Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan

Shankya Section

Bg 13.6-7

mahā-bhūtāny ahaṅkāro
buddhir avyaktam eva ca
indriyāṇi daśaikaṁ ca
pañca cendriya-gocarāḥ

icchā dveṣaḥ sukhaṁ duḥkhaṁ
saṅghātaś cetanā dhṛtiḥ
etat kṣetraṁ samāsena
sa-vikāram udāhṛtam

Synonyms: 

mahā–bhūtāni — the great elements; ahaṅkāraḥ — false ego; buddhiḥ — intelligence; avyaktam — the unmanifested; eva — certainly; ca — also; indriyāṇi — the senses; daśa–ekam — eleven; ca — also; pañca — five; ca — also; indriya–go–carāḥ — the objects of the senses; icchā — desire; dveṣaḥ — hatred; sukham — happiness; duḥkham — distress; saṅghātaḥ — the aggregate; cetanā — living symptoms; dhṛtiḥ — conviction; etat— all this; kṣetram — the field of activities; samāsena — in summary; sa–vikāram — with interactions; udāhṛtam— exemplified.

Translation: 

The five great elements, false ego, intelligence, the unmanifested, the ten senses and the mind, the five sense objects, desire, hatred, happiness, distress, the aggregate, the life symptoms, and convictions – all these are considered, in summary, to be the field of activities and its interactions.

 

mahā-bhūtāny ahaṅkāro, As we know there are 24 elements in Shankya which are listed in 26th verse

 

So 24 elements is called fied of activity (purport 13.6-7):

 Panch Mahabhuta: earth, water, fire, air and ether => 5

False Ego, intelligence, unmanifested stage of the three modes of nature => 3 

Five Jyanadriyas (eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin) and Mind => 5

Five Karmedriyas (voice, legs, hands, anus and genitals) => 5

Sense Within is Mind => 1

{So including mind there are 11 senses}

Fve objects of the senses (smell, taste, form, touch and sound) => 5

 

mahā-bhūtāny, what are mahā-bhūtāny? Earth, water, fire, air and ether. These are considered gigantic elements. These are 5.

Then ahaṅkār, false ego, is 6th element.

Buddhir, is 7th 

Avyakta, un-manifested (unmanifested stage of the three modes of nature.) also called Pradhan is 8th.

indriyāṇi daśaikaṁ ca, so 5 Karma indriyas (voice, legs, hands, anus and genitals) and 5 jyana indriyas (eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin) and Mind so daśaikaṁ, 11

So till here 11+8 = 19

Then

pañca cendriya-gocarāḥ, five sense object, smell, taste, form, touch and sound.

So 19+5 = 24, 

these constitute the 24 elements.

So what is going in this section, we understand that there is Kshetra and Kshetra–jna.

So Krishna is right now describing the Kshetra first He described Kshetra-jna as one who is knower of the field as Atma and Paramatma and then He said I wanted to describe to you where does Kshetra comes from so now He is describing here and He is describing various things in connection to that, 

pañca cendriya-gocarāḥ

so the Kshetra is material nature and what the material nature is constituted of? These 24 elements.

Now He moves forward and further describes 

icchā dveṣaḥ sukhaṁ duḥkhaṁ
saṅghātaś cetanā dhṛtiḥ
etat kṣetraṁ samāsena
sa-vikāram udāhṛtam

 

Krishna has told in 4th verse kṣetraṁ vikāri yataś ca

Vikara is transformations, so what are the transformation Kshetra undergoes that He is describing in this verse, 

Vikara is change, sa-vikāram udāhṛtam, 

So what are the Vikara Kshetra undergoes?

It is describes icchā dveṣaḥ, attachment and aversion and naturally sukhaṁ duḥkhaṁ comes with that, 

I don’t like something then there is duḥkhaṁ, so these are called Vikara of Kshetra, how is that?

The soul, the source of consciousness is transcendental it is not the part of Kshetra, the soul is Kshetra-jna, 

So there so an analogy of person watching a movie will come in this chapter again and again.

The person who is watching the movie is like Kshetra-jna, and the movie screen on which the movie is played that is like the kshetra, so at the level of constituent or components what the Kshetra is made up of? There has to be a projector, screen, proper acoustic and lighting arrangement by which the attention is drawn towards the movie, so that is the area Kshetra where the movie will be created to that it is experienced by others, but within the movie what will be there is Kshetra Vikar, so if hero and heroine are embracing then there is icchā which leads to sukha and then the hero is beaten by the villain then there is dveṣaḥ, one doesn’t want that to happen so that leads to duḥkha. 

So these are called Kshetra Vikar as the illusion is happening on the movie screen but they have an effect. 

So it is interesting as it is said that 

saṅghātaś cetanā dhṛtiḥ, cetanā refers to consciousness, so it is interesting that consciousness is also called as Kshetra Vikar, now we know that consciousness does not come from matter, consciousness comes from soul so why is this because it is not talking about consciousness per say it is talking about consciousness projected with in matter, it is talking about the consciousness which is experiencing the movie reality or the virtual reality. So the person watching the movie can look around look down etc. but he is looking straight to the movie, so his whole attention is focused on the movie and his consciousness is projected into the movie then whatever the changes are happening that has nothing to do with the original life the real life but that is what they are experiencing there right now, so like that we have a different life a spiritual life with Krishna but unfortunately we have forgotten that life and we are focusing on this material life and we are experiencing emotion which is kshetra-vikar, it has nothing to do with the original pure consciousness of the soul, so saṅghātaś cetanā dhṛtiḥ, dhṛtiḥ refers to convictions, so we also has certain convictions that this is good this is bad an Indian may think that Pakistani is evil and Pakistani may think that Indians are evil, so we all have certain conceptions and certain convictions so all these are produced by Kshetra Vikar  sa-vikāram udāhṛtam. So this way Krishna is defining Kshetra and Kshetra-jna.

So this is condensed definition of Shankya given in 13th chapter, 

SP Purport: One who desires to know the twenty-four elements in detail along with their interactions should study the philosophy in more detail. In Bhagavad-gītā, a summary only is given.

Shanka is a detail study, theistic Shankya covers how this analysis of matter should lead us from matter to spirit, and within arena of spirit it should lead to Supreme Personality of Godhead. 

So Krishna’s purpose is not to analyse shankya as we know in BG there is a context and that is what Arjuna should do in the battle field, and it is not just fight or not fight, that is just a decision he has to take but based on certain understanding, so what is that understanding that understanding is he is part of Krishna and being part of Krishna it is best for him to act in harmony with Krishna, and how he will do that? By learning to love and serve Krishna, and that is based on the understating that Bhagvan is the highest sadhya and Bhakti is the highest sadhana, so Krishna is analyzing Shankya here to help Arjuna understand the ultimate reality is Bhakti, as Shankya leads to Bhagvan as the highest reality and Bhakti has the ultimate sadhya.

End of transcription.