Srimad Bhagavad Gita -Ramanujacharya 407

Srimad Bhagavad Gita -Ramanujacharya

Chapter-13 Prakṛti-Puruṣa-vivek Yogaḥ

kṣetrajñaṃ cāpi māṃ viddhi sarva kṣetreṣu bhārata | kṣetra kṣetrajñayor-jñānaṃ yat tajjñānam mataṃ param || 3 || 3. And know Me also as the Kṣetrajña in all Fields, O Arjuna. The knowledge of both the Field and its Knower is, in My view, the highest knowledge. Commentary As the Overself, Krishna is the ‘Field-Knower’ in all the bodies such as those of gods, humans, animals and antigods. By the expression 'also' (api) it can be inferred that the body itself is also a manifestation of Krishna. Just as the body cannot exist separately from the ātman on account of its being an attribute [eg. like the mango and its taste] and consequently when referring to the body one actually refers to the ātman according to the principle of co-ordinate predication, in the same manner, both the body (Field) and the Self (Field-Knower), on account of both of their being inseparable attributes of Krishna’s can thus be denoted as ‘one with Krishna’. The Veda teaches that the Supreme Being is the Overself both the Kṣetra (Field) and the Kṣetrajña (Jīva), because of their being like His ‘body’ [corporeality]. For example see the passages from the Brhad-aranyaka Upanishad beginning with 3.7.3.