Gita for Youth - Yoga of the Field and the Knower (Kshetra Kshetrajna Vibhaga Yoga) - Atman

Purusha Prakrti and Atman

At this stage one may ask the relation between the Field, the knower of the Field, and these new concepts of Prakriti and Purusha. Why did the Lord introduce these new concepts while explaining about the differences between Kshetra and Kshetrajna? The answer is simple. All fields or kshetras are under Prakrti’s sway and Kshetrajna or the knower of the field is none but the eternal witness, the Atman or the Purusha who, even though absolute and one, manifests as multiple forms in the Universe as individual souls or indwelling spirit. Sankhya principles admit this multiplicity but the doctrine fails to consider the unity behind multiplicity. Vedanta postulates this grand unity and holds that the multiplicity is under the modification of the realm of the Prakrti, which it terms as Maya or the delusive power which hides the Supreme Being from being realized by individuals. The Prakrti or Maya is also called Shakti in Tantra and Brahman is called Shiva.

The Iswara or the Supreme Lord resides in everything (as the indwelling spirit) or as the all pervading Brahman. Brahman modified by attributes (i.e. in union with nature but still as the highest being, not under the sway of Maya) is Iswara, one who is able to create, preserve and destroy. Therefore Brahman is Iswara. One who sees the eternal or immortal in the mortals is the real seer.

One who sees the Iswara in all beings cannot injure the Self by the action of the Self and therefore attains the highest state.

The Iswara is Atman. One who realizes the Atman, the eternal and unchangeable one, without birth and death, as different from the body mind which are subjected to destruction and decay, is the real knower of all knowledge. Such a person knows that every being is a manifestation of the Brahman or that every being is Iswara, the quantum of manifestation being different, being decided by the modification of the nature. In a great soul who has transcended the world the manifestation is very high, while in ordinary mortals it is lower (or shrouded by ignorance). In a human being it is decidedly higher than that of animals or insects. However the Lord resides in all. One who realizes that cannot injure any being, because that will amount to injuring the Lord or the Self. One cannot injure one Self. That explains the principle of non violence advocated by such great souls. One who cannot injure anybody in thought, speech and action knowing that everybody is Iswara, is the epitome of the non violence principle. One who does not injure anybody having realized the divinity of all, thus attains the highest state (of union with God).

The nature is performing all actions using its qualities or Gunas. One who knows this, also knows the Self or the Atman as the non doer or the witness.

Atman is inactive because it is Brahman. It is a witness but above all actions. All actions are performed by an individual under the influence of Prakrti and its modifications. One who thus realizes (Prakrti as the performer and Purusha as the inert/inactive agent and the individual as the instrument of Prakrti), realizes the inactive and non doer Atman. The Atman being non doer is not responsible for the fruits of actions. So also is an individual who knows the Self or the Atman. As the Self that individual is also a non doer and is therefore not bound by the actions (of Prakrti). Therefore the individual is liberated from the fetters of the world.

One who realizes all these different manifestations as part or whole of a grand Unity which has divided itself into many, one realizes the Supreme Being or the Brahman.

The Supreme Being is the Unity from where everything originates and everything dissolves into. According to Advaita principles, the differentiation that is perceived is apparent, just as a real sun reflects in many millions of droplets of water as the apparent sun or the reflection. The differentiation is on account of the modification under the influence of Maya. According to the Visistadvaita principles, the One has become many and therefore all things are parts of that Whole or One. Thus from different angles the Unity is the truth. It may have either differentiated itself really or apparently, as per whatever viewpoints one would like to hold.

That is Infinite, that is devoid of all qualities of nature or gunas, which is called the Paramatman or the great cosmic spirit. It resides in the body as the indwelling spirit but itself does nothing, nor does it get attached (to any action or its fruits).

Therefore even if the individual performs an action, thinks itself as the doer and desires the fruit, its Atman is untainted by either the desire or the action. The nature propels it to act, deludes it into believing that its body and mind combination is the real self or identifies and obfuscates the Self or the Atman through the world bewitching power of Maya. Therefore the individual is bound by the action and falls into the trap of the cycle of life and death.

Just as the infinite space, in the form of that subtlety which is all pervading, does not get attached to the container in which it is encapsulated, the Atman, which in reality is all pervading (being the same as the Supreme Being or the Brahman which is all pervading), is not attached to the body in which it dwells.

Just as one sun brightens up the entire welkin of this world, the One Supreme Being or the Kshetri, is the knower of all fields or Kshetras. Atman is all pervading, therefore one who knows that Atman, knows everything else, just as by knowing the clay one can know all pots made up of clay. Verily a knower of Atman becomes equivalent to the Supreme Being in terms of knowledge because Supreme Knowledge is Supreme Being itself.

One who thus realizes this distinction between a Kshetra and Kshetri through the vision of knowledge or jnana, and the nature of the individuals (Prakrti) as distinct from the knowledge of liberation (Atman or Purusha), attains the supreme state.