Chapter 13: Kshetra-kshetrajna-vibhaga-yoga – Distinction between Object Field and its Knower / Verse 15

Explanation of verses 15.14, 15.15 and 15.16 –

The one Truth to be known is the source of everything. Undoubtedly, it is the power and presence that animates our body, shaping every cell of it independently in the mother’s womb. It alone forms eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin, to generate sensations like touch, smell, taste, sound and sight, whereby sense objects are perceived. Being omnipresent, it can, when necessary, also effect perceptions everywhere, without senses. This is how it produces the inner dream phenomena, quite similar to the wakeful world and all it contains.

All potentials, the display of world-objects, actually inhere in Consciousness, which permeates the body and the rest of the world. That power alone gets infused into one’s body, its parts and organs, like eyes, ears, nose, skin and tongue. Hence Consciousness can cause anything anywhere in the world.

It is like the quality or power of water. The basic potentials of water are the same, whether in ocean, river, lake, tank or well. Krishna’s statement that the supreme Truth has “hands and feet everywhere”, “eyes, head and face everywhere”, is true in this sense.

How is the foetus being shaped with all senses and limbs, each with its respective power? Obviously, all the powers belong to the ovum and sperm. Like this, the powers and potentials are present everywhere, as Consciousness is all-pervading. Without the senses too, Consciousness can sense all objects. It penetrates and surrounds everything and all.

As all sensory powers inhere in it, can it not sense without the physical senses? Senses are gross, made of matter. But Consciousness is not matter. It is the spiritual presence, possessing sensory powers to cause all kinds of perceptions.

Though it is the source of life of all beings, it has no delusional clinging to anything of creation. Each being is living on another, all together forming a huge cycle. In this, cruelty and sinfulness reign equally as innocence and straightforwardness. The kingfisher catches fish, its prey, from water. In doing so, the bird does not incur any sin, nor does the fish pay for any sin!

In everything is the unaffected, indestructible presence. Neither sin nor virtue is involved in the whole process (5.15). In the huge cycle of Creation, everything has its place, displaying mutuality and harmony.

The knowable is outside and inside alike, of all beings. Hence it is afar and also near. Due to its subtlety alone, it becomes ungraspable. Through sharpened and purified intelligence, it can still be deciphered and realized.