“O scion of Bharata, you should understand that I am also the knower in all bodies, and to understand this body and its owner is called knowledge. That is My opinion.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 13.3)

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क्षेत्रज्ञं चापि मां विद्धि सर्वक्षेत्रेषु भारत
क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञयोर्ज्ञानं यत्तज्ज्ञानं मतं मम

kṣetra-jñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi
sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata
kṣetra-kṣetrajñayor jñānaṁ
yat taj jñānaṁ mataṁ mama

“The following argument was presented to me recently. It was in response to sharing a verse from Bhagavad-gita where Shri Krishna describes how the fools never understand Him properly. Yes, I am aware of the irony to the situation, as you will see it develop. In discussing this verse, the person I was talking to had a response along the following lines.

“Surely, Krishna is to be respected. He is Brahman. He is a Brahman-realized individual. He is something like a prophet. However, due to the advaita principle, everyone else is Brahman, as well. This is the meaning to nondual. By definition, advaita is the lack of dvaita. The principle negates duality. That is the meaning to Brahman, that everything is part of a singular collective.

“This person then argues that for anyone to say they are superior, that they are higher than anyone else, is inherently wrong. This is because one spark of Brahman can never be different from another. Based on this logic, the fact that Shri Krishna calls others fools for not recognizing Him indicates a flaw. It is a defect. In essence, Krishna is wrong.

“What is the proper response? We are all Brahman, right? Advaita means that we are non-different from Divinity. I believe advaita is one way to describe the Supreme Lord, also. Krishna is advaita, along with achyuta, anadi, and a host of other Sanskrit terms that are negations of commonly experienced factors in duality.”

If choosing a humorous approach as the initial response, we could say that since Krishna is Brahman, He can never be wrong. To be wrong means that it is possible to be right. The Sanskrit terms to describe these pairs are guna and dosha. Goswami Tulsidas reveals that this pair is actually created by Hari, who is God. Duality is part of the maya controlled by Hari. Only Hari can remove that illusion.

हरि माया कृत दोष गुन बिनु हरि भजन न जाहिं
भजिअ राम सब काम तजि अस बिचारि मन माहिं

hari māyā kṛta doṣa guna binu hari bhajana na jāhiṃ
bhajia rāma saba kāma taji asa bicāri mana māhiṃ

“Good and bad, which are part of the illusion created by Hari, cannot be removed without worshiping Hari. Keeping this in mind, worship Rama and renounce all desires.” (Dohavali, 127)

Of course, if by identifying with Brahman every person is pure and without flaws, then it means no one can be wrong. About anything. Therefore, to say that Krishna is wrong is by itself wrong. To offer instruction to anyone, to teach a child how to speak, how to read, how to drive a car, how to avoid the dangers of addiction to drugs and alcohol – all such instruction is invalid. This is because even the child is Brahman. Therefore, the child has an inviolable nature of truth and light.

In all seriousness, we see that it takes only a few seconds to dispel such sophistry. Everyone is indeed Brahman, but there is a reason that we require instruction. We have fallen victim to illusion, which is known as maya. We need help. If we were always Brahman, if we were always in the state of Divine realization, we would never require something called realization.

It is in this very category that Krishna makes the stipulation. Krishna is never under illusion. Since He is always in what can be compared to the Brahman state, He is known as Parabrahman. This is a distinction with a notable difference. He stands supreme over others. It is out of His causeless mercy that the one who is advaita decides to roam through a world full of dvaita in order to help those who are suffering. In this interaction, Krishna is not affected. He is never under the control of maya; rather, He controls maya.

A single verse from Bhagavad-gita serves as the proper refutation, putting to rest any lingering confusion. This shloka falls within the context of describing the difference between the knower and the field. We are all living in something that is like a field, kshetra. We are different from this field, as evidenced by the ever-changing body. We were once in a field that resembled a child. Today, we are in the field of an adult, and after departing we will end up in another kind of field.

देहिनो ऽस्मिन् यथा देहे
कौमारं यौवनं जरा
तथा देहान्तर-प्राप्तिर्
धीरस् तत्र न मुह्यति

dehino ‘smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati

“As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.13)

Since we are different from the field, we have a different position. We are the knower of the field. We are the kshetrajna to the kshetra. This is not difficult to understand. At the same time, our range of observation is limited. We are the knower only inside of our respective field. You are the kshetrajna inside of your kshetra. Perhaps in the case of an advanced mystic yogi, they can reveal certain details about ourselves that only we would know, but that range of perception still has its limits.

Shri Krishna is also kshetrajna, but inside of all fields. This is how we know He is the Supreme Lord. There is only one universal knower. If we know nothing else about God, about where He lives, about what He might look like, about how He might choose to behave, we can know Him in truth by understanding that He knows everything, everywhere and all the time, through His role as the universal kshetrajna.

In Closing:

Whereby limited is my perception,
To say all the same is deception.

Because even if as Brahman known,
Limitations to potency shown.

Shri Krishna with different standing,
As the only one understanding.

From the universal knower to call,
Privy to the fields pertaining all.

Categories: questions, the maya of hari

Tags: bhagavad-gita, dailyprompt, poem, poems, poetry, vedanta