13.1 idaṁ śarīraṁ kaunteya (Original)

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Chapter 13

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Simple

śrī-bhagavān uvāca
idaṁ śarīraṁ kaunteya
kṣetram ity abhidhīyate
etad yo vetti taṁ prāhuḥ
kṣetra-jña iti tad-vidaḥ

‘This, the body, Kaunteya! is designated as Kshetra[1. Kshetra=matter, body, habitat, field, place or that which is enjoyed. = Capacity, the container.], and he who knows it, as the Kshetrajña[2. Kshetrajṇā is the soul, the knower, the conscious dweller or he who enjoys the field (Kshetra)=Informer, the contained.]; so say the savants versed (in spiritual love.)’

This, the body: That, in correlated connection with which, the experiencer, -soul,- thinks, ‘I am Deva’, ‘I am man ’, ‘I am corpulent’, ‘I am slender’ etc; that which is distinct from the experiencing soul; and that which the wise who know what bodies are, assert as the field (kshetra)[3. Kshetra=matter, body, habitat, field, place or that which is enjoyed. = Capacity, the container.] for soul’s enjoyment.

And him —who knows it (body) as composed of members (or parts i.e., divisible), or it, as an aggregated whole; who knows it in the manner of the statement: ‘I know this (the body)’; who is thus the cognizer as contradistinguished from the cognized (or cognoscible) which he cognizes —the wise who know what soul is, assert as the ‘knower of the field’ (kshetra-jña[4. Kshetrajṇā is the soul, the knower, the conscious dweller or he who enjoys the field (Kshetra)=Informer, the contained].)

It may be said that when cognition arises of objects like a pot etc, external to (ones’ own) body, the cognition is of the form ‘I who am Deva, or I who am man, cognize the pot etc’ implying that the cognizer is the cognizer, the soul, as correlated to an inseparable body (not I, the soul, independently of body). Admitted, but still when the soul has experience of its own body, the experience of the body itself is similar to the cognition of a pot, for, ‘I cognize the pot’ is equivalent to ‘I cognize the body’; hence like the pot, does the body exactly stand in the place of cognized objects, external to a cognizing soul. Hence, as from a cognized pot, so from the cognized body also, the cognizer —the kshetra-jña,— is a distinct entity.

To assert, however, the indiscerptible attributive character of the body to the soul, in accordance with the Law of Co-existence of Subject and Attribute (sāmānādhi-kāraṇya) stands to reason in the same manner that a class —like cattle, a generic term— is an inseparable attribute (or common term) of every particular individual, say a cow or bull, falling under that generic term viz: the class, cattle.

Inasmuch as the singularly unique nature of the cognizer (soul) precludes perceivability by any of the senses, the eye etc; and is only conceivable by the mind after the latter’s subjection to the process of Yoga (or the practice of introspection developing the sense of intuition in the mind), the ignorant —ignorant by reason of the mere propinquity of matter— misconceive that the mere bodily configuration is itself the cognizer (soul). Thus declares a future stanza:

‘The unenlightened perceive not (him) the guṇa-linked, the quitter, the dweller, the enjoyer; but they perceive, —the wisdom-eyed.’ (Gi: XV-10)

>> Chapter 13 verse 2

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