The Soul
Table of Contents
1-2 O my dear Kṛṣṇa, I wish to know about prakṛti [nature], puruṣa [the enjoyer], and the field and the knower of the field, and of knowledge and the object of knowledge.
This body, O son of Kuntī, is called the field, and one who knows this body is called the knower of the field.
3 O scion of Bharata, you should understand that I am also the knower in all bodies, and to understand this body and its knower is called knowledge. That is My opinion.
4 Hear My brief description of this field of activity and how it is constituted, what its changes are, whence it is produced, who that knower of the field of activities is, and what his influences are.
5 That knowledge of the field of activities and of the knower of activities is described by various sages in various Vedic writings. It is especially presented in Vedānta-sūtra with all reasoning as to cause and effect.
6-7 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.
8-12 Humility; pridelessness; nonviolence; tolerance; simplicity; approaching a bona fide spiritual master; cleanliness; steadiness; self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification; absence of false ego; the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; detachment; freedom from entanglement with children, wife, home and the rest; even-mindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me; aspiring to live in a solitary place; detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization; and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth – all these I declare to be knowledge, and besides this whatever there may be is ignorance.
13 I shall now explain the knowable, knowing which you will taste the eternal. Brahman, the spirit, beginningless and subordinate to Me, lies beyond the cause and effect of this material world.
14 Everywhere are His hands and legs, His eyes, heads and faces, and He has ears everywhere. In this way the Supersoul exists, pervading everything.
15 The Supersoul is the original source of all senses, yet He is without senses. He is unattached, although He is the maintainer of all living beings. He transcends the modes of nature, and at the same time He is the master of all the modes of material nature.
16 The Supreme Truth exists outside and inside of all living beings, the moving and the nonmoving. Because He is subtle, He is beyond the power of the material senses to see or to know. Although far, far away, He is also near to all.
17 Although the Supersoul appears to be divided among all beings, He is never divided. He is situated as one. Although He is the maintainer of every living entity, it is to be understood that He devours and develops all.
18 He is the source of light in all luminous objects. He is beyond the darkness of matter and is unmanifested. He is knowledge, He is the object of knowledge, and He is the goal of knowledge. He is situated in everyone’s heart.
19 Thus the field of activities [the body], knowledge and the knowable have been summarily described by Me. Only My devotees can understand this thoroughly and thus attain to My nature.
20 Material nature and the living entities should be understood to be beginningless. Their transformations and the modes of matter are products of material nature.
21 Nature is said to be the cause of all material causes and effects, whereas the living entity is the cause of the various sufferings and enjoyments in this world.
22 The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature.
Thus he meets with good and evil among various species.
23 Yet in this body there is another, a transcendental enjoyer, who is the Lord, the supreme proprietor, who exists as the overseer and permitter, and who is known as the Supersoul.
24 One who understands this philosophy concerning material nature, the living entity and the interaction of the modes of nature is sure to attain liberation. He will not take birth here again, regardless of his present position.
25 Some perceive the Supersoul within themselves through meditation, others through the cultivation of knowledge, and still others through working without fruitive desires.
26 Again there are those who, although not conversant in spiritual knowledge, begin to worship the Supreme Person upon hearing about Him from others. Because of their tendency to hear from authorities, they also transcend the path of birth and death.
27 O chief of the Bhāratas, know that whatever you see in existence, both the moving and the nonmoving, is only a combination of the field of activities and the knower of the field.
28 One who sees the Supersoul accompanying the individual soul in all bodies, and who understands that neither the soul nor the Supersoul within the destructible body is ever destroyed, actually sees.
29 One who sees the Supersoul equally present everywhere, in every living being, does not degrade himself by his mind. Thus he approaches the transcendental destination.
30 One who can see that all activities are performed by the body, which is created of material nature, and sees that the self does nothing, actually sees.
31 When a sensible man ceases to see different identities due to different material bodies and he sees how beings are expanded everywhere, he attains to the Brahman conception.
32 Those with the vision of eternity can see that the imperishable soul is transcendental, eternal, and beyond the modes of nature. Despite contact with the material body, O Arjuna, the soul neither does anything nor is entangled.
33 The sky, due to its subtle nature, does not mix with anything, although it is all-pervading. Similarly, the soul situated in Brahman vision does not mix with the body, though situated in that body.
34 O son of Bharata, as the sun alone illuminates all this universe, so does the living entity, one within the body, illuminate the entire body by consciousness.
