The Bhagavad Gita by Eknath Easwaran

chapter thirteen
╭ The Field & the Knower
T his chapter presents us with
two sweeping categories: the “field” and the “knower of the
field.” To simplify, we may think of the field as the body and
the knower of the field as the Self that resides in the body. This
chapter, then, is about the duality between “soul and body.”
This duality is seen as eternal, a basic division of all things – a
fundamental concept elaborated in Sankhya philosophy.
We said that the “field” is the body, but this is not precise
enough. The field also includes the mind: in fact, it comprises
all the components of prakriti including ahamkara – the
awareness each of us has that we are an individual ego, from
aham “I” and kara “maker.” Ahamkara is the basic awareness
of separateness: that which makes me “I,” a being separate
from the rest of creation. In this wide sense the field encompasses
everything, except for the elusive consciousness that
“knows” the field. The field is the object; the knower is the
subject. Krishna is the hidden knower of the field: that is, the
Self.
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