The Field And The Knower Of The Field

[Paramahamsa]

The Field And The Knower Of The Field

In this chapter, Krishna speaks to Arjuna about ksetra (Field) and ksetra (Knower of the Field). This chapter is known as the Ksetra ksetrajnya vibhaaga yoga, or the yoga of discrimination of the ksetra, the field, and ksetrajnya, the knower of the field.

Krishna clearly talks about the physical matter in which we exist, as well as the consciousness that stays in the matter. In some way or other all of us are related to this whole universe, whether we understand it or not, whether we experience it or not. The consciousness is the root cause. It is not only the origin, but also the cause. It is the source from which we come and in which we stay. The whole
universe, the universal consciousness, is the space in which we all happen.

Krishna uses the wave and the ocean as an analogy. The ocean is the universal consciousness or god, aatma or whatever we may call it. Buddhists use the word nirvaana, vedantis say brahman and Muslims say Allah. Whatever names we may use, we mean the same thing meaning the cosmic energy or universal consciousness. Krishna reveals the secret that we are like the waves, and the whole is the ocean. He explains how we can experience oneness with the ocean.


Our only problem in life is that somehow we have forgotten that we are a part of the ocean. We forgot that we belong to the ocean. We forgot that we belong to the ksetrajnya. The word ksetrajnya means consciousness, which is the cause for the field to function. K¾etra means field and ksetrajnya means knower of the field. Ksetra means body and ksetrajnya means the consciousness that knows it has a body. Our consciousness is ksetrajnya and our body or matter is Ksetra.

In this chapter, Krishna reveals the secrets of Ksetra and ksetrajnya. If we don’t know the secrets of ksetrajnya, the Ksetra acts as if it is the owner.

A small example:
You buy a new car. You sit in the car and start driving. Suddenly, after ten minutes you realize that you do not know how to stop it. If you don’t know how to stop the car, you are not driving the car, the car is driving you.

In the same way, we get into this mind and into this body and start living. Suddenly at one point, we find that we are unable to stop the body or mind. It goes on as it wants and it is uncontrollable.

If we have the habit of drinking coffee at seven in the morning, we don’t need to remember to do it by checking our watch. The moment it becomes seven, a ‘coffee bell’ will ring inside the mind. If we are addicted to smoking, the moment the craving for smoking happens, or any situation triggers the craving, immediately we feel like smoking.


Throughout our life, our whole system is not under our control. The body and the mind are controlling us instead of us controlling them. It is similar to the car driving us instead of us driving the car. At this point, we are not the owner of the body and mind, the body and mind own us.

Bring the body and mind under your conscious awareness. The body and mind are good servants but not good masters. As servants, they are great. Of course, without the body and mind you cannot live life, you cannot enjoy life. They are needed. But, unless they are under your control, they will become your masters. Only two options are possible: Either you enjoy them or they enjoy you. In the
beginning you may start smoking. After some time, you may not really be enjoying the smoke, but the smoke will be enjoying you. Similarly, in the beginning you may start drinking alcohol. After some time, the alcohol will be drinking you. In the beginning you start a habit and after some time that habit takes over your life. The habit will be enjoying your life. Then you are no longer a person with choices: You are a set of habits that is continuously repeated without your control.

When we start using a car without reading the owner’s manual, suddenly we realize that we do not know where the hand brake is. We don’t know how to turn left or right. When we enter into the body and mind without knowing how to handle them, we are in the same situation. Bring the body and mind under your control before you are brought under their control.

Whether it is a material life or a spiritual life, unless the body and mind are under our control, whatever we may think or whatever we want to do is of no use. Suppose we sit down in the morning and draw out a big plan for the day, analyzing all the data, ‘I must do this,’ ‘I must do that,’ but at the end of the day, beyond our control, we spontaneously indulge in drink and sleep or other things,
what is the use of the whole day’s plan? Nothing! We go on creating what we want to do in our mind, but at the end of the day, the body behaves the way it wants to. Even the mind behaves as it wants to. We get nowhere!

Naturally, your whole life moves in a ‘logic-less’ way. You work so much to elevate your life. Yet your body and mind do what they want. Then you end up in suffering. ‘Life,’ the very word ‘life,’ can happen only when the body and mind are under your control. As long as the body and mind are not under your control, you will not even experience the word ‘life.’ Until the body and mind are under your control, you are not living. The engraved memories are living you.

Until we experience the ksetrajnya, the knower of the field, the real life never begins. This is why the vedic system considers a person to be born only when his individual consciousness is awakened. Until then his physical birth is not accepted, nor is he considered a human being or a manusya. According to the Vedas, when someone’s inner consciousness is awakened he is considered a human being or a person who has taken birth. Until then he is one among the animals.
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