BG 13.16 — Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhagavad Gītā 13.16Chapter 13 · Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña-Vibhāga-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · anuṣṭubh

अविभक्तं च भूतेषु विभक्तमिव च स्थितम् ।

भूतभर्तृ च तज् ज्ञेयं ग्रसिष्णु प्रभविष्णु च ॥

avibhaktaṃ ca bhūteṣu vibhaktam iva ca sthitam

bhūta-bhartṛ ca taj jñeyaṃ grasiṣṇu prabhaviṣṇu ca

spokensingle-voice recital; rendered via IndicF5 conditioned on a Sanskrit reference clip

meaning

That which is to be known stands undivided among all beings though it appears divided, sustaining them, consuming them, and bringing them forth again.

ekras · bhāṣya

Undivided in beings, yet appearing divided. The jneya is bhuta-bhartri, sustainer of beings; grasishnu, the consumer; prabhavishnu, the bringer-forth again. Three cosmic functions named in one breath: sustenance, dissolution, generation. The same one Brahman that the disciple is to know operates as the world's deep rhythm.

Shankara reads precisely. The kshetra appears divided among individual bodies — gods, humans, stones — but the knowing ground is indivisible, one Brahman without remainder. The image is rajju-sarpa-abhasa: the rope-snake appearing as many but only rope. Bhutatvam — the appearance of being-many — is appearance only; the moving and the unmoving are both the superimposed image, not the substrate. The jneya is therefore the substrate, not any of its appearances.

Madhusudana synthesizes Shankara's rope-snake image with devotional warmth. All fabricated appearances — kalpita — share a single unfabricated substratum, akalpita-adhishthana, which pervades them as the rope pervades its apparent snake. Bahir-antah cha — both outside and inside. Because this substratum is the self of all, nothing stands apart from it; yet its formlessness means it cannot be located in any one place. The bhakta who recognizes this recognizes Krishna as the everywhere-substrate that does not exclude any of His expressions.

Ramanuja reads with characteristic warmth: the single knower-self pervades all beings — god-forms and human-forms alike — without division, yet the unwise perceive it as divided, identifying 'I am a god' or 'I am a human' by deha-samanadhikaranya, body-coincidence. Three distinguishing functions mark the jiva as categorically other than the material elements: bhutatr — sustainer; grasishnu — drawer-in; prabhavishnu — bringer-forth. The functions belong to the conscious knower, not to the inert field.

Madhva reads on the bheda-frame: every term marks Hari's absolute svatantra-lordship. Avibhaktam cha bhuteshu vibhaktam iva cha — the jneya stands undivided in all bhutas and yet appears divided. He sustains, consumes, and generates all that exists. The appearance of division is the jiva's perceptual condition; the reality is Hari's sovereign indivisibility. The functions belong to Hari alone; the jiva participates only as paratantra witness.

Vallabha reads through pushti-marga: the entire manifest world — moving and unmoving — is Krishna Himself in His svabhava. Sarvam khalv idam brahma of Chandogya means literally that the inert achara and the animate chara are both His play-forms. The Isha Upanishad mantra tad ejati tan naijati — that moves, that does not move — reads directly into this verse: the one who both moves and does not move is Krishna in His double mode.

Shridhara reads through the gold-ornament image: just as gold is both inside and outside every bangle and earring, the jneya is the material ground both within and around all moving and unmoving things. Its sukshmatva — being free of form and color — means it cannot be grasped as 'this is it,' idam iti, by any ordinary perception. For the ignorant it remains avijneya; for the bhakta it is recognized through the qualities the chapter has been listing.

Context

where

Chapter 13 · Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña-Vibhāga-Yoga · meter anuṣṭubh

who speaks

Krishna → Arjuna

preceded by — BG 13.15

It dwells outside all beings and within them, it is the unmoving and the moving both; too subtle to be known directly, it stands at a distance and yet close enough to touch.

What's going on

That which is to be known stands undivided among all beings though it appears divided, sustaining them, consuming them, and bringing them forth again.

Sūtras through this verse (54)

ĀnandagiriclassicalA

The two-niṣṭhā axisbetween

13.1Two niṣṭhās, three kāṇḍas — keystone.───→here13.16───→18.78Sealed: the means stands on the end stands.

RāmānujaclassicalA

World as the Lord's body (antaryāmin)between

13.2Field and knower both predicate Me.───→here13.16───→13.32Touches without being stained.

VallabhaclassicalD

Chapter-opening preludesbetween

13.2Architectural claim: the Lord's own bhāṣya.───→here13.16───→14.1Two-verse prelude names guṇa-vibhāga.

show all 54

ĀnandagiriclassicalB

Three hexads = tat tvam asibetween

13.1Vākyārtha hexad begins. Anchor.───→here13.16───→15.20Whole teaching named guhyatamaṃ śāstram.

ĀnandagiriclassicalD

Praśna-bīja chapter openingsbetween

13.1Ch 13 opens by binding to the middle hexad.───→here13.16───→18.1Final chapter compresses seed and answer.

ĀnandagiriclassicalE

Pūrvapakṣa via nanu / āśaṅkyabetween

13.1Boundary protected by stylized doubt.───→here13.16───→18.66Closing verse opened by doubt-and-answer.

ĀnandagiriclassicalG

Anūdyate, na vidhīyatebetween

13.7Twenty jñāna-qualities: still description.───→here13.16───→14.22Guṇātīta-lakṣaṇa follows the same rule.

ĀnandagiriclassicalJ

Prakṛti is never autonomousbetween

13.1Prakṛti's autonomy blocked at boundary. Anchor.───→here13.16───→14.1Modes belong to the