THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER NUMBER 13
VERSES 05 AND 06
KSHETRA KSHETRAJNA VIBHAGA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF DISCRIMINATION OF THE KSHETRA AND KSHETRAJNA:
THE TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION (of verse 05):
mahaabhootaany ahamkaaro buddhir avyaktam eva cha
indriyaani dasai ‘kam cha pancha ee ‘ndriyagocharaah
SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH:
mahaa bhootaani = the great elements: ahamkaarah = egoism: buddhih = intellect: avyaktam = the unmanifested: eva = even: cha = and: indriyaani = the senses: dasa = ten: ekam = one: cha = and: pancha = five: cha = and: indriyagocharaah = objects of the senses.
TEXT IN ENGLISH:
The great elements, egoism, intellect, as also the unmanifested, the ten senses and the one mind, and the five objects of the senses;
TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION: (VERSE 06)
icchaa dveshah sukhm duhkham
samghaatas chetanaa dhritih
etat kshetram samaasena
savikaaram udaahrrtam
SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH:
icchaa = desire: dveshah = hatred: sukham = pleasure: duhkham = pain: samghaatah = the aggregate: chetanaa = intelligence: dhrrtih = fortitude: etat = this: kshetram = field: samaasena = briefly: savikaaram = with modifications: udaahrtam = has been described.
TEXT IN ENGLISH:
Desire, hatred, pleasure, pain, the aggregate, intelligence, firmness—the Kshetra has been thus briefly described with its modifications.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
The great elements. The ether, the air, the fire, the water and the earth—these are the elements constituting the infinite universe. In their gross form, they are not equally distributed everywhere. But in their subtle state, they permeate the whole universe. They are for this reason called the great elements.
Egoism. It is the cause of the five elements. The Self projects the non-Self and identifies Itself with it. This identification is egoism. When the Pure Consciousness thinks of Itself as the materialized consciousness, it is egoism. Intellect is the tattva or principle of determination. It is from this principle that egoism emanates. It is also known as the Mahat.
The Unmanifested is technically called avyaktam or moola prakriti. That which is in the unmodified state is the meaning of this term. This principle is the cause of buddhi or the intellect. These are all the powers of Iswara.
“Verily this divine illusion of Mine, made up of the Gunas is hard to surmount,” said the Lord in chapter seven, stanza fourteen. He also called them “My prakriti divided eightfold,” in the fourth stanza of that chapter.
The Ten Senses are the eye, the ear, the skin, the tongue and the nose forming a group known as the senses of knowledge—the Jnaana indriyaas. The external world is cognized and interpreted with the aid of these organs. The other group consists of five organs of action—karma indriyaas. They are the hand, the foot, the mouth, the anus and the genital organ.
The mind is the principle that thinks and doubts. It is therefore held as the aggregate of sankalpa and vikalpa. It functions as the background of all the ten senses. The demon Ravana with his ten heads is the personification of the mind functioning through the ten senses.
The Sense-objects are five in number. They are the taste, form or colour, touch, sound and smell, on which the senses feed and thrive.
The Samkhya school of philosophy is based on these twenty-four categories or principles technically known as tattvaas.
The Vaiseshika school of philosophy claims that desire, hatred, pleasure and pain mentioned here, to be the characteristics of Atman. But these are actually the modifications of the mind; they are the objects of experience; they are impermanent; they only reveal the nature of the Kshetra. As such they are classified with the Kshetra.
Desire is that form of mentation which seeks the repetition of the contact with the objects that seem agreeable to the senses.
Hatred is that mental state which seeks to avoid with revulsion those sense-objects which are disagreeable or painful.
Pleasure is an experience that pacifies the mind and promotes sattva guna.
Pain is mentation that is disagreeable and disquieting.
The Aggregate is the assemblage of the various parts of the body. A machine is assembled by fixing all its parts in their proper places. The best and the most marvellous organic machine is the human body. It's functioning at all levels is equally marvellous.
