Chapter XIII (Verse 27, 29)
Kshetra Kshetrajna Vibhaga Yoga – The Yoga of the Field and the Knower of the Field
Chapter XIII
(Verse 27)
समं सर्वेषु भूतेषु तिष्ठन्तं परमेश्वरम् ।
विनश्यत्स्वविनश्यन्तं यः पश्यति स पश्यति ॥ १३-२७॥
Wherever any being is born, the unmoving or the moving, know you, O best of the Bharatas, that it is from the union between the “Field” and the “Knower-of-the-Field.”
All things in the world that are born — both the world of inert matter (unmoving) and the world of conscious beings (moving) — arise neither from the “Field” (Prakriti) nor from the “Knower-of-the-Field” (Purusha). The source is from the marriage of Prakriti and Purusha. This combination of Matter and Spirit is not an accomplished union but is only a mutual super-imposition.
In every super-imposition, a delusion is recognised upon a substratum: the ghost in the post. Not only the form and all attributes of the ghost come to be projected upon the post, but the post also lends its existence to the nonexistent ghost. As a result of their mutual exchange, we find that the non-existent ghost comes to exist in our experience, while the existing post becomes a non-existent ghost with illusions of physical limbs and ghastly behaviour. This process, which is a trick of the human mind, is called mutual super-imposition. In the Pure Consciousness there is no Field-of-Matter. The Field-of- Matter has neither existence, nor sentiency. But the spirit plays in the “Field” (Prakriti), and becomes the “Knower-of- the-Field” (Purusha), and when this Purusha works in Prakriti the combination breeds the entire phenomenal Universe constituted of the moving and the unmoving.
When, through careful discrimination, we successfully discover this play in ourselves, the vision of plurality recedes and we understand that the ultimate Truth is the substratum on which both Prakriti and Purusha play.
Ordinarily, I am a quiet man. But sometimes my heart’s passion is endless. When I identify myself with the passion in my heart, I play in the world as the passionate man and perform deeds for which I myself might later on regret! Now in this example, the regret, and the regretting person, the passion and passionate entity — all of them revel in me. They all belong to me but I am not they! Yet, when I identify myself with them, I become the perpetrator of the regrettable actions and the passionate actor in me comes to brood over what has happened, and so it suffers. Similarly, the Self contains matter possibilities — the Self being Paripoorna. To project matter and to identify with it, is to become the Purusha, and the Purusha, maintaining Itself in the Field-of-Matter so projected, becomes the source of the entire samsara. To analyse closely with discrimination, to detach courageously with vitality, to carefully and heroically live as an observer of all that is happening within, not allowing ourselves to be misled by our own imaginations — is the method of realising the Perfection in ourselves.
Verse 29
प्रकृत्यैव च कर्माणि क्रियमाणानि सर्वशः ।
यः पश्यति तथात्मानमकर्तारं स पश्यति ॥ १३-२९॥
Indeed, he who sees the same Lord everywhere equally dwelling, destroys not the Self by the Self; therefore, he goes to the Highest Goal
Vedanta preaches not so much the negation of the world, as the re-evaluation of things, beings and happenings constituting the world. Generally we perceive our own pet ideas and emotions, coloured by our unsteady understanding and changing emotions. To see the world, not through these equipments, but with the clear eye of wisdom, is to recognise perfection and bliss, divinity and sanctity in the very drab and dreary world of today, amidst its very sorrows and ugliness. Erroneous perception of the Reality, through maladjusted equipments, is the perception of the world, which, in its turn is throttling the individual perceiving it.
When the Pure Consciousness looks upon Itself through the refracting medium of matter envelopments, It perceives, as it were, a world-of-plurality, and the pluralistic world grins and dances, whistles, shrieks and howls — ever ugly, stinking and sweating — according to the maddening changes that take place in the very equipments (FIELD) through which the ego (KNOWER OF-THE-FIELD) happens to gaze. To re-discover the spiritual Reality, the Supreme Lord, in and through this horrid welter of change and sorrow is to end all our agitations and unprofitable aims and exertions, “FOR HE SEES THE LORD DWELLING IN EVERY PLACE ALIKE.” Such an individual, in his own experienced wisdom, no more suffers from sorrow or fear. When the post is realised, the dread created by the ghost is ended.
HE DESTROYS NOT THE SELF BY THE SELF — Earlier the Lord has explained when exactly the self becomes the enemy of the Self (VI-5 & 6). Whenever the lower egocentric individuality is not available for sure guidance by the Higher-Principle-of-Wisdom in ourselves, the lower becomes our enemy. When a vehicle is no more under our control, it will cease to be of any service to us and becomes, as it were, an engine of destruction. Similarly, when the lower in us is not available for the guidance of the Higher, the former turns out to be an enemy of the latter. And in an individual who recognises and experiences the one Parameshwara that revels everywhere, the lower cannot fight against or shadow any longer the glory of the Higher.
THEREFORE HE GOES TO THE HIGHEST GOAL — The true nature of the Self remains undiscovered due to the non-apprehension of Reality (ajnana), or due to the misapprehension (mithya jnana) arising out of the non-apprehension. The non-apprehension of the one Parameshwara everywhere, makes an individual act in the world in a way which renders him incapable of appreciating the glory of the Self in all other living beings. Thus, he becomes a source of sorrow to the community of living beings around him. The non-apprehension (ajnana) creates a veil because of which, not only do we not recognise the one Eternal Divine everywhere, but we also identify ourselves with the body and the mind, and behave as though they alone are real; in consequence, sensuality, materialistic pursuits, and selfish satisfactions become the only worthwhile objects or pursuits in our life, which we destroy for ourselves and others. The state an individual gains when both these, non-apprehension (ajnana) and mis-apprehension (mithya-jnana) are ended, isthat Absolute experience, the experience of the Highest Goal, and therefore, “HE GOES TO THE HIGHEST.”