Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

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

We will discuss Prakriti and Purusha which comprises of last two questions of Arjuna.

Chp13 Overview

1: Arjuna’s 6 questions

2-7: Kshetra &  Kshetra-jna (Answer to 3rd and 4th questions)

8-12: Jnana (Answer to 5th question)

13-19: Jneya (Answer to 6th question)

20-26: Prakrti & Purusha (Answer to 1st and 2nd questions)

27-35: Jnana-chakshu – Bonus section where Krishna offers Jyana Chaksu (the eyes of knowledge by which one can see reality beyond how it appears at a material level of perception) 

Bg 13.20

prakṛtiṁ puruṣaṁ caiva
viddhy anādī ubhāv api
vikārāṁś ca guṇāṁś caiva
viddhi prakṛti-sambhavān

Synonyms: 

prakṛtim — material nature; puruṣam — the living entities; ca — also; eva — certainly; viddhi — you must know; anādī — without beginning; ubhau — both; api — also; vikārān — transformations; ca — also; guṇān — the three modes of nature; ca — also; eva — certainly; viddhi — know; prakṛti — material nature; sambhavān — produced of.

Translation: 

Material nature and the living entities should be understood to be beginningless. Their transformations and the modes of matter are products of material nature.

 

prakṛtiṁ puruṣaṁ caiva, there is Prakriti and Purusha 

viddhy anādī ubhāv api, both of them are anadi 

vikārāṁś ca guṇāṁś caiva, vikār refers to changes, guṇāṁś refer to three modes of material nature, 

viddhi, know these to be, prakṛti-sambhavān, means they are born of material nature.

So essentially this verse is making two points one is both Prakriti and Purusha are eternal. Second the changes we see in material nature they are born from matter. They are prakṛti-sambhavān. 

So Prakriti and Purusha can be broadly classified as matter and spirit as we know in spirit there is variety there is soul and Super Soul. Both of them come in the category of Purusha. We will see in 15th chapter Krishna is differentiated from ordinary Pursha by being called Purushotama. He is the Supreme Purusha. 

Prakriti and Purusha is the central discussion in Shankhya as we have discussed earlier Shankhya and Jyana are related to each other. The path of Jyana Yoga usages analysis of Shankhya quite extensively. We have also seen in 5th chapter Krishna has used Shankhya and Jyana interchangeable. We have seen in 5.4 and 5.5 what Krishna is telling is that ultimately Shankya and Yoga give the same destination they may be divergent in their content but they are convergent in their intent. So the content the path which they are comprised of may be divergent but as far as intent is concerned the ultimate goal is to seek out the Absolute Truth. So in that sense they are convergent in their intent. So here Krishna is using Shankhya to refer to Jyana, the process of Jyana metaphysical analysis which involves speculation and then division of matter into its elements and ultimately to go beyond matter.

In Shankhya Prakriti and Purusha is central piece of all discussions. Prakriti is that which in not conscious and which is not intrinsically active whereas Purusha refers to one which is conscious, that which is living that which is the active principle, in Shankhya all interaction which happens is basically interaction of Prakriti and Purusha and some development on this thought is Prakriti is associated with Devi Parvathi and Purusha is associated with Shiva. So whole of material nature become interplay between Prakriti and Purusha, all that happens in material existence so it is interaction between Shiva and Parvathi, we know that Pravathi is not different then Durga who is in charge of material nature and Shiva is Vishvanath, he is overall in-charge of material nature and material existence, of course Supreme Lord is not in-charge of one Vishwa He is anantha koti Brahmand Nayak, Maha Vishnu is source of all of existence, so anyway Krishna is not talking about personalities here He is talking in terms of concepts, that is the reason He is not talking in terms of Durga and Shiva here, so He is saying Purusha and Prakriti both are eternal. So material things are temporary but material thing the prakriti is not temporary, things refer to the specific things but the matter itself the substratum of all of existence is an energy of God, it may be sometimes manifested and sometimes not manifested, e.g. law of conservation of energy, so prakriti is eternal although the specific forms of Prakriti are temporary. What causes misery to us is because we are attached to the things like forms, tastes etc. and that is what causes bondage in contrast to that spirit is eternal, svarupa of soul, Krishna’s form is eternal and attraction to that can bring eternal happiness.

Next point which Krishna is talking in this verse is:

vikārāṁś ca guṇāṁś caiva
viddhi prakṛti-sambhavān

So whatever changes happen they are coming from Prakriti means they are happening in the arena of Prakriti e.g. a person watching movie whatever is happening on the screen is having nothing to do directly with the person watching the movie, so whatever changes are happening is on the arena of the screen so that is 

vikārāṁś ca guṇāṁś caiva
viddhi prakṛti-sambhavān

The Gunas are like three colors RGB and whatever we are seeing on the computer screen or movie is all coming because of these three colors, and because of this a person can see a nice sun set of ghastly scene or a spectacular sky or a crime so many images which involve so many radical different responses they can be invoked just by thee colors and their combination like that everything we see in this material world is comprised of three gunas so we may see a beautiful looking form an attractive looking object whatever it is all these comes from the three modes and just as the three color from projector creates all these illusion similarly the three modes creates all the sense object and three modes themselves are all material, as Srila Prabhupada says three modes of material nature, 

vikārāṁś ca guṇāṁś caiva
viddhi prakṛti-sambhavān

Vikara means change as discussed earlier, Icha Dvesha, happiness misery, attachment aversion etc are Vikara. So depending on the kind of image portrayed on the screen we will experience Sukha or Dukha like ghastly murder scene or spectacular sun rise all these are Vikara of the Kshetra which produced certain reactions like Echa Dvesha Sukham Dukham etc.

End of transcription.