The Bhagavad Gita by Eknath Easwaran

╭ chapter thirteen
This term “field” is a surprisingly modern one, for it
describes what today we might call an extension of the continuum
of mass, energy, time, and space to include the strata
of mind as well – in other words, a field of forces both physical
and mental. Just as physics no longer regards matter and
energy as essentially separate, the Gita would not regard matter
and mind as separate; they are different aspects of prakriti,
the underlying “stuff ” of existence.
Another dimension of Krishna’s use of the word “field”
is brought out by a traditional Hindu anecdote. A wandering
sadhu or holy man is asked what his work in life is; he
replies, “I’m a farmer.” When the questioner looks surprised
he adds, “This body of mine is my field. I sow good thoughts
and actions, and in my body I reap the results.” The Buddha
explains, “All that we are is the result of what we have thought:
it is founded on our thoughts; it is made of our thoughts.”
What we think, we become, for as Emerson says, the ancestor
of every action is a thought. Thus our thoughts, taken
together, bear fruit in the actions, decisions, and desires that
shape our lives. In part, the body bears the fruit of what we
think insofar as our way of thinking affects our health and
safety. But in a larger sense, the whole field of human activity
(indeed the whole of prakriti) is also a “field of karma” –
where, for example, the global environment is shaped by the
sum of what its inhabitants do, which in turn is shaped by
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