35 Those who see with eyes of knowledge the difference between the body and the knower of the body, and can also understand the process of liberation from bondage in material nature, attain to the supreme goal.
What qualities it hath, and whence it is, And why it changeth, and the faculty That wotteth it, the mightiness of this, And how it wotteth-hear these things from Me!.[FN#28]
The elements, the conscious life, the mind, the unseen vital force, the nine strange gates of the body, and the five domains of sense;
Desire, dislike, pleasure and pain, and thought Deep-woven, and persistency of being; These all are wrought on Matter by the Soul!
Humbleness, truthfulness, and harmlessness, Patience and honour, reverence for the wise.
Purity, constancy, control of self, Contempt of sense-delights, self-sacrifice, Perception of the certitude of ill In birth, death, age, disease, suffering, and sin;
Detachment, lightly holding unto home, children, and wife, and all that bindeth men;
An ever-tranquil heart in fortunes good And fortunes evil, with a will set firm To worship Me–Me only! ceasing not; Loving all solitudes, and shunning noise Of foolish crowds; endeavours resolute To reach perception of the Utmost Soul, And grace to understand what gain it were So to attain,–this is true Wisdom, Prince! And what is otherwise is ignorance!
Now will I speak of knowledge best to know- That Truth which giveth man Amrit to drink, The Truth of HIM, the Para-Brahm, the All, The Uncreated;; not Asat, not Sat, Not Form, nor the Unformed; yet both, and more;– Whose hands are everywhere, and everywhere Planted His feet, and everywhere His eyes Beholding, and His ears in every place Hearing, and all His faces everywhere Enlightening and encompassing His worlds. Glorified in the senses He hath given, Yet beyond sense He is; sustaining all, Yet dwells He unattached of forms and modes Master, yet neither form nor mode hath He; He is within all beings–and without– Motionless, yet still moving; not discerned For subtlety of instant presence; close To all, to each; yet measurelessly far! Not manifold, and yet subsisting still In all which lives; for ever to be known As the Sustainer, yet, at the End of Times, He maketh all to end–and re-creates. The Light of Lights He is, in the heart of the Dark Shining eternally. Wisdom He is And Wisdom’s way, and Guide of all the wise, Planted in every heart.
So have I told of Life’s stuff, and the moulding, and the lore to comprehend. Whoso, adoring Me, Perceiveth this, shall surely come to Me!
Know thou that Nature and the Spirit both Have no beginning! Know that qualities and changes of them are by Nature wrought; That Nature puts to work the acting frame, but Spirit doth inform it, and so cause Feeling of pain and pleasure. Spirit, linked To moulded matter, entereth into bond with qualities by Nature framed, and, thus Married to matter, breeds the birth again In good or evil yonis.[FN#29]
Yet is this in its bodily prison!–Spirit pure, Spirit supreme; surveying, governing, Guarding, possessing; Lord and Master still PURUSHA, Ultimate, One Soul with Me.
Whoso thus knows himself, and knows his soul PURUSHA, working through the qualities with Nature’s modes, the light hath come for him! Whatever flesh he bears, never again shall he take on its load.
Some few there be by meditation find the Soul in Self Self-schooled; and some by long philosophy And holy life reach thither; some by works
Some, never so attaining, hear of light from other lips, and seize, and cleave to it Worshipping; yea! and those–to teaching true–Overpass Death!
Wherever, Indian Prince! Life is–of moving things, or things unmoved, Plant or still seed–know, what is there hath grown By bond of Matter and of Spirit Know He sees indeed who sees in all alike The living, lordly Soul; the Soul Supreme, Imperishable amid the Perishing For, whoso thus beholds, in every place, In every form, the same, one, Living Life, Doth no more wrongfulness unto himself, But goes the highest road which brings to bliss. Seeing, he sees, indeed, who sees that works Are Nature’s wont, for Soul to practise by Acting, yet not the agent; sees the mass Of separate living things–each of its kind– Issue from One, and blend again to One Then hath he BRAHMA, he attains!
That Ultimate, High Spirit, Uncreate, Unqualified, even when it entereth flesh takes no stain of acts, worketh in nought! Like to the ethereal air, pervading all, which, for sheer subtlety, avoideth taint, the subtle Soul sits everywhere, unstained
Like to the light of the all-piercing sun [Which is not changed by aught it shines upon,]
The Soul’s light shineth pure in every place;
They who, by such eye of wisdom, see
How Matter, and what deals with it, divide;
How the Spirit and the flesh have strife,
Those wise ones go the way which leads to Life! –>