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Chapter 13 · Nature, the Enjoyer and Consciousness · 35 verses

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How to study this verse, in six steps
  1. 1Remember who is speaking. Kṛṣṇa is speaking. Take the verse as He directs.
  2. 2Say the verse and its words. Read the Sanskrit, then each word with its meaning.
  3. 3Read the translation as it is. Let the translation say what it says, without adding your own meaning.
  4. 4Read the purport. Hear the verse through the disciplic succession.
  5. 5Bring your own question. Ask: where does this verse meet my life, my trouble, my doubt?
  6. 6Act on it, remembering Kṛṣṇa. Carry one instruction into your work today.
Read the full guide: how to read the Bhagavad-gītā ›
Nature & guṇasChapter 13 · Nature, the Enjoyer and Consciousness
13.613.8

Bhagavad-gītā As It Is · Text 13.7

Elements, senses and material experience

Prakṛti · Material nature

महाभूतान्यहङ्कारो बुद्धिरव्यक्तमेव च ।

इन्द्रियाणि दशैकं च पञ्च चेन्द्रियगोचरा: ॥ ६ ॥

इच्छा द्वेष: सुखं दु:खं सङ्घातश्चेतना धृति: ।

एतत्क्षेत्रं समासेन सविकारमुदाहृतम् ॥ ७ ॥

mahā-bhūtāny ahaṅkāro

buddhir avyaktam eva ca

indriyāṇi daśaikaṁ ca

pañca cendriya-gocarāḥ

icchā dveṣaḥ sukhaṁ duḥkhaṁ

saṅghātaś cetanā dhṛtiḥ

etat kṣetraṁ samāsena

sa-vikāram udāhṛtam

Translation

The five great elements, false ego, intelligence, the unmanifested, the ten senses and the mind, the five sense objects, desire, hatred, happiness, distress, the aggregate, the life symptoms, and convictions – all these are considered, in summary, to be the field of activities and its interactions.

Read Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport on Vedabase.io
1

Understand it

What this verse is saying, and where it sits in the story.

3 study points

The Field of Activities

  1. 1

    The verse lists the elements, senses, mind, feelings and other factors that make up the field of activities and its interactions.

  2. 2

    Prabhupāda explains that the body is this temporary material field, while the knower of the field is different from it.

  3. 3

    Study the twenty-four elements and their interactions to better understand the field of activities.

Key points from the purport

These notes cover verses 13.6–7

This verse indicates that field or body is a non-permanent material thing and ksetra-jna or knower of the field is different from the field

Text 13.6 explains ‘what the fields of activities consist of’

Text 13.7 explains ‘the transformations’ and ‘the interactions of the field of activities’

a

Components of the fields of activities (Total: 24 in number)

Five great elements

Five sense objects

Eleven senses including the mind

Intelligence and false ego

Unmanifested stage of three modes called Pradhana

b

Interactions of gross body — desire, hatred, happiness, distress

c

Interactions of subtle body — Living symptoms represented by consciousness and convictions

d

Basis of all this knowledge — Authorities as per Bg. 13.5 Translation

e

Pradhana

‘’Five great elements’’ are a gross representation of false ego

Which represents the primal stage of false ego which is technically called as

Materialisitic conception or tamasa buddhih (Intelligence in ignorance)

Which represents unmanifested three modes called Pradhana

f

Six changes of the body — Takes birth, grows, stays, by-products, decay and death. Thus Srila Prabhupada answers the “vikaras” or the changes undergone by the body, as mentioned in

Connected verses · 1

Texts 13.7 & 13.18

Finally, in Text 13.18, Krishna clearly reveals the identity of the one He has been describing. The jneyam is the Supersoul, who is hrdi-sarvasya, within the heart of all. Srila Prabhupada kindly informed us earlier in his translations and purports to Texts 13.14, 13.15, and 13.17 that the supreme knowable object, who has been described as unknowable, is nevertheless situated in everyone’s heart as Paramatma. Srila Prabhupada cites several verses from the Svetasvatara Upanishad to substantiate that, these Bhagavad-gita texts have been describing neither the living entity nor Brahman, but the Supersoul

Further reading

Arjuna’s Six Questions & Krishna Explains The Field Of

ACTIVITIES AND THE KNOWER OF THE FIELD (Text 13.2 – 13.7 answers the 3rd, 4th and 5th questions)

Krishna explains the field of activities as the body, by which the soul engages within his allotted sphere of activities within the material world

The soul, the knower of the field, has knowledge of his own field of activities

Krishna, as the Supersoul, is the knower of all fields of activity of all living entities

Knowledge is to know the field and its knowers

Chapter 13, section I: Arjuna’s Six Questions & Krishna Explains The Field Of
2

Word for word

Learn the Sanskrit words of the verse.

  1. mahā-bhūtānithe great elements
  2. ahaṅkāraḥfalse ego
  3. buddhiḥintelligence
  4. avyaktamthe unmanifested
  5. evacertainly
  6. caalso
  7. indriyāṇithe senses
  8. daśa-ekameleven
3

Key ideas in this verse

The spiritual concepts this verse connects to.

Key ideas: prakṛti, guṇa.

4

Live it

Take one thing from this verse into your day.

Ask yourself

What does BG 13.7 establish in Śrīla Prabhupāda's translation and purport, and how does it connect to nature & guṇas?

Practice

Observe which mode shaped your last decision.

5

Related verses

Keep going: verses that carry this teaching further.

BG 13.6Elements, senses and material experienceBG 7.14Crossing beyond māyā
Live this todayKnow the Two KnowersA practice from BG 13.3, close to this verse

Study notes are editorial summaries, not the translation. Confirm them in the original text and purport.

  1. Learn
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  3. Lead
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