Summary:

Lesson 121 shows 5 points of error where “I” is placed. 3 States of experience also depend on the Knower, thus can't be the Knower. Why we call everything the world, except this body. 3 Levels of Knowing oneself.

Source: Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 13, Verse 1

Revision of 5 Points of Error:

• When Kṣetrajña (knower) identifies with individual layers, it seems to take on attributes of the layer it is identified with. Layers of erroneous identification are:
  1. Annamaya Kosha:
     • STATEMENTS:
       • “I am pretty, unattractive, lean, fat, back pain. I cannot sit down”. All are identities with the BODY.
     • Why it’s not Kṣetrajña?
       • These attributes are all objects of knowledge. They are bunch of “knows” in the presence of the Knower, “I”.
  2. Pranamaya Kosha:
     • STATEMENTS:
       • “My energy levels are low today. I am hungry/thirsty. My blood pressure has shot up. I feel sick and want to vomit”.
       • “I’m dying, going weaker each hour.”
     • Why it’s not Kṣetrajña?
       • Levels of tiredness, hunger, energy is changing throughout the day. Implying there much be an unchanging reality (Kṣetrajña).
         • IE: A fluctuations can only be evidenced in contrast to a non-fluctuation.
  3. Manomaya Kosha:
     • STATEMENTS:
       • I am confused. I have a doubt.
       • I feel lustful, jealous, irritated, intrigued, optimistic, vulnerable.
         • Once “I” (kṣetrajña) identifies with anger, it creates corresponding hormones at level of body.
           • Eyes become flushed red, begin to perspire, and sentences fracture.
     • Why it’s not Kṣetrajña?
       • When emotion goes away, “I” don’t go away. “I” remain, and because I remain, there is Knowing of the coming/going of emotional vacillations.
  4. Vijnanamaya Kosha:
     • STATEMENTS:
       • I believe ___. I think ___.
       • I am a Non-dualist, Christian, Caucasian, Indian, scholar, supporter, action-taker.
       • Mass example: “I’m a Democrat”, “I’m a Republican”.
       • “It is my understanding that ___”.
     • Why it’s not Kṣetrajña?
       • Thoughts are ongoing evolution. If “I” was evolving with them, then I (from standpoint of today), would have no connection to previously evolved thoughts.
         • EG:
           • From standpoint of today, “My thinking has doubled in sharpness since a year ago”.
           • From standpoint of future, “My thinking has quadrupled in sharpness since two years ago.”
         • Implying at any moment, in the presence of self (Kṣetrajña), there is knowledge about quality of thoughts.
  5. Causal Body:
     • How is it known as an Object of Knowledge?
       • When we say “I’m going to sleep”, do we mean:  (A) I’m going to dream (B) I desire to go that place of total freedom of objects. A place of nothingness. No life. No 4 kośas.
         • The fact that you RELATE towards the 2 options given, implies both options are objects of Knowledge. To whom? To Kṣetrajña (self).
       • So what is Deep sleep? Ignorance of objects (because no 4 kośas). And this (ignorance of objects) IS the object of knowledge.
       • This implies Kṣetrajña (knower) is not the Causal Body (the seed of all saṃskāras/prārabdha-karma).

Revision of Kṣetram / Kṣetrajña:

• Knower (kṣetrajña) is one. Known (kṣetram) are many.
• Kṣetrajña is different from kṣetram.
  • 4 LOGICS TO DEMONSTRATE:
    1. I KNOW about the waking, dream and deep sleep state. Thus all 3 states (and everything that happens in them) are different from Me (kṣetrajña).
    2. I can’t be the mind. That would mean as many minds, as many I’s. Meaning a blunt-mind-I would never appreciate a smart-mind-I, since I is dull.
       • But reality is, a dull-mind aspires to be a smart-mind. Meaning the Knower of dull-mind has not taken attributes of the dullness.
    3. We say “My mind/life”, implying possessor and possessed are different. If mind was I, then no one would say “my mind”.
    4. For world/mind to be called “changing”, it is only possible in presence of unchanging substratum. Else one couldn’t relate to yesterday because there would be no “linking unchanging thread” in-and-through each day. The linking-thread can’t be memory because memory involves “doing the remembering”. But there is sense of continuity without effort.

• KṢETRAM:

  • What is difference between body-mind-kṣetram AND world-kṣetram?
  • WORLD:
    • World distanced from body-mind. So easy to identify as not-I. No-one mistakes chair with themselves.
  • BODY-MIND:
    • Body is intimately worn by kṣetrajña (as it were). Thus harder to recognize body as world also.
      • EG: Person mentions everything infront of them except worn spectacles.
      • Once wear spectacles, they’re quickly included in the subject (Knower). Hence instrument originally intended for sight, gets mistaken for “I” (the one looking through the instrument).
    • What is body-mind?
      • Just like spectacles, it’s an instrument for perceiving the world.
      • Meaning:
        • WITH presence of body-mind… I (kṣetrajña) experience the world and my own body-mind (kṣetram)… made up of form/color, sound, tastes, smells, sensations, emotions, thoughts, memories.
        • WITHOUT presence of body-mind, there’s no experience of world; as body-mind gives light to the world. While the kṣetrajña gives light (consciousnesses) to the body-mind.
          • EG: In deep sleep, “I” (kṣetrajña) experience no world. Because there's no body-mind. Although it can be said sukshma-sharira's citta (memory) is still partially operable; that's why there's remembrance of “having slept” after waking.

• KṢETRAJÑA:

  • Pervades the inert body, giving it capacity to be Aware of itself.
  • Known as self-evident existence. Word “known” here isn’t parokṣa-jñānam, but aparokṣa (the ever present subject).
  • So what is human being?
    • Neither, just body-mind, nor just Consciousness. But mixture of both. Combination of kṣetrajña & kṣetra.
• How to convert this kṣetrajña & kṣetra knowledge into actuality:
  • By changing how one thinks about one’s existence.
  • 3 LEVEL OF KNOWING ONESELF:
    • Parokṣa-Jñānam:
      • L1: I am the body.
      • L2: I am the body, and in me there is Consciousness (kṣetrajña).
    • Aparokṣa-Jñānam:
      • L3: I am Consciousness, and body is incidental/borrowed instrument through which I am engaging in the world. Short: I am Consciousness with an incidental body.
      • This needs training through constant repetition (nididhyāsanam) until it transfers from intellectual (parokṣa-jñānam) to actualized (aparokṣa-jñānam).

Keywords: aparoksha-jnanam, ksetra, ksetrajna, kshetra, kshetrajna, pancha kosha, paroksha-jnanam

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Credit for help in Bhagavad Gita teaching given to Swami Dayananda (Arsha Vidya), Paramarthananda & Chinmaya Mission.

Recorded 20 April, 2021