2 The Supreme Lord said: O Arjuna, this (gross and subtle or physical and mental) body is known as the sphere of action, or ksetra. The conscious entity (the soul) who experiences the existence of this body is described by seers of the truth as the knower of the sphere of action, or ksetra-jna.

3 O Bharata, you should also know Me as the knower of all spheres of action (as the Supersoul situated within the heart of all living beings). Such fundamental and essential knowledge of the sphere of action and the knowers of that sphere (knowledge of the mundane, the soul, and the Supersoul) is considered by Me to be actual knowledge.

4 Now hear from Me a summary of the substance and nature of this sphere of action, and in which way it is produced. Also hear of the fundamental form and potency of the knower of the sphere of action.

5 That fundamental principle of the sphere of action and its knower has been variously described in many, many ways by the Rsis, the different Vedic aphorisms, as well as the aphorisms of the Vedanta-sutra scripture, which is replete with sound logic and irrefutable conclusions.

6, 7 The five major elements (earth, water, fire, air, and ether), the personality component of ego, the element of intellect, the primordial element of material nature, the five perceptual senses (eye, tongue, tactile sense, nose, and ear), the five senses of action (voice, hands, legs, anus, and genital), the internal sense (mind), the five acceptable objects of the senses (form, taste, touch, smell, and sound), desire, hatred, happiness, unhappiness, the body, the perceptual faculty of the mind, patience, and the six material transformations of birth, sustenance, growth, maturity, decline, and destruction summarily, all these are known as k�etra, the sphere of action.

8-12 Humility, pridelessness, nonviolence, tolerance, honesty, service to the guru, purity, stability, self-control, detachment from sensual delights, absence of egotism, an objective view of the miserable defects of material life, that is, birth, death, the infirmity of old age, disease, etc., freedom from infatuation with wife, son, home, etc., nonabsorption in the happiness and unhappiness of others, constant equal-mindedness in the contact of desirable or undesirable objects, unfaltering and unadulterated devotion to Me, preference for solitude, indifference to mundane socializing, perception of the eternality of self-knowledge, and realization of the goal of divine knowledge certainly all these have been declared as actual knowledge, and everything apart from this is ignorance.

13 Now I shall describe jneya, the knowable, knowing which the ambrosial taste of internal self-satisfaction can be realized. That element principle is delineated as Brahman. It is beginningless and eternal. Subordinate to Me, it is indescribable in terms of mundane cause and effect.

14 That superior principle presides over all directions, and pervades everything in the universe with His hands, legs, eyes, heads, faces, and ears everywhere (as Paramatma, the Supersoul).

15 Although that supreme principle is the illuminator of all the senses and their objects, He is devoid of material senses; although completely aloof, He is the maintainer of all (in the form of Lord Visnu); and although transcendental to the three modes of material nature, He is servable by that modal nature.

16 Present within and without all beings, the supreme principle is the entirety of moving and stationary beings (as energetic transformation). Imperceptible to material science due to being subtle to the extreme, He is the most intimate, yet the most distant.

17 Although one indivisible element, He is situated as divided among all living beings. Although situated as an individual personality along with each and every soul, He is the indwelling monitor of all beings the singular, indivisible, omnipresent, aggregate Supreme Lord. He (in the form of Lord Narayana) is known as the maintainer, annihilator, and creator of all beings.

18 He is known as the illuminator of even the luminaries. He is known as the unmanifest, beyond even the darkness. He alone is the fundamental principle of knowledge and the knowable, and He is knowable by the aforementioned practices defined as knowledge. He remains situated within everyone's heart as the Supersoul, Paramatma.

19 Thus, the principles of the sphere of action, knowledge, and the knowable (ksetra, jnana, and jneya) have been summarily described by Me. (The knowable has been delineated as Brahman, Paramatma, and Bhagavan.) Thoroughly understanding these truths, My devotees attain to bhavamaya-bhajana they adore Me with all their hearts (having become freed from the color of all designations).

20 You should certainly know material nature and the soul as beginningless; and all bodily, sensual, mental, intellectual, or egoistic transformations, as well as the consequences of the action of the material modes based on happiness, unhappiness, lamentation, and delusion to be born of material nature.

21 Material nature has been delineated as responsible for the cause as the domineering force of the senses, and the effect as the material body; and the (conditioned) soul himself is known to be responsible for his accrued happiness and unhappiness.

22 Only due to being bewitched by material nature (prakrti) does the person (purusa) accrue the various joys and sorrows of that nature. His infatuation with material qualities is the sole cause of his taking repeated births in the wombs of higher and lower species of life.

23 Within this same body (distinct from the soul) the Supreme Person or Parama Purusa is present as the soul's intimate witness, sanctioner, supporter, guardian, and Lord. He is known as the Supersoul.

24 One who thus understands these truths regarding the modal material nature, the predominated soul, and the predominating Supersoul such a person will not take birth again, regardless of his material situation.

25, 26 Some persons directly perceive the Supersoul situated within their hearts by dint of their perfect, pure divine realization. Some perceive Him by discrimination of spirit and matter, and some by meditational yoga or by the yoga path of selfless action. Further, there are those who, not knowing any of these methods, engage in worship after hearing instruction from authorities. When their faith has deepened, by that hearing they certainly surpass this material world of deathly suffering.

27 O Arjuna, best of the Bharatas, whatever is born in the world, whether moving or stationary, know it to be born from the combination of the sphere of action and its knower.

28 One who sees the Supreme Lord (in the form of the Supersoul) situated equally within all species from Lord Brahma down to the immobile life-forms, and who sees the Lord's imperishable nature remaining within the perishable such a person actually sees.

29 One who thus perceives the impartial and full-fledged almighty dominion does not degrade himself with wickedness he progresses toward the supreme destination.

30 One who sees that all action is performed by material nature (in the form of body, senses, and allied paraphernalia), actually sees himself, pure spirit soul, as the nondoer. He perceives that the pure spirit soul has no mundane nature or practice whatsoever.

31 When a truly perceptive person can understand that the differentiation of the various species of life occurs only within material nature (or bodily distinction), and that all are again expanded from the same nature (at the time of universal creation) then he experiences Brahman realization by seeing equally all knowers of the sphere of action (within the relativity of nature).

32 O Arjuna, since the Supersoul is by nature beginningless, transcendental, and eternally perfect, although He is situated in the body (along with the soul), He neither performs any action nor does He become implicated by the nature of the sphere of action (as the conditioned soul does).

33 As ether is situated everywhere (such as in mud) and yet due to its subtle nature does not mix with anything, similarly, although pervading the entire body, the discriminating soul does not mingle with the nature of the body.

34 O Bharata, as one sun illuminates the entire universe so does the knower of the sphere of action, the Supersoul, illuminate the whole universe (and the souls within it); and so does the knower of the sphere of action, the soul, illuminate the entire body.

35 Those who, by the vision of knowledge, can distinguish between the sphere of action and its two knowers, and who can thus know the path of liberation of the soul from matter such persons attain to the transcendental atmosphere.