14th chapter

kṣetrakṣetrajñayorevam antaraṁ jñānacakṣuṣā | bhūtaprakṛtimokṣaṁ ca ye viduryānti te param ||13.34||

Those who, in this manner, know the distinction between the kṣetra and the kṣetrajña through the eye of wisdom and (know) the freedom from prakṛti, the cause of the beings, they go to the ultimate end.

The difference between kṣetra - all the names and forms and kṣetrajña - the inner self of all beings has been shown in this chapter - kṣetrakṣetrajñayorevam antaraṁ. This is important to note because everybody knows the kṣetra is the body and oneself is the knower of it - kṣetrajña. This is not enough. When I say, “I am kṣetrajña”, this “I” has to be ātmā, the only one which is the same in all kṣetra. This ātmā is me which is fullness, out of whom everything has come, and illumines everything, yet free from everything. We need to know in which ways kṣetra and kṣetrajña are non-different and in which way they are different, as it has shown in this chapter. Then we can still relate to this transactional world yet be free from them - bhūtaprakṛtimokṣaṁ. This is called moksa, since bondage is taking prakṛti to be real and it is the cause for individuality of each being, the bondage and the reborn.

This all to be known by the eye of knowledge - jñānacakṣuṣā. The analogy of eye is used because when we see something with our eyes, our perception is considered final. Śankarācārya defines jñānacakṣuṣā as the cognition by which we recognise the svarūpa of ātmā. Just like the eyes that have cataract, the mind is also covered by wrong notion about the objects one is seeing. Only by removing the cataract, one can see correctly. Similarly the opening of the eye of wisdom is the removal of cover of ignorance through śāstra which is unfolded by teacher. Those who see this go to the ultimate end - ye viduryānti te param. This end is not somewhere one can go and come back, but where there is no coming back and going, because this is an attainment which already been attained, and this can only be in the form of knowledge.

Summary for 13th chapter

Thirteenth chapter started with Arjuna’s questions “what is kṣetra and kṣetrajña , puruṣa and prakṛti, jñānaṁ and jñeyaṁ.” Kṣetra is synonymous to prakṛti, two words are used because the first one is seen through the individual level and second one from the total level. In the same way we see kṣetrajña from the individual level is synonymous to puruṣa from the total level. Prakṛti is the entire creation and puruṣa ātmā is the basis for them to exist. Ātmā doesn’t undergo any change, projecting as all names and forms, in the creation we know. As the cause always inherently presents in the effect, in the same way the entire world is nothing but ātmā alone, yet it never affected by them. All the attributes of names and forms belong to world, not belong to ātmā because only the un-attributed can be the basis for all these different attributes. Therefore the distinction between kṣetra and kṣetrajña is to be known, and in the same time essentially they are one brahman alone which is called jñeyaṁ - that which to be known for one who wants release from the bondage of samsāra. To know this brahma-jñānam, one needs to be qualified with values such as amānitvam etc. which is called as jñānam in this chapter.

Introduction to 14th chapter

The fourteenth chapter deals with three guna and how to transcend them, which is moksa. Śankarācārya notes that anything that is created is due to the connection between kṣetra and kṣetrajña. The apparent connection between puruṣa and prakṛti which is comprised of guna, is due to avidyā, the cause for samsāra including various types of births which as mentioned in verse 13.21. What are the guna, how do they bind, how is one released from them, and what are the characteristics of a free person? These are the topics of the fourteenth chapter.

śrībhagavān uvāca paraṁ bhūyaḥ pravakṣyāmi jñānānāṁ jñānamuttamam | yajjñātvā munayaḥ sarve parāṁ siddhimito gatāḥ ||14.1||

Śrībhagavān said:

I shall again tell clearly the ultimate, the most exalted knowledge among all forms of knowledge, gaining which all the sages had reached the ultimate success (release) from this (body).

Lord Krsna says “I shall tell again”, means that he will elaborate upon what he has already said. Among the various disciplines of knowledge, the self-knowledge is the most exalted knowledge - jñānamuttamam. Because the result of self-knowledge is moksa, by gaining which nothing is desired to be gained. And it is the ultimate knowledge - paraṁ jñānam, because its subject is limitless brahman. Among the various forms of knowledge only this is paraṁ, and other knowledge are aparaṁ. But we do not dismiss them, because they are prerequisite to paraṁ jñānam, since one has to develop a degree of intellectual discipline and certain fundamental attitudes to abide in self-knowledge.

munayaḥ - people who have capacity for thinking. This plural form of muni is given because there have been a number of such discriminative people, showing that this is not something which is impossible to gain. These great sages have gained this ultimate success - parāṁ siddhimito gatāḥ which is moksa. This accomplishment is final since any other thing we gain, will certainly lose because it is different from me, and it will be separated from me. Moksa however is an end that doesn’t come to an end because it is not gained or reached. It has always been an accomplished fact.