Chapter 13 opens the Gita's final six and introduces the distinction the rest of the text runs on: the field and the knower of the field. The body, the senses, the intellect, the ego — and, strikingly, desire, pleasure and pain — are all catalogued as field; the knower is what is left. The chapter also contains one of the quietly remarkable passages in the Gita: asked what knowledge is, Krishna answers not with a proposition but with twenty qualities of character, and then says that this is knowledge and its opposite is ignorance.
📘 Chapter 13 at a Glance
Name: Kshetra Kshetrajna Vibhaga Yoga
Meaning: The Field and Its Knower
Verses: 34
Section: Chapters 13-18 - the Jnana shatka, on the relation between them - asi
Source: Mahabharata, Bhishma Parva
📑 Table of Contents
📖 About This Chapter
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Chapter | 13 of 18 |
| Sanskrit name | Kshetra Kshetrajna Vibhaga Yoga |
| Usually rendered | The Field and Its Knower |
| Verses | 34 |
| Section (shatka) | Chapters 13-18 - the Jnana group, on the relation between them - asi |
| Part of | Mahabharata, Bhishma Parva - the Gita's 700 verses across 18 chapters |
🗺️ Where It Sits
Chapter 13 opens the final shatka, chapters 13 to 18, whose subject is the relation between the individual and the supreme — the third term of the three the tradition maps onto tat tvam asi.
Its method is analytic. Krishna introduces a distinction that the remaining chapters use repeatedly: the kshetra, the field, and the kshetrajna, the knower of the field.
🌾 The Field and the Knower (13.1–13.6)
Krishna names this body the field, and the one who knows it the knower of the field. He then adds the claim that makes the chapter more than a piece of analysis: know me also to be the knower of the field in all fields. The knowledge of the field and its knower is, he says, true knowledge.
He then itemises what the field consists of: the five great elements, ego, intellect, the unmanifest, the ten senses and the mind, the five objects of sense — together with desire, aversion, pleasure, pain, the aggregate, consciousness and firmness. Everything on that list is field, including desire, pleasure and pain. The knower is what is left over.
📚 The Twenty Marks of Knowledge (13.7–13.11)
One of the most quietly remarkable passages in the Gita. Krishna is asked what knowledge is — and he answers with a list of qualities of character, not propositions:
| Sanskrit | Meaning |
|---|---|
| amanitvam | Absence of pride |
| adambhitvam | Absence of pretence |
| ahimsa | Non-injury |
| kshantih | Forbearance |
| arjavam | Uprightness, straightness |
| acharyopasanam | Service of the teacher |
| shaucham | Purity |
| sthairyam | Steadiness |
| atma-vinigrahah | Self-control |
| vairagyam | Dispassion toward sense objects |
| anahankarah | Absence of egotism |
| …and the perception of the evil in birth, death, old age and disease; non-attachment to son, wife and home; constant evenness in the desirable and undesirable; unswerving devotion; resort to solitary places; distaste for crowds; constancy in knowledge of the Self; and insight into the purpose of the knowledge of truth. | |
📌 Why this list is significant
Krishna concludes at 13.11 that this is knowledge, and what is contrary to it is ignorance. Not a doctrine, not a metaphysical proposition — a way of behaving. It is the Gita's most direct statement that knowledge is constituted by character rather than merely accompanied by it.
🌌 The Knowable (13.12–13.18)
Krishna then describes what is to be known — the beginningless supreme Brahman, said to be neither existent nor non-existent. The description proceeds by paradox:
- With hands and feet everywhere, eyes, heads and faces everywhere, hearing everywhere; it stands enveloping all (13.13).
- Shining through the functions of all the senses, and yet without any of the senses; unattached and yet supporting all; without gunas and yet experiencing them (13.14).
- Outside and inside all beings; unmoving and also moving; too subtle to be known; far away and also near (13.15).
- Undivided, and yet appearing as though divided in beings; the sustainer, the devourer and the originator (13.16).
- The light of lights, beyond darkness; knowledge, the object of knowledge, and the goal of knowledge — seated in the hearts of all (13.17).
⚖️ Prakriti and Purusha (13.19–13.34)
The closing section sets out the Sankhya distinction the Gita uses throughout. Both prakriti and purusha are beginningless (13.19). Prakriti is said to be the cause in respect of the agency of cause and effect; purusha is the cause in respect of the experience of pleasure and pain (13.20). Purusha, seated in prakriti, experiences the gunas born of prakriti, and attachment to those gunas is the cause of birth in good and evil wombs (13.21).
Krishna then names the same purusha within the body the witness, the permitter, the supporter, the experiencer, the great lord and the supreme Self (13.22).
The chapter closes with the recognition it has been building toward: one who sees the supreme Lord equally present in all beings, the imperishable within the perishable — that one truly sees (13.27). Seeing so, they do not injure the Self by the self, and reach the highest goal (13.28). And one who sees that all action is performed by prakriti alone, while the Self is not the doer — that one sees (13.29).
⭐ Key Verses
Verses are given in Devanagari, in transliteration, and in plain English. Chapter-and-verse numbering follows the standard vulgate used in most printed editions.