Chetana is intelligence or the power to reveal and interpret. A piece of iron that comes into contact with fire reveals the fire in its own way. Similarly, the capacity of the senses to imbibe and to reveal the characteristics of the Atma is the chetana or intelligence inherent in them. Since the body is being experienced and interpreted by this intelligence, it is classified as the Kshetra.
Dhrrti or firmness is the stamina to keep the body and senses fit and active. Left to themselves they get exhausted and drift into indolence. But the resolve that emanates from within infuses fresh energy and activity into them. This particular urge is called firmness. It gives longevity to the body. Since dhrrti is also an object of experience it is classified as the Kshetra. The items from ‘desire’ to the ‘firmness’ mentioned here, are the qualities or the modifications of the mind stuff.
The body is classified as the Kshetra in the first stanza. And it is exhaustively dealt with in these two stanzas.
SRIMAT SWAMI RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHAMSA AS QUOTED BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
Why do the devotees look after this body so carefully when it is actually a combination of things perishable? Nobody pays heed to an empty package. But people preserve carefully a paper box containing precious gems and jewels. In that manner, the devotees take care of the body due to its being the temple of the Lord. They cannot afford to neglect it. All human bodies are the treasure chests containing Iswara.
COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN: (for the 5th verse)
These are the constituents of the field of Kshetra, the contents. The distinction between mental and material belongs to the object side. They are distinctions within the “field” itself.
The body, the forms of sense with which we identify the subject belong to the object side. The ego is an artificial construction obtained by abstraction from conscious experience. The witnessing consciousness is the same whether it lights up the blue sky or a red flower. Though the fields which are lit up may be different, the light which illumines them is the same.
COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN: (for the 6th verse)
Even the mental traits are said to qualify the field because they are objects of knowledge.
The knower is a subject and turning of it into an object or a thing means ignorance, avidyaa. Objectivization is the ejection of the subject into the world of the objects. Nothing in the object world is an authentic reality. We can realize the subject in us only by overcoming the enslaving power of the object world, by refusing to be dissolved in it. This means resistance, suffering. Acquiescence in the surrounding world and its conventions diminishes suffering; refusal increases it. Suffering is the process through which we fight for our true nature.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA: (for the verse 05)
The field and its modifications are described in this verse. The twenty-four principles of the Sankhya school of philosophy are mentioned here.
Great elements: Earth, water, fire, air and ether are so called because they pervade all modifications of matter. The elements here referred to are the subtle, not the gross ones.
Egoism is the cause of the great elements. It is the self-arrogating principle. Intellect is determination. Buddhi is the faculty of determination. The cause of the intellect is the Unmanifested (which is the undifferentiated energy of the Lord). (Cf. VII.14: Daivi hyesha gunamayi mama maya duratyaya—This divine illusion of Mine, caused by the qualities, is difficult to cross over.) The above Nature is divided eightfold (Cf. VII.4).
The ten senses are the five organs of knowledge (ears, skin, eyes, tongue and nose) so called because they enable the mind to get knowledge of the external world, and the five organs of action (hands, feet, mouth, anus and the generative organ), so-called because they perform actions.
The one: This is the mind. This is the eleventh sense whose function is thinking and doubting (Sankalpa and Vikalpa).
The five objects of the senses are sound, touch, form (colour), taste, and smell. These are the fivefold pastures of the senses.
All the great elements, egoism, intellect, the senses and mind are all absorbed in the Unmanifested at the time of the cosmic dissolution.
The mind is Maya. The mind is Avidya (ignorance). The mind is at the root of all activities. It gives strength to desires, fosters fear and builds castles in the air. It confers force on egoism and stimulates aspirations. Every tendency has its origin in the mind. It augments passions, gives strength to hope and awakens the sense of duality. It increases ignorance and plunges the senses in the ocean of sense-objects. It creates distinctions and differences. It separates, divides and limits. It is a strong wall or an iron barrier that stands between the individual soul and the Absolute. It is this mind that has brought Brahman to the condition of the individual soul. It is the storehouse of error, cravings, doubt, delusion and ignorance. It is an ever-revolving wheel that generates thoughts. It is a miraculous thought-producing machine. It creates at one moment. It destroys at the next moment.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA (for the verse 6):
These principles form the frame or the skeleton on which the world of forms is built. All these are mental states and treated as properties of the body by the Sankhya school of thought. According to the Nyaya-Vaiseshika schools, these are the inherent qualities of the Self. The modifications have a beginning and an end. Only that which is unchanging can be the witness of these modifications. The knower of the field is unchanging. He is the witness of the field and its modifications.
