Shloka

श्रीभगवानुवाच |
इदं शरीरं कौन्तेय क्षेत्रमित्यभिधीयते |
एतद्यो वेत्ति तं प्राहुः क्षेत्रज्ञ इति तद्विदः ||१३-२||

Transliteration

śrībhagavānuvāca .
idaṃ śarīraṃ kaunteya kṣetramityabhidhīyate .
etadyo vetti taṃ prāhuḥ kṣetrajña iti tadvidaḥ ||13-2||

Translations

Dr.S.Sankaranarayan

13.2. The Bhagavat said O son of Kunti ! This [physical] hody is called ‘Field’ [and decayer-cum-protector]; He, who sensitiezes it - His knowers call Him properly as ‘Field-sensitizer’.

Shri Purohit Swami

13.2 Lord Shri Krishna replied: O Arjuna! The body of man is the playground of the Self; and That which knows the activities of Matter, sages call the Self.

Sri Abhinav Gupta

13.2 See Comment under 13.3

Sri Ramanuja

13.2 The body which is cognised in identity with the experiencing self by co-ordinate predication (Samanadhikaranya) in the propositions, ‘I am a god, ‘I am a man,’ ‘I am fat,’ ‘I am slender’ etc., is described by those who know the real nature of the body as only the Field (Ksetra) of experience for the experiencing self, who is distinct from the body. Those who know this, namely, those who know the exact nature of the self, call It the Field-knower (Ksetrajna). That knower who knows the body, as divided into its different members and as their collectivity, can say ‘I know it, the body, as an object.’ The person with this perception is the one who is called the Ksetrajna or the Field-knower, who must necessarily be different from the Field (Ksetra), which is the object of this knowledge.

It is true that at the time of perceiving an object like a pot which is different from one’s body, the seer who thinks ‘I am a god who sees it’ or ‘I am a man who sees it’ etc., is putting himself as identical with the body through co-ordinate predication. In the same way he experiences the body as an object of knowledge when he says ‘I know this body.’ Thus if the body is an object of knowledge, it must be different from the knowing self. Therefore, the Field-knower (Ksetrajna). The knower, is other than the body which is an object of knowledge like a jar, etc.

But this knowledge which arises by way of co-ordinate predication is justified on the ground that the body is inseparable from oneself; for it constitutes an attribute of the self like ‘cow-ness’ of the cow etc. The knowing self is however unie in being an eternal and subtle form of knowledge. But this is inaccessible to the ordinary man’s organs of vision; it is accessible only to a mind refined by Yoga. The ignorant see the knower only in the form of Prakrti because of close proximity to or union with Prakrti. Sri Krsna thus declares later on: ‘When in identiciation with the Gunas he departs or stays or experiences, the deluded perceive him not. They, who have the eye of knowledge, see’ (15.10).

Sri Shankaracharya

13.2 The Lord specifies the body as the object referred to by the pronoun idam (this). O son of Kunti, (this body) abhidhiyate, is referred to; ksetram iti, as the field-because it is protected (tra) against injury (ksata), or because it perishes (ksi), wastes away (ksar), or because the results of actions get fulfilled in the body as in a field (ksetra). The word iti is used in the sense of ‘as’. They-who?-tadvidah, who are versed in this, who know the ‘field’ and the ‘knower of the field’; ahuh, call; tam, him, the knower; yah, who; vetti etat, is concious of, knows, it, the body, the field-makes it, from head to foot, an abject of his knowledge; makes it an object of perception as a separate entity, through knowledg which is spontaneous or is acired through instruction; ksetrajna iti, as the knower of the field. As before, the word iti is used in the sense of ‘as’. They call him as the knower of the field. Is it that the field and the knower of the field thus mentioned are to be understood through this much knowledge only? The answer is, no.

Swami Adidevananda

13.2 The Lord said This body, O Arjuna, is called the Field, Ksetra. He who knows it is called the Filed-knower, Ksetrajna, by those who know the self.

Swami Gambirananda

13.2 The Blessed Lord said O son of Kunti, this body is referred to as the ‘field’. Those who are versed in this call him who is conscious of it as the ‘knower of the field’.

Swami Sivananda

13.2 The Blessed Lord said This body, O Arjuna, is called the field; he who knows it is called the knower of the field, by those who know of them.

Commentaries

Swami Sivananda

13.2 इदम् this? शरीरम् body? कौन्तेय O son of Kunti (Arjuna)? क्षेत्रम् the field? इति thus? अभिधीयते is called? एतत् this? यः who? वेत्ति knows? तम् him? प्राहुः (they) call? क्षेत्रज्ञः the knower of the field? इति thus? तद्विदः the knowers of that.Commentary Kshetra literally means field. The body is so called because the fruits (harvest) of actions in the form of pleasure and pain are reaped in it as in a field. The physical? the mental and the causal bodies go to constitute the totality of the field. It is not the physical body alone that forms the field.He who knows the field and he who beholds it as distinct from himself through knowledge is the knower of the field or matter.Those who know them The sages.