out our Karma; thus, by degree, we slowly evolve in our Atman which process is marked by absence of attraction for the worldly things and enjoyment. By slowly practising non-attachment to things of the world, Prakriti guides us toward God. We spend much time of our lives then in pursuits of the culture of Atman. Prakriti sees us thus evolve and ultimately become so pure in mind that is ready for a life of renouncement and meditation. Then it would be just a matter of re-births through which we make our search for God or Absolute Brahman more and more effective spiritually speaking. And at one stage or birth, we become absolutely devoid of any desire for any of the teeming things of worldly pleasure. Then emancipation or Soul-realisation is just a matter of meditational years and this is how Prakriti helps us throughout our worldly sojourns.
Prakriti is the reason for our actions in this world. And the individual Soul is the enjoyer of worldly things. But it is Prakriti which, through our ceaseless actions, facilitates us to the divine life once again with the Absolute Brahman.
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