The Field And The Knower Of The Field

In this chapter, Krishna speaks to Arjuna about kshetra (Field) and kshetragna (Knower of the Field). This chapter is known as the kshetra kshetragna vibhaga yoga, or the yoga of discrimination of the kshetra, the field, and kshetragna, 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 adi-moola, root cause. It is not only the origin, but also the cause. Please understand it is the origin and 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, Atman or whatever we may call it. Buddhists use Nirvana, Vedantis say Brahman and Muslims say Allah. Whatever names we may use, we mean the same thing when we refer to 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 kshetragna. The word kshetragna means Consciousness, which is the cause for the field to function. Kshetra means field and kshetragna means knower of the field. Kshetra means body and kshetragna means the Consciousness that knows it has a body. Our consciousness is kshetragna and our body or matter is kshetra.

In this chapter, Krishna reveals the secrets of kshetra and kshetragna. If we don't know the secrets of kshetragna, kshetra 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. 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 in the morning at seven am, 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. And if we are habituated to smoking, the moment that mood comes, or any situation related to that mood comes, immediately we feel like smoking.

Throughout our whole 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. We get into this car of the body and mind. When we are unable to control them as we want, when we are unable to handle them, we are not driving the body and mind; body and mind are driving us. At that point, we are not the owner of body and mind, body and mind owns us.

Control the body and mind or else the body and mind will control you. Bring the body and mind under your conscious awareness. Body and mind are good servants but not good leaders. 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 be controlling you!

Only two options are possible: Either you enjoy them or they enjoy you. In the beginning you may start smoking. After some time, you will not be enjoying the smoke; the smoke will be enjoying you. Similarly, in the beginning you may start drinking alcohol. After some time, 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. You are no longer a person with choices: you are a set of habits that is continuously repeated without your control.

It is like getting into a car without reading the owner's manual. When we start using a car without reading the owner's manual, suddenly we realize that we do not know where the hand break 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 think or whatever we want to do is a waste. 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 automatically indulge in drink and sleep or this and that distraction. What is the use of the whole day's plan? Nothing! We go on creating what we want to do, but at the end of the day, the body behaves the way it wants. Even the mind behaves as it wants. 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. Of course then we 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 experience even 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 kshetragna, 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. Until then he is not called a manusya.

The Sanskrit word manusya has two meanings. One is 'descendant of Manu,' and the other is 'man who can handle the mind or one who has gone beyond the mind.' Manu is supposed to be the forefather. Only when we can handle the mind, we become manusya. In Sanskrit they say, 'Pratyagatma Chaitanya Jagritam.' It means that only when the individual consciousness is awakened is one considered to be a person.

In the Hindu Vedic system, the moment a child turns seven he is initiated into the gayatri, a sacred mantra chant. You should understand one important thing. Vedic religion, or Hinduism, or the Sanatana Dharma, is the only religion in which there is no baptism, no initiation. You are not given any faith, you are not given any concept and you are not given any philosophy. No. You are not asked to believe anything. You are just given a technique to control your body and mind. That's all.

The gayatri mantra is taught to the child when he turns six or seven years of age. The gayatri mantra means 'Let me meditate on the energy which awakens the Consciousness in me, and let that Consciousness help me to meditate on it.' That's all.

OM bhûr bhuvah svah tat savitur varenyam bhargo devasya dheemahi dhiyo yo nah prachodayat

This mantra does not have any other meaning. It is not related to any devata, deities. There is no mention of Gayatri Devi or a deity with five faces. No. This mantra means 'Let me meditate on that Consciousness which awakens my intelligence and let that Consciousness help me to meditate on it.' That's all.

The first thing that our rishis or enlightened Masters want us to do is to bring our body and mind under our control. They want us to learn how to live with our body and mind. Gayatri mantra is like an owner's manual for the body and mind. If we have a car, an owner's manual is a basic need. Without reading the owner's manual, if we start driving a car, then whose mistake is it?

