Chapter 13: Kshetra-kshetrajna-vibhaga-yoga – Distinction between Object Field and its Knower: Verse 22
पुरुष: प्रकृतिस्थो हि भुङ्क्ते प्रकृतिजान्गुणान्।
कारणं गुणसङ्गोऽस्य सदसद्योनिजन्मसु ॥
puruṣa: prakṛtistho hi
bhuṅkte prakṛtijān-guṇān
kāraṇaṃ guṇa-saṅgo’sya
sad-asad-yoni-janmasu – 13.22
Purusha, dwelling in Prakṛti (Nature), experiences the outcomes brought by its qualities (guṇas). His clinging to these qualities is the cause for births in good or bad wombs.
Chapter 13: Kshetra-kshetrajna-vibhaga-yoga – Distinction between Object Field and its Knower - Verse 22
Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha
Purusha represents sentience, consciousness, which has no form, shape or attendant qualities. Purusha is totally unlike paμca-bh£tas, which are an aggregate of inert and insentient matter that constitutes the world.
Prakṛti undergoes ceaseless changes and modifications, all of which are experiential. But for Purusha’s presence, no experience of any kind will be possible.
The discrimination to be inculcated is that there is a clear distinction between Prakṛti and Purusha. All changes and transitions transpire within the field of Prakṛti. But all experiences flow from Purusha, who is unlike Prakṛti, but dwells throughout in it. Thus, one cannot think of Prakṛti alone. Though dwelling in and associated with Prakṛti always, Purusha does not the least lose His distinction and absoluteness.
