The Field And The Knower Of The Field🔗

CHAPTER 13

You are a wave in the ocean of Existence. When the wave understands that it is not separate from the ocean, its resistance drops and it merges with the ocean.

◆ You have spoken about the need to be in the present moment so that one is aware. What does that mean? How do I know I am in the present? Will others know I am in the present?

◆ Swamiji, is the difference between religion and spirituality the difference between conscience and consciousness?

◆ If you say that the attributes listed by Krishna can only be reached through enlightenment, what hope is there for us to be enlightened? Even if the master guides us how do we move?

◆ Swamiji, I am confused by what I have read about puruṣa and prakṛti. You said puruṣa is the water of the ocean and prakṛti is the waves. It is so simple. Why are other explanations so complicated?

◆ Swamiji, are we talking about an intellectual understanding here? I understand that none of my material possessions are permanent. In any case, when I die I cannot take anything with me. But as long as I live in this body, I need sustenance and I need to work for material benefits. This work is reality, not an illusion. What is the answer?

◆ From what you have said, it appears that acquisition of knowledge is not helpful in spiritual progress. All my life I have been advised to read one scripture or another or listen to one guru or another. In fact, I started coming to your discourses after reading your books. How can this be bad or unhelpful?

◆ You talked about the vedic system of education, the gurukul. How practical is it to have a system where children can move about without wearing clothes?

◆ Swamiji, why do your disciples and people in your ashram communities wear white? What is the qualification for them to wear the saffron cloth?

In this chapter, Krishna speaks to Arjuna about kṣetra (Field) and kṣetrajña (Knower of the Field). This chapter is known as the kṣetra kṣetrajña vibhāga yoga, or the yoga of discrimination of the kṣetra, the field, and kṣetrajña, 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, ātma or whatever we may call it. Buddhists use the word nirvāṇa, 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 kṣetrajña. The word kṣetrajña means consciousness, which is the cause for the field to function. Kṣetra means field and kṣetrajña means knower of the field. Kṣetra means body and kṣetrajña means the consciousness that knows it has a body. Our consciousness is kṣetrajña and our body or matter is kṣetra.

In this chapter, Krishna reveals the secrets of kṣetra and kṣetrajña. If we don't know the secrets of kṣetrajña, the kṣetra 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 wil 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 kṣetrajña, 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 manuṣya. 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.

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

In the Indian vedic system, when a child turns seven he is initiated into the Gayatri, a sacred mantra or chant. You should understand one important thing here. The vedic religion, or Hinduism, or the Sanātana 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. You are not asked to believe in anything. You are just given a technique to control your body and mind. That's all. The Gayatri mantra is a mere technique with no reference to any deity, 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.

This mantra does not have any other meaning. There is no mention of Gayatri Devi (a Hindu Goddess) or any deity with five faces and such things. 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 ṛṣis or ancient Indian 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. The 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 the 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: Swamiji, you said that unless a person has the spark of enlightenment within him, he would 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 humans. 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. Many times you may enjoy them. But 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 how an animal returns instinctively to what it considers its home.

These unfulfilled desires are called saṁskāras, the baggage of experiences and memories that build up within you. These saṁskāras leave deep grooves in your brain and control you unconsciously. What you originally thought was free will is 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 words from your own dictionary. 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 to reach this state of surrender. There are those of you who have come to me in many of your earlier lifetimes! There is no guarantee that you will stay with me in this lifetime also! It is your choice.

When a person does not choose to stay with the master, the spirit experiences pangs of regret as it leaves the field, the body-mind. 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 life, those scenes were in glorious color and four dimensions. During the transition to death, these scenes are colorless, one-dimensional and hold 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 a spiritual book like the Gita 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.

Then at the time of death, as the spirit crosses the causal layer of energy (one of the seven energy bodies within us), the entire body-mind 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 in time, 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 a disease that no medical system can cure. That is why many who come to the master for healing become his disciples. That is how their spirit leads them to him.

Do not think it is an accident that you are with me, or reading these books, listening to these tapes or watching these 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.