In all vehicles we can see important instructions and warnings on the airbags. 'Airbags may cause serious injury.' 'Kids under the age of twelve should not sit in the front seat.' 'Please read owner's manual to know more about the airbag.' In the same way, only at around the age of seven do we start to handle our body. Until the age of seven, we live at the instinct level. After the age of seven the intellect starts working and we start making decisions. The moment we start making decisions, we should first know how to bring the body and mind under control. That is why the Vedic Masters teach the technique to awaken the inner intelligence and to master the consciousness. It is similar to reading the owner's manual before using the car.

Q: Master, you said that unless a person has the spark of enlightenment within him, he wouldl not be attracted to an enlightened Master. You have also said that all of us are enlightened but we are not aware of it. So, why is it that all of us are not attracted in the same way to you or other enlightened Masters?

An excellent question!

Yes, it is true that all human beings have the potential to be enlightened. Every person carries that spark of divinity within. There is no sinner amongst you. There is no doubt about that.

You have free will as a human being to work through your senses. By and large, most people choose to be led by the senses rather than to lead their senses. Senses create desires for the outer world. However many times you may enjoy them, these desires are never fulfilled unless you are in control of the senses..The senses will simply bring you back to the same scene again and again, like an animal returns instinctively to what it considers its home.

These unfulfilled desires are your samskaras, the baggage of experiences and memories that build up within you. These samskaras leave deep grooves in your brain and control you unconsciously. What you originally thought was free will is no not really free will at all. You are like an ox that follows the same ploughed groove in the field. You are caught. You are addicted.

Without exception, all your sensory pleasures are of this nature. Whether you call that pleasure lust or love, it makes no difference. These are just your dictionary words. These are words you use to justify the moral standards of your society and religion. Any attachment that you form that arises out of emotions or sensory pleasures is bondage, be it the love for your children, parents, spouse or any other person. The object of attention does not change the bondage of attachment.

Even the attachment to God or Master is a form of bondage. Only when the relationship develops without attachment, when it becomes a relationship that is not based on give and take or pleasure and enjoyment, does it become a devotional relationship. In such a relationship, one identifies oneself with the object and surrenders. This is what renunciation is about. It is total surrender with no expectation.

It takes many births and rebirths to reach this state of surrender. There are those who have come to me many times before. There is no guarantee that they will stay with me in this lifetime! It is their choice.

When they don't choose to stay with me, their spirit experiences pangs of regret as it leaves the field, the mind body. At death, when the spirit crosses the seven energy layers around the body the entire life experience is played back to it. The spirit witnesses all those material pleasures with no joy. During life, those scenes gave a lot of joy to the senses. During the life these scenes were in glorious color and four dimensions. During the transition of death, these scenes are colorless, one-dimensional and have no attraction any more.

However, if we have had even one or two spiritual experiences in our lifetime, such as time spent with an enlightened Master, or reading this book in deep awareness, such a scene will be played back to the spirit in glorious multi-dimensional color. The spirit then longs to return to such an experience.

As the spirit crosses the causal layer of energy, the entire mind-body system goes into a deep coma forgetting all that happened in the previous lifetime. The next birth takes place in an unconscious state, unconscious of the experiences, memories and desires of the past lives. The cycle repeats.

At some point, the longing of the spirit for the spiritual experience that it keeps missing is so intense that it resolves to reach it at whatever cost. Such a spirit is born in a body with a deep desire and a deep need to reach an enlightened Master so that it can seek its release from unfulfilled desires. Such a person may even choose a body that will have an incurable disease that no medical system can cure. That is why many who come to me for healing become my disciples. That is how their spirit led them to me.

Do not think it is an accident that you are with me, or reading my books, listening to my tape or watching my videos. There is no accident in this universe. Everything happens with a cause and for a reason. However, it is your choice whether you wish to follow it up in this lifetime or let your spirit yearn for the experience for many more births.