Chapter Thirteen

              The Predominated and the Predominator

                     Prakrti-purusa-viveka-yoga

1) Arjuna said: O Kesava, I would like to know the principles of
the predominated, the predominator, the sphere of action, the
knower of that sphere, knowledge, and the knowable.

2) The Supreme Lord said: O Arjuna, this (gross and subtle or
physical and mental) body is known as the sphere of action, or
ksetra. The conscious entity (the soul) who experiences the
existence of this body is described by seers of the truth as the
knower of the sphere of action, or ksetra-jna.

3) O Bharata, you should also know Me as the knower of all
spheres of action (as the Supersoul situated within the heart of all
living beings). Such fundamental and essential knowledge of the
sphere of action and the knowers of that sphere (knowledge of the
mundane, the soul, and the Supersoul) is considered by Me to be
actual knowledge.

4) Now hear from Me a summary of the substance and nature of
this sphere of action, and in which way it is produced. Also hear of
the fundamental form and potency of the knower of the sphere of
action.

5) That fundamental principle of the sphere of action and its
knower has been variously described in many, many ways by the
Rsis, the different Vedic aphorisms, as well as the aphorisms of
the Vedanta-sutra scripture, which is replete with sound logic and
irrefutable conclusions.

6-7) The five major elements (earth, water, fire, air, and ether),
the personality component of ego, the element of intellect, the
primordial element of material nature, the five perceptual senses
(eye, tongue, tactile sense, nose, and ear), the five senses of action
(voice, hands, legs, anus, and genital), the internal sense (mind),
the five acceptable objects of the senses (form, taste, touch, smell,
and sound), desire, hatred, happiness, unhappiness, the body, the
perceptual faculty of the mind, patience, and the six material
transformations of birth, sustenance, growth, maturity, decline,
and destruction summarily, all these are known as k,etra, the
sphere of action.

8-12) Humility, pridelessness, nonviolence, tolerance, honesty,
service to the guru, purity, stability, self-control, detachment from
sensual delights, absence of egotism, an objective view of the
miserable defects of material life, that is, birth, death, the
infirmity of old age, disease, etc., freedom from infatuation with
wife, son, home, etc., nonabsorption in the happiness and
unhappiness of others, constant equal-mindedness in the contact
of desirable or undesirable objects, unfaltering and unadulterated
devotion to Me, preference for solitude, indifference to mundane
socializing, perception of the eternality of self-knowledge, and
realization of the goal of divine knowledge certainly all these have
been declared as actual knowledge, and everything apart from
this is ignorance.

13) Now I shall describe jneya, the knowable, knowing which the
ambrosial taste of internal self-satisfaction can be realized. That
element principle is delineated as Brahman. It is beginningless
and eternal. Subordinate to Me, it is indescribable in terms of
mundane cause and effect.

14) That superior principle presides over all directions, and
pervades everything in the universe with His hands, legs, eyes,
heads, faces, and ears everywhere (as Paramatma, the Supersoul).

15) Although that supreme principle is the illuminator of all the
senses and their objects, He is devoid of material senses; although
completely aloof, He is the maintainer of all (in the form of Lord
Visnu); and although transcendental to the three modes of
material nature, He is servable by that modal nature.

16) Present within and without all beings, the supreme principle is
the entirety of moving and stationary beings (as energetic
transformation). Imperceptible to material science due to being
subtle to the extreme, He is the most intimate, yet the most
distant.

17) Although one indivisible element, He is situated as divided
among all living beings. Although situated as an individual
personality along with each and every soul, He is the indwelling
monitor of all beings the singular, indivisible, omnipresent,
aggregate Supreme Lord. He (in the form of Lord Narayana) is
known as the maintainer, annihilator, and creator of all beings.

18) He is known as the illuminator of even the luminaries. He is
known as the unmanifest, beyond even the darkness. He alone is
the fundamental principle of knowledge and the knowable, and
He is knowable by the aforementioned practices defined as
knowledge. He remains situated within everyone's heart as the
Supersoul, Paramatma.

19 Thus, the principles of the sphere of action, knowledge, and the
knowable (ksetra, jnana, and jneya) have been summarily
described by Me. (The knowable has been delineated as Brahman,
Paramatma, and Bhagavan.) Thoroughly understanding these
truths, My devotees attain to bhavamaya-bhajana they adore Me
with all their hearts (having become freed from the color of all
designations).

20) You should certainly know material nature and the soul as
beginningless; and all bodily, sensual, mental, intellectual, or
egoistic transformations, as well as the consequences of the action
of the material modes based on happiness, unhappiness,
lamentation, and delusion to be born of material nature.

21) Material nature has been delineated as responsible for the
cause as the domineering force of the senses, and the effect as the
material body; and the (conditioned) soul himself is known to be
responsible for his accrued happiness and unhappiness.

22) Only due to being bewitched by material nature (prakrti) does
the person (purusa) accrue the various joys and sorrows of that
nature. His infatuation with material qualities is the sole cause of
his taking repeated births in the wombs of higher and lower
species of life.

23) Within this same body (distinct from the soul) the Supreme
Person or Parama Purusa is present as the soul's intimate witness,
sanctioner, supporter, guardian, and Lord. He is known as the
Supersoul.

24) One who thus understands these truths regarding the modal
material nature, the predominated soul, and the predominating
Supersoul such a person will not take birth again, regardless of his
material situation.

25-26) Some persons directly perceive the Supersoul situated
within their hearts by dint of their perfect, pure divine realization.
Some perceive Him by discrimination of spirit and matter, and
some by meditational yoga or by the yoga path of selfless action.
Further, there are those who, not knowing any of these methods,
engage in worship after hearing instruction from authorities.
When their faith has deepened, by that hearing they certainly
surpass this material world of deathly suffering.

27) O Arjuna, best of the Bharatas, whatever is born in the world,
whether moving or stationary, know it to be born from the
combination of the sphere of action and its knower.

28) One who sees the Supreme Lord (in the form of the Supersoul)
situated equally within all species from Lord Brahma down to the
immobile life-forms, and who sees the Lord's imperishable nature
remaining within the perishable such a person actually sees.

29) One who thus perceives the impartial and full-fledged
almighty dominion does not degrade himself with wickedness he
progresses toward the supreme destination.

30) One who sees that all action is performed by material nature
(in the form of body, senses, and allied paraphernalia), actually
sees himself, pure spirit soul, as the nondoer. He perceives that the
pure spirit soul has no mundane nature or practice whatsoever.

31) When a truly perceptive person can understand that the
differentiation of the various species of life occurs only within
material nature (or bodily distinction), and that all are again
expanded from the same nature (at the time of universal creation)
then he experiences Brahman realization by seeing equally all
knowers of the sphere of action (within the relativity of nature).

32) O Arjuna, since the Supersoul is by nature beginningless,
transcendental, and eternally perfect, although He is situated in
the body (along with the soul), He neither performs any action nor
does He become implicated by the nature of the sphere of action
(as the conditioned soul does).

33) As ether is situated everywhere (such as in mud) and yet due
to its subtle nature does not mix with anything, similarly, although
pervading the entire body, the discriminating soul does not mingle
with the nature of the body.

34) O Bharata, as one sun illuminates the entire universe so does
the knower of the sphere of action, the Supersoul, illuminate the
whole universe (and the souls within it); and so does the knower of
the sphere of action, the soul, illuminate the entire body.

35) Those who, by the vision of knowledge, can distinguish
between the sphere of action and its two knowers, and who can
thus know the path of liberation of the soul from matter such
persons attain to the transcendental atmosphere.


INDEX