इदं शरीरं कौन्तेय क्षेत्रमित्यभिधीयते ।
एतद्यो वेत्ति तं प्राहुः क्षेत्रज्ञ इति तद्विदः ॥
idaṁ śharīraṁ kaunteya kṣhetram ity abhidhīyate |
etad yo vetti taṁ prāhuḥ kṣhetrajña iti tad-vidaḥ ||
This body, Kaunteya, is called the field; and the one who knows it, those who know such things call the knower of the field.
Verse numbering here follows the 34-verse recension; editions that include Arjuna's opening question number this 13.1 or 13.2 accordingly.
अमानित्वमदम्भित्वमहिंसा क्षान्तिरार्जवम् ।
आचार्योपासनं शौचं स्थैर्यमात्मविनिग्रहः ॥
amānitvam adambhitvam ahiṁsā kṣhāntir ārjavam |
āchāryopāsanaṁ śhauchaṁ sthairyam ātma-vinigrahaḥ ||
Absence of pride, absence of pretence, non-injury, forbearance, uprightness, service of the teacher, purity, steadiness, self-control…
The opening of the twenty marks. Krishna is answering the question “what is knowledge?” — and answering it with a list of character traits.
सर्वतःपाणिपादं तत्सर्वतोऽक्षिशिरोमुखम् ।
सर्वतःश्रुतिमल्लोके सर्वमावृत्य तिष्ठति ॥
sarvataḥ pāṇi-pādaṁ tat sarvato'kṣhi-śhiro-mukham |
sarvataḥ śhrutimal loke sarvam āvṛitya tiṣhṭhati ||
With hands and feet everywhere, with eyes, heads and faces everywhere, with hearing everywhere — it stands, enveloping all.
समं सर्वेषु भूतेषु तिष्ठन्तं परमेश्वरम् ।
विनश्यत्स्वविनश्यन्तं यः पश्यति स पश्यति ॥
samaṁ sarveṣhu bhūteṣhu tiṣhṭhantaṁ parameśhvaram |
vinaśhyatsv avinaśhyantaṁ yaḥ paśhyati sa paśhyati ||
One who sees the supreme Lord abiding equally in all beings, the imperishable within the perishable — that one truly sees.
Yah pashyati sa pashyati — “who sees, he sees.” The construction is emphatic in the Sanskrit.
💡 What the Chapter Teaches
- Everything experienced is “field.” Including desire, pleasure, pain, intellect and ego. The knower is what remains when the whole list is set aside.
- Knowledge is defined as character. Asked what knowledge is, Krishna lists twenty behavioural qualities and concludes that this is knowledge.
- The knowable is described by paradox. Within and without, moving and unmoving, far and near, undivided and seemingly divided.
- Seeing is the test. The chapter's recurring formula is that the one who sees the same in all, and sees action as belonging to prakriti, truly sees.
- The 34 / 35 verse difference is real. Recensions differ on one opening verse, offsetting all subsequent numbering.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between kshetra and kshetrajna?
Kshetra is the field — the body, itemised as the five elements, ego, intellect, the unmanifest, the senses and mind, the sense objects, together with desire, aversion, pleasure and pain. Kshetrajna is the knower — what remains when that whole list is set aside. Krishna adds that he is himself the knower of the field in all fields.
Does Chapter 13 have 34 or 35 verses?
Both are correct depending on recension. The difference is a single opening verse in which Arjuna asks about prakriti, purusha, the field and its knower. Shankara's recension omits it; Ramanuja's and several others include it — so all subsequent numbering is offset by one. The traditional 700-verse total works out with 34.
What are the twenty marks of knowledge in Chapter 13?
Absence of pride and pretence, non-injury, forbearance, uprightness, service of the teacher, purity, steadiness, self-control, dispassion, absence of egotism, perceiving the evil in birth, death, old age and disease, non-attachment to family and home, evenness, unswerving devotion, solitude, distaste for crowds, constancy in Self-knowledge, and insight into its purpose. Krishna concludes: this is knowledge; its opposite is ignorance.
Why does the Gita define knowledge as character traits?
Because at 13.11 Krishna explicitly says that this — the preceding list of behavioural qualities — is knowledge, and its opposite is ignorance. It is the Gita's most direct statement that knowledge is constituted by character rather than merely accompanied by it.
What does Gita 13.27 mean?
That one who sees the supreme Lord abiding equally in all beings, the imperishable within the perishable, truly sees. The Sanskrit — yah pashyati sa pashyati, “who sees, he sees” — is emphatic. It is the chapter's test of genuine understanding, joined at 13.29 by a second: seeing that all action belongs to prakriti while the Self is not the doer.
🙏 Conclusion
Chapter 13 supplies the vocabulary that Chapters 14 to 18 depend on, and it does something unexpected on the way. The list of twenty marks of knowledge contains no doctrine at all — it is absence of pride, absence of pretence, non-injury, forbearance, straightness, purity, steadiness, self-control, dispassion, absence of ego. A reader who arrived expecting metaphysics is told that knowledge is a way of behaving. The rest of the chapter then describes what is known in a series of deliberate contradictions, and settles on a single test: whoever sees the same thing present equally in everything — that one sees.