Desire is a modification of the mind. It is an earnest longing for an object. It is a Vritti (thought-wave) born of Rajas which urges a man who has once experienced a certain object of pleasure to get hold of it as conducive to his pleasure when he beholds the same object again. This is the property of the inner sense. It is the field because it is knowable.
You enjoy a certain sensual object. The impression of this is produced in the subconscious mind. This impression is vivified or revived through memory or remembrance of the sensual pleasure. Then desire arises to enjoy the object again. Repetition of the sensual enjoyment intensifies the memory and desire. Renunciation of the objects and meditation thin out the impressions and the desires.
If anyone gives a description of the beautiful scenery of Badri Narayana or Mount Kailasa at once a desire arises in our minds to visit those places. If a man says that very good sweetmeats and mangoes are available in Bangalore, a desire to get these objects crops up in your mind. Therefore memory of sensual enjoyments and the hearing of the qualities of the sensual objects are the root causes of desires. Hope fattens the desires. Hope gives a new lease of life to desires. Desire excites the mind and the senses. Desire makes the mind restless.
An object which is sweet and pleasant to you at one moment produces the very reverse of that sensation at another moment. Every one of you might have had this experience. Objects are pleasant only when there is a longing for them. But they are unpleasant when there is no longing for them. Therefore desires are the cause of pleasure. If satisfaction arises through the enjoyment of the objects, pleasure will cease. If your mind is destitute of desires then you will always enjoy serenity, equanimity, balance or poise in spite of many obstacles or adversities. The foundation of desire is the love of sensual pleasures. Desires run along the path of your inclination, proclivity or tendency or taste. Desire is the fuel. The thought is the fire. If you withdraw the fuel of desire, the fire of thought will be extinguished like an oil-less lamp. The intellect becomes impure by association with desires.
Hatred is a modification of the mind. It is a negative one. It is a Vritti that impels a man who experienced pain from a certain object to dislike it when he beholds the same object again. Hatred also is field because it is knowable. The modification that arises in the mind when your desire is not fulfilled is called hatred.
Pleasure is agreeable, peaceful, made of Sattva. This is also the field because it is knowable.
Pain is disagreeable or unpleasant. It is also the field because it is knowable.
Sanghata: Aggregate, the combination of the body and the senses or the bundle of the 35 components of the body.
Chetana: Intelligence is a mental state which manifests itself in the aggregate just as fire manifests itself in a ball or iron. This is also the field because it is knowable. Chetana means consciousness and also the activity of the vital airs.
Dhriti: Firmness, courage, fortitude. It is a Sattvic modification of the mind. The body, the senses and the mind are sustained by firmness when they are depressed and agitated. The five elements are antagonistic to each other. Water destroys the earth. Fire dries up water. Water puts out the fire. Wind puts out a lamp (fire). Ether absorbs the wind. The five elements fight amongst themselves and yet they (that have a natural dislike for one another) dwell together quite amicably in the same body. Each element beautifully co-operates with the others in carrying on the common functions of the body harmoniously. Each element nourishes the other elements also with its own qualities. Dhriti is firmness or the power by which these fighting elements are held in union and harmony and kept in a state of steadiness and balance. This is also the field because it is knowable.
Desire and the other qualities that are spoken of in this verse stand for all the qualities of the mind. The field that is mentioned in the first verse has been dealt with in all its different forms in the fifth and the sixth verses.
