From here onwards, the promised themes for discussion are taken up one by one by the teacher and upon each of them He gives an exhaustive exposition. These two verses, enumerate the various items together constituting the “Field” (Kshetra), which was indicated in a previous stanza (Ibid., verse 2.) as “this body” (Idam Shariram).
“THE GREAT ELEMENTS” (Mahabhutas) — They are five in number — space, air, fire, water and earth. They are the rudimentary elements (tanmatras) out of the combinations of which the grosser elements — indicated here in the stanza by the term “Perceptible” (Indriya-gocharaah) Great Elements — are formed.
THE EGOISM (Ahamkara) — This is the sense of “I”-ness and “My”-ness that arises in us in our identification with the world-of-objects. It is this that is the ‘perceiver’ and ‘enjoyer’ of this world, and that enjoys and suffers the joys and sorrows of its own world of likes and dislikes, loves and hatreds, and ever weeps in its innumerable attachments in the world outside. The individuality arising out of our relationships with the world-of-matter, is called the “Ego.”
INTELLECT (Buddhi) — The ‘determining-faculty’ which rationally thinks and comes to its own conclusions and judges good and bad in every experience of a living man is called the intellect.
UNMANIFESTED (Avyakta) — That which rules the functions of a given mind and intellect, and determines their activities in the world-outside, is the unmanifested factor called the “vasanas.” The impressions, left over in the mental equipment as a result of our conscious enjoyment of the world-outside, determine the direction and the pattern of all our subsequent perceptions and feelings.
Mental capacities and intellectual decisions are determined in each individual, and his aptitudes are ordered by the type of impressions (vasanas) left over in his subtle-body as a result of his previous ego-centric existence amidst the world-of-objects. This source of all individual activities is the residual vasanas in the individual. Naturally, therefore, in its macrocosmic aspect, the total universe of men and things, and their behaviours, must spring from the total vasanas is called in Sanskrit as the “Moola-Prakriti” by the Sankhyans, or as Maya by the Vedantins. The Supreme functioning through Maya (Moola-Prakriti) is the Creator of the total Universe; and the same Supreme, functioning through the vasana-layers in the individual (Avidya), is the creator, sustainer and destroyer of the individual life, the “Ego.”
From this, it is so evident that the Unmanifested is but the unseen cause, total vasanas, which has manifested as the “seen” — the world-of-objects.
THE TEN SENSES — The five sense organs of perception and the five sense organs of action are the vehicles by which each individual perceives the stimuli and responds to them.
THE ONE (Ekam) — In the context here, this stands for the mind. Even though the sense organs are many, the faculty in us that receives all the stimuli, from all the five avenues of perception, is one and the same, the mind. Not only does the mind receive the stimuli but it also executes the judgement of the intellect and sends forth responses to the outer-world. It is again the only outlet for the individual personality to express through. The “one” here, therefore, represents the mind.
THE FIVE OBJECTS OF THE SENSES — Each sense organ has only one definite field of sense objects to perceive. The eyes can perceive only forms; the ears can listen to sounds; the nose can smell; the tongue can taste; and the skin can perceive the touches. No one of the sense organs can perceive the objects of the other sense organs. Thus, there are five distinct types of sense objects. And, in fact, the entire gross world perceived is nothing other than a play of all these five types of sense objects.
The twenty-four factors so far enumerated are the famous 24 principles (Tattwas) of the Sankhyan Philosophy.
Lord Krishna, in enumerating the items constituting the “Field,” does not stop with these gross equipments-of-matter; but includes even their “modifications” such as desire, hatred, pleasure, pain, the assemblage of the body (Samghata), intelligence, steadfastness, etc. In short not only do the gross body, mind and intellect constitute the entire world-of-objects, but even the perceptions experienced through them, the world-of-objects, the emotions and thoughts are also included in the all-comprehensive term; the “Field” (Kshetram) — “this body” (Idam Shariram).
Anything other than the subject belongs to the world-of-objects, and can be perceived as an object. Mental, emotional, and intellectual ideas are also the objects of our knowledge, and therefore, with reference to the Subject all that is seen, felt, or known are but objects. This entire world-of-objects is indicated in the Geeta in this chapter by the phrase “this body” — the “Field.”
In a word, the entire world of “knowable” together in a bunch, can be labelled as the Field (Kshetra). And the Knowing-Principle, seemingly functioning as the “Knower” (Kshetrajna), is the Subject. To distinguish the Subject from the world-of-objects, an exhaustive understanding of what constitutes the object is necessary. Hence this elaborate enumeration. The entire world-of-matter in the cosmos has been directly, as well as by implication, embraced in these two stanzas.
The following section, constituted of five consecutive verses together, lists twenty qualities, which in their totality indicate the “Knower” (Kshetrajna). In fact, the “Knower-of-the-Field” is directly described (in XIII-12) but, in the following couplets, (in XIII-8 to 12) certain mental and emotional attributes, moral attitudes and ethical principles are prescribed since they are essential pre-requisites for the seeker who is anxious to apprehend and experience the Infinite Self.
THEY ARE ENUMERATED AS FOLLOWS:
