Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

CREATION AND THE CREATOR

Verse 13.01-02

Arjuna said:

O my dear Krsna, I wish to know about prakrti [nature], purusa [the enjoyer], and the field and the knower of the field, and of knowledge and the object of knowledge. (13.01-02)

Verse 13.01-06

Lord Krishna said:

O Arjuna, this physical body, the miniature universe, may be called the field or creation. One who knows the creation is called the knower or creator. Know Me to be the creator of all the creation. The true understanding of both the creator and the creation is considered by Me to be the transcendental knowledge.

I shall now tell you about what the creation is, what it is like, what its transformations are, where its source is, who that creator is, and what His powers are.

The description of the above is available in Vedic hymns and also in other scriptures. It is especially presented in Vedanta-sutra with all reasoning as to cause and effect.

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. This in brief is the field along with its modifications.

Verse 13.07-12

The following are the areas of knowledge to be known by knowing which life eternal is gained.

Humility, modesty, nonviolence, forgiveness, honesty, steadfastness, purity of thought, word and deed, absence of ego, self-control; and aversion towards sense objects, detachment, freedom from entanglement in family, non-interest in participation in a crowd of people, even mindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events

Taste for solitude, constant reflection on pain, old age, disease, and death, accepting importance of self realization and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth

Service to guru, unswerving devotion to Me, the Supreme who is without any beginning.

Beyond the above, rest is ignorance.

Verse 13.13-18

The Creator has His hands, feet, eyes, head, mouth, and ears everywhere, because He is all-pervading and omnipresent. He is the perceiver of all that is going on. He is inside as well as outside all beings, animate and inanimate. And because of His omnipresence, He is very near residing in one's inner psyche; as well as far away in the Supreme Abode. Though He appears to exist as if divided in beings, yet He is undivided. He is the creator, sustainer, and destroyer of all beings.

He is the Supreme Being seated in the inner psyche as consciousness, the source of all knowledge and the object of knowledge. He is to be realized by Self-knowledge.

Thus the creation, the field of activity [the body], the knowledge and the knowable have been briefly described by Me. My devotees can understand this well and thus attain My Supreme Abode.

Verse 13.19-34

Prakrti (nature) and Purusha (soul) are both beginningless; and know also that the forms and modes are born of prakrti (nature).

With regard to the source of body and organs, Nature is said to be the cause. This is the living entity, associates itself with material nature, gets attached due to ignorance of previous Karma and meets with good and evil.

The soul is the cause for the experience of pleasure and pain. This is the transcendental Spirit, who is the Lord, the Supreme Proprietor. This Supreme Soul in the body witnesses, guides, supports and controls but by itself neither does anything nor becomes tainted. 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.

One who understands this philosophy, either by meditation or by knowledge or by selfless service or by deity worship with total faith in Me is sure to attain liberation. Such liberated people are not born again.

Whatever is born animate or inanimate know them to be born from the union of Body and the Creator. Just as one sun illuminates the entire world, the Creator gives life to the entire creation, O Arjuna.

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.

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.

One who can see that all activities are performed by the Creator and sees that the self does nothing and is not the doer, actually sees.

The one who truly sees is the one who sees the Supreme Lord in all mortal beings. Such a seeing will ensure that no one injures another.

The moment one discovers diverse variety of beings and their different ideas abiding in One, come out from the Creator, one attains the Supreme Being.

They who perceive the difference between the creation (or the body) and the creator (or the Spirit) as well as know the technique of liberation of the living entity from the trap of illusory Maya attain the Supreme.