Comments by the blogger:
The elements are the basic ingredients with which the whole Universe is created. Our body itself is a conglomeration of these five elements. They are great because without them the Creation is impossible. Egoism or the “I” sense is the substratum of our knowing the universe as such. This “I” sense first deludes us the moment we are born. The child which is just six months old discerns between its mother and other guests coming to the house. It feels “this is my mother!” Without egoism, this identification of the child vis-a-vis its mother is not possible. Thus we can see egoism in itself is not a bad thing. Who are we? After all, we are deluded right from birth and we get ourselves smaller beings by identifying with our mother, father, sister and brother. Then the identification with the material things like the feeding bottle and bathing soap, etc. Only because of this egoism the world exists for us. The rose bloomed when there was no man in this world and dinosaurs were reigning supreme. But, since there was no being to appreciate the beauty and the pleasant perfume of the flower, went unnoticed! The rose is rose only because there are people like us to appreciate its properties. But for a discerning Man, the rose cannot be in existence. And without ego, the whole world would be less than nothing! Everything is possible, the child is born, it grows up into man/womanhood, the learned man absorbs everything about this world and wants to enjoy this world, all happens because of the ego. If we do not identify ourselves with this universe, creation would not have been possible. Before that identification, the ego helps us to identify ourselves with our bodies. Once that identification is complete then everything in this world becomes true. If we can shed our stout ego we can attain jivanmukti on this plane of existence itself.
The manifested universe is identified by us because there is an identification of our ego with our bodies. But we with the ego and the perishable bodies are of divine origin. We are made to forget that fact before we are sent out to this world’s plane. If Man could remember his divine origin, the world could not continue as such and only animals would be there to enjoy this world. Because the animals have no ego. They are lead by their instinct. But the fact of the matter is that we, all of us, have not only forgotten our divine origin but we are not aware that within this perishable body there is Self which knows no limiting adjuncts. Thus in this Universe, there is a Universal Self to which our individual Self lodged within us relates. But we are blissfully oblivious of this fact. But our Subconscious is in direct connection with the Universal Self. An archaeologist found a fossilized form of what he could tell an ancient fish that has long since become extinct. But unfortunately the half of the fish's form had been destroyed and the archaeologist got only the other half. But he wanted to see the full view of the fish. He thought long and fell asleep at night. The wonder of wonders, the full image of the fish came to be seen vividly in a dream! Immediately the man got up in the middle of the night and started to draw the full image of the fish! And the tailer’s needle also was invented in a dream. In this case, one man wanted to create a tailor’s needle after having devised the Sewing Machine for that purpose. But he could not see how the needle should be made to go through the cloth and come up once more to stitch the piece of cloth. After long cogitation, he went to sleep. And in his dream, he was captured by man-eating folks in a forest. They surrounded this man and they, singing a song, were poking crowbar-like lances toward the civilized man. With this act, the cannibals kept coming closer and closer around the civilized man and for a moment his eyes were drawn toward the tips of the lances. It was curious. Because each of the lances was having a hole at the tip! Immediately the man woke up from sleep and could not believe that the threatening cannibals’ lances and the holes constituted the exact answer for his sewing machine!
Thus we can all relate with our deepest thought and yearning to the Cosmic Soul. If our quest is serious and we are after the answer for any problem deep enough for it to sink into our sub-conscious mind, we will definitely get an answer. This need not necessarily be through dreams but somehow the answer for the repeated query will come to us.
There are karma indiriya and jnana indiriya and they bind us to this otherwise illusory world. only through them, we enjoy everything in this world.
The mind is a great thing in Man. For other beings in the animal kingdom cannot be said to have endowed with this incomparable faculty though they might have lesser mind into which the instincts are stored. Human Mind is phenomenal in its operation. Mind can not only work, and exercise to have Sankalpa and Vikalpa, but it can oversee how it is working! Thus we do not have a mind which can work, but the mind can also, in a detached and objective way survey its very working! The mind is very subtle like the sky among the five great elements.
