Bhagavagd Gita - Session 38- Track 3804

anāditvān nirguṇatvāt paramātmāyam avyayaḥ |
śarīra-stho ’pi kaunteya na karoti na lipyate ||31|| (XIII)

“He is the original, anāditvān, he is nirguṇatvāt, he has no Gunas, he is paramātmā, and he is avyayaḥ, he is indivisible; even when he is seated in the body, śarīra-stho ’pi kaunteya na karoti na lipyate, he does no action and he does not get any effect of it.”

It is a very important proposition, we shall see latter on, when we come to the next chapter, where a distinction is made and a question is to be answered: ‘If the Supreme, even though in the body, does not get affected, why is the soul which is also in the body does similarly get not-affected?’

Soul also is like the Supreme, why is it not getting attached? That is a very important question we shall ask next time in the next chapter. So, in that context this sentence will be very important; we will come back to it: śarīrastho’pi kaunteya na karoti na lipyate |

Question: This Lord seated in the body, who is not touched, this is not happen to the soul at all this is the Supreme Self?

…supreme Self, that is the whole…paramātmā, I am avyayaḥ. It is not only the self, the soul, but the Supreme. Supreme does not get attached, na lipyate,

Comment: He is there and the soul is also there.

That’s right. The Supreme is in the soul. We have two advantages: our soul also is a portion of the Divine…actually what is within ourselves is a very complexity, we shall come back to it in the next chapter because that is one of the most important questions: “what is the Self?”

That is one statement, but that is…a more complex answer has to be given, that we shall give in the next chapter: “what are we?” But I shall speak about it at length, later on.

yathā sarva-gataṁ saukṣmyād ākāśaṁ nopalipyate |
sarvatrāvasthito dehe tathātmā nopalipyate ||32|| (XIII)

“Just as, ākāśa, ether, because of its subtlety, saukṣmyād, because of its subtlety, even though, sarva-gataṁ, it is spread everywhere and yet it is not changed, it does not affected, similarly, sarvatrāvasthito dehe, even though it is spread in the whole body, tathātmā nopalipyate, the self is not disturbed or changed.” Here the analogy is with ‘ether’, because of its subtlety.

Take for example, this is a classical example given of the space of ether that you find in the world and in the pot. The pot is circumscribed by clay and a form and the outer ether or space is not confined to a jar, or a pot, but the ether which is there in the pot has the same nature as the ether else where, outside, therefore, sarvatrā gataṁ, ether which is spread everywhere, even if you try to circumscribe it by various forms, Ether remains the same; even the clay itself is nothing but a product of ether.

Form ether, from Akasha comes Vayu, from Vayu comes the Fire, from Fire comes the Water, from Water comes the Earth: even the clay is a result of Ether. Even then the Ether remains Ether, even so many product come out of it, similarly supreme Purusha is such that although the whole world of mutations is a world of multiplicity, worlds of various names and forms, the essence, the Reality remains what it is.

yathā prakāśayaty ekaḥ kṛtsnaṁ lokam imaṁ raviḥ |
kṣetraṁ kṣetrī tathā kṛtsnaṁ prakāśayati bhārata ||33|| (XIII)

“Just as one sun, prakāśayaty ekaḥ raviḥ; kṛtsnaṁ lokam: kṛtsnaṁ means the entire. The entire world, lokam imaṁ, this whole world is prakāśayaty, is illuminated by one sun. Just as by one sun the entire world is illuminated even so, kṣetraṁ kṛtsnaṁ prakāśayati bhārata, O Arjuna, kṣetraṁ kṛtsnaṁ, the entire field is illuminated, by whom? kṣetrī, by the one who is located in the kṣetra. One who is the knower of the kṣetra, one who illumine everything by his own light?

kṣetra, we have defined already in the beginning of the chapter at three stages: kṣetra is the body, then Sri Krishna says that kṣetra is the entire Prakriti, then He says that kṣetra is all that is there in the movement. Therefore kṣetra is the body, Apara Prakriti and also Para Prakriti. The entire kṣetra, for the supreme Lord, He is the originator; He is the Purusha, paramātmā, Parameshwara. Therefore Sri Krishna says: “one who sees the whole world, but does not see the Supreme, he does not see.” Only one who sees the Supreme in the field, the subject and the object, both are known to each other by illumination coming to the subject: that is the true knowledge.

Question: kṣetrī is the higher Self?

… the higher self, kṣetrajña is the supreme Self; just as the kṣetrī, the kṣetra is the entirety, the body, the Apara Prakriti and the Para Prakriti, all is the kṣetra; the kṣetrajña is all that perceives, even our eyes are kṣetrajña, in a little sense; but in the truer sense the supreme Lord Himself is the knower.

kṣetrak-ṣetrajñayor evam antaraṁ jñāna-cakṣuṣā |
bhūta-prakṛti-mokṣaṁ ca ye vidur yānti te param ||34|| (XIII)

“One who knows by the eyes of knowledge, jñāna-cakṣuṣā, one who sees by the eye of knowledge the difference between kṣetra and kṣetrajña, between the field and the knower of the field; one who knows prakṛti-mokṣaṁ, one who knows the activities of the creatures and also the science of liberation; one who knows this, yānti te param, it is these peoples who are knower of this, who know the distinction between kṣetra and kṣetrajña, and one who knows how one gets bound and one gets liberated, it is these peoples who attain to the highest.”