Indian stream·Bhagavad Gita·Discourse 13: The Yoga of the Distinction Between the Field and the Knower of the Field

Source context

Theme

distinction between the field of matter (kshetra) and the knower of the field (kshetrajna), with the supreme Knower identified as the unifying principle underlying all individual knowers

Soul-faculty

Consciousness Soul

Steiner

• GA 146, 1913-06-05Steiner's lecture cycle on the occult foundations of the Bhagavad Gita treats the relationship between Krishna as the supreme Self and the human soul navigating matter, which structurally engages the kshetra/kshetrajna polarity elaborated in Discourse 13.
• GA 142, 1912-12-28Steiner identifies the Bhagavad Gita as a harmonious interpenetration of Vedic philosophical streams, including the Samkhya-derived analysis of nature and the witnessing Self that constitutes the core of Discourse 13.

Cross-tradition

• Samkhya philosophyThe kshetra/kshetrajna distinction maps directly onto Samkhya's Prakriti/Purusha duality: inert material nature (field) versus the witnessing consciousness-principle (knower), which the Gita reframes theistically by identifying the supreme Knower with the Purushottama.
• Advaita VedantaShankara's commentary on Discourse 13 treats the supreme Knower of all fields as the non-dual Brahman-Atman, establishing cross-tradition congruence between the Gita's theistic framing and non-dual metaphysics.
• Aristotelian hylomorphismAristotle's matter-form distinction, in which form is the active principle that knows and organises passive matter, offers structural cross-tradition congruence with the field-knower pairing, though the Aristotelian knower is immanent rather than transcendent.
• NeoplatonismPlotinus's distinction between the Soul as witness and Nature as the outward expression of that witness (Enneads III.8) presents a cross-tradition congruence with Krishna's claim to be the singular Knower present in all individual fields of embodied existence.

Discourse 13: The Yoga of the Distinction Between the Field and the Knower of the Field

13:1Arjuna said: Matter and Spirit, even the Field and the Knower of the Field,
wisdom and that which ought to be known, these I fain would learn, O Keshava.

13:2The Blessed Lord said: This body, son of Kunti, is called the Field; that which
knoweth it is called the Knower of the Field by the Sages.

13:3Understand Me as the Knower of the Field in all Fields, O Bharata. Wisdom as
to the Field and the Knower of the Field, that in My opinion is the wisdom.

13:4What that Field is and of what nature, how modified, and whence it is, and what
He is and what His powers, hear that now briefly from Me.

13:5Rishis have sung in manifold ways, in many various chants, and in decisive
Brahma-sutra verses, full of reasonings.

13:6The great Elements, Individuality, Reason and also the unmanifested, the ten
senses and the one, and the five pastures of the senses;

13:7Desire, aversion, pleasure, pain, combination, intelligence, firmness; these,
briefly described, constitute the Field and its modifications.

13:8Humility, unpretentiousness, harmlessness, forgiveness, rectitude, service of the
teacher, purity, steadfastness, self-control,

13:9Dispassion towards the objects of the senses, and also absence of egoism,
insight into the pain and evil of birth, death, old age and sickness,

13:10Unattachment, absence of self-identification with son, wife or home, and
constant balance of mind in wished-for and unwished-for events,

13:11Unflinching devotion to Me by yoga, without other objects, resort to
sequestered places, absence of enjoyment in the company of men,

13:12Constancy in the wisdom of the Self, understanding of the object of essential
wisdom; that is declared to be the Wisdom; all against it is ignorance.

13:13I will declare that which ought to be known, that which being known
immortality is enjoyed—the beginningless supreme Eternal, called neither being nor non- being.

13:14Everywhere That hath hands and feet, everywhere eyes, heads, and mouths;
all-hearing, He dwelleth in the world, enveloping all.

13:15Shining with all sense-faculties without any senses; unattached supporting
everything and free from qualities enjoying qualities;

13:16Without and within all beings, immovable and also movable; by reason of His
subtlety imperceptible; at hand and far away is That.

13:17Not divided amid beings, and yet seated distributively; that is to be known as
the supporter of beings; He devours and He generates.

13:18That, the Light of all lights, is said to be beyond darkness; Wisdom, the Object
of Wisdom, by Wisdom to be reached, seated in the hearts of all.

13:19Thus the Field, Wisdom and the Object of Wisdom, have been briefly told. My
devotee, thus knowing, enters into My Being.

13:20Know thou that Matter and Spirit are both without beginning; and know thou
also that modifications and qualities are all Matter-born.

13:21Matter is called the cause of the generation of causes and effects; Spirit is
called the cause of the enjoyment of pleasure and pain.

13:22Spirit seated in Matter useth the qualities born of Matter; attachment to the
qualities is the cause of his births in good and evil wombs.

13:23Supervisor and permitter, supporter, enjoyer, the great Lord, and also the
supreme Self; thus is styled in this body the supreme Spirit.

13:24He who thus knoweth Spirit and Matter with its qualities, in whatsoever
condition he may be, he shall not be born again.

13:25Some by meditation behold the Self in the self by the Self; others by the
Sankhya Yoga, and others by the Yoga of Action;

13:26Others also, ignorant of this, having heard of it from others, worship; and these
also cross beyond death, adhering to what they had heard.

13:27Whatsoever creature is born, immobile or mobile, know thou, O best of the
Bharatas, that it is from the union between the Field and the Knower of the Field.

13:28Seated equally in all beings, the supreme Lord, unperishing within the
perishing—he who thus seeth, he seeth.

13:29Seeing indeed everywhere the same Lord equally dwelling, he doth not destroy
the Self, and thus treads the highest Path.

13:30He who seeth that Matter verily performeth all actions, and that the Self is
actionless, he seeth.

13:31When he perceiveth the diversified existence of beings as rooted in One, and
spreading forth from it, then he reacheth the Eternal.

13:32Being beginningless and without qualities, the imperishable supreme Self,
though seated in the body, O Kaunteya, worketh not nor is affected.

13:33As the omnipresent ether is not affected, by reason of its subtlety, so seated
everywhere in the body the Self is not affected.

13:34As the one sun illumineth the whole earth, so the Lord of the Field illumineth
the whole Field, O Bharata.

13:35They who by the eyes of Wisdom perceive this difference between the Field
and the Knower of the Field, and the liberation of beings from Matter, they go to the Supreme.

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