Sri Krishna is known for His power of harmonizing various Schools of Thoughts. He chides us not to be swayed by the dualities. At the same time harmonizes the apparently opposite ideas and Schools of Thought. He takes up the philosophy of the Samkhya School which holds there are 24 categories or tattvas.
According to Sri Krishna the Kshetra or this Field is capable of undergoing various modifications like desire, hatred, pleasure, pain, the aggregate, intelligence and firmness.
Though our bodies are called by Him as kshetras, in its wider meaning kshetra means the entire Universe.
(My dear friends, I lost your confidence in me by writing about my enemies who have been torturing me for twenty years. And how I have been forced to leave the practice. In the last twenty years, I have had to go through innumerous kinds of mental torture. The latest in the series has come to my knowledge only today. Yesterday I had gone to see my daughter some 150 km away from our town. So I could not upload anything today. To make it up I was engaged in writing the whole day today. And at last, I went to see how much I have earned today. And a shock was in store for me. For the Google AdSense have taken away the Ads showing in two sites, namely, THE HOLY GITA, and MY RESOURCEFUL AUNT!. THE REASON THEY HAVE GIVEN TO UNDERSTAND IS THAT I HAVE BEEN INDULGING IN SELF-CLICKING! FRIENDS, THIS HURTS ME VERY MUCH. FOR I HAVE NEVER INDULGED IN ANY ACT OF SELF-CLICKING. NOT EVEN ONCE. BUT MY ENEMY, WHO IS A BROTHER ADVOCATE HAS DONE THIS TO ME. I AM NOT WORRIED ABOUT THIS TURN OF EVENTS, FRIENDS. ALL MY INITIATIVES HAVE BEEN SET AT NAUGHT IN THIS MANNER. FOR THE LAST TWENTY YEARS, HE, AND HIS NAME IS M.VISWANATHAN, HAS BEEN SETTING AT NAUGHT ALL OF MY INITIATIVES. ONE TANGIBLE EVIDENCE IS THIS THING, MY HAVING BEEN DISAPPROVED FOR A MONTH. THEY HAVE SAID Ads WILL BE SHOWN ONCE AGAIN IN THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY. AND IF THIS ACT OF SELF-CLICKING CONTINUES I WILL BE PERMANENTLY DISAPPROVED! THIS IS HOW I HAVE BEEN VICTIMISED BY VISWANATHAN AND HIS FRIENDS. I AM NOT ASKING FOR ANY HELP FROM YOU, FRIENDS. BUT I ONLY WANT TO GIVE YOU A PIECE OF HARD EVIDENCE THAT THIS VISWANATHAN, A BROTHER ADVOCATE, HAS BEEN INDULGING IN THIS KIND OF THINGS FOR TWENTY LONG YEARS. I JUST WANTED TO SHARE THIS WITH YOU. HE HAS BUGS INSTALLED IN OUR HOUSE. THE POLICE DEPARTMENT HAVE HELPED HIM IN THIS MATTER. AND THE ELECTRICITY BOARD HAS PROVIDED FACILITIES WHEREBY HE CAN REGULATE THE FLOW OF ELECTRICITY TO EACH PLUG POINT IN MY HOUSE. WITH THE HELP OF THE BUGS, HE CAN READ MY BREATHING AND TELL IF I AM ASLEEP OR NOT! HE HAS BEEN SUBJECTING ME TO NOISE AND SOUND DISTURBANCES. TO CREATE THE SOUND DISTURBANCES DURING THE DAY, HE AND HIS MINIONS HAVE THE HELP OF THE STREET DOGS. IF I SLEEP OR TRY TO CATCH A FEW MINUTES’ SLUMBER, HIS BOYS WILL TEASE THE DOGS AND THERE WOULD BE DISTURBING NOISES AND DURING THE NIGHTS HE CAN MANIPULATE THE CEILING FAN UNDER WHICH I WOULD LIE TO PUT UP MY FEET AND BY REGULATING THE FLOW OF ELECTRICITY TO THE FAN, HE COULD CREATE NOISES OF ALL SORTS THROUGH THE CEILING FAN. NOTHING CAN BE HIDDEN FROM HIM. EVERY PIECE OF THE CONVERSATION IN OUR HOUSE IS BEING overheard BY HIM. You might ask, friends, how a single man could do all these things. No one will believe in me. I have been a