Verse 1
अर्जुन उवाच | प्रकृतिं पुरुषं चैव क्षेत्रं क्षेत्रज्ञमेव च | एतद्वेदितुमिच्छामि ज्ञानं ज्ञेयं च केशव || १ ||
Transliteration
arjuna uvāca prakṛtiṁ puruṣaṁ caiva kṣetraṁ kṣetra-jñam eva ca etad veditum icchāmi jñānaṁ jñeyaṁ ca keśava
Synonyms
arjunaḥ uvāca—Arjuna said; prakṛtim—nature; puruṣam—the enjoyer; ca—also; eva—certainly; kṣetram—the field; kṣetra-jñam—the knower of the field; eva—certainly; ca—also; etat—all this; veditum—to understand; icchāmi—I wish; jñānam—knowledge; jñeyam—the object of knowledge; ca—also; keśava—O Keshava.
Translation
“Arjuna said: O Keshava, I wish to know about Prakriti and Purusha, the Field and the Knower of the Field, knowledge and the object of knowledge.”
Multi-Tradition Commentary
Chapter 13 opens with Arjuna's question covering three fundamental pairs: Prakriti/Purusha (matter and consciousness), Kshetra/Kshetrajna (the field and its knower), and Jnana/Jneya (knowledge and the knowable). These are not separate questions but three ways of asking the same deepest question: what am I, and what is the world? The entire Vedantic tradition rests on correctly answering this question.
Practical Application (Modern Life)
This question is the beginning of Jnana Yoga — the path of discriminative inquiry. Ask yourself: 'Am I the body that experiences, or the awareness that witnesses the body experiencing?' This simple question, held sincerely, is the entry point into the deepest spiritual inquiry.