victim for the past twenty years. He has been subjecting me to sound disturbances during the nights and days. So in the last twenty years, whatever sleep I have had is by courtesy to Viswanathan! Friends, this is not a full story of the studied and scientific persecution I have been subjected to. And I know I run the risk of revealing half-truths without telling you all the facts of persecution in the last twenty years. That was why you all were fed up with me and refused to follow me and to click somewhere on the Google AdSense Ads. To put you in the picture, I will have to write an autobiography. Otherwise, I can’t put all the facts and circumstances of innumerous acts of Persecution Viswanathan has subjected me. I know I run the risk of further alienating you all. But I write this to assuage my mortified soul. And LET ME PROMISE IN THE NAME OF LINGESHWARA, THE ULTIMATE GOD, THAT IT WAS NOT ME WHO INDULGED IN SELF-CLICKING. FOR MY COMPUTER-SAVVY FRIEND HAS PUT ME IN THE PICTURE AND HAS TOLD ME TO NEVER TRY TO INDULGE IN SELF-CLICKING FOR I WOULD RUN THE RISK OF LOSING THE AdSense Ads. I SWEAR IN THE NAME OF THE LORD THAT I HAVE NEVER INDULGED IN ANY ACT OF SELF-CLICKING. IN THE PAST I HAVE COME UP WITH NUMEROUS INITIATIVES TO EARN MONEY. ONE INSTANCE IS MY EFFORTS TO START AN ENGLISH COACHING CENTRE. THIS WAS SOME TEN YEARS AGO. BUT HE POSTED HIS MEN NEAR THE SPOKEN ENGLISH CENTRE TO DISCOURAGE THE PUPILS COMING TO MY CENTRE TO INQUIRE ABOUT THE FEE STRUCTURE. HE IS A HIGHLY RESOURCEFUL FIEND. AND IN THE LAST TWENTY YEARS, I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO TAKE UP ANY INITIATIVE. HE HAS BEEN THERE TO WRECK MY INITIATIVES. THUS I HAVE BEEN REDUCED TO IMPOVERISHED CONDITIONS. NOW I AM, I HAVE BEEN PLANING TO SELL THE ONLY IMMOVABLE PROPERTY, OUR HOUSE. I KNOW YOU CAN’T HELP ME IN ANY MANNER, FRIENDS. BUT I AM TELLING YOU THIS BECAUSE I DON’T WANT TO BECOME A LAUGHING STOCK IF AND WHEN THE GOOGLE ADSENSE AUTHORITIES PERMANENTLY DISAPPROVE MY SITES FOR EXHIBITING ANY Ads. IN OTHER WORDS, I WANT TO EARN YOUR RESPECT! I LIVE IN ARANTHANGI, A TALUK TOWN IN PUDUKKOTTAI DISTRICT, TAMIL NADU. There are three courts in Aranthangi including the sub-court. But, owing to my enemy’s ways of robbing the sleep by producing sound disturbances, I have not been able to practise. I would write my autobiography some day in future so that you could understand my detractors’ acts of putting all my initiatives to earn money at nought. Friends, I did not know anything about the Google AdSense when I started to serialize my huge novel, MY RESOURCEFUL AUNT. I came to know about the way of earning a living through Google AdSense Ads through my friend who is computer savvy. By that time I had finished about six chapters of THE HOLY GITA blog. When I came to know there was a way to earn money, I wanted to make use of it. But even this has been set at nought by my fiend. Off and on I will write about him and his past and present actions, my friends. I may not be able to earn a living through my blogs, dear friends, but the Saturn Viswanathan can never make me stop writing to you, friends, about his various acts of persecution! This will be my solace! Now I have started to take his acts of persecution to the whole world. This he cannot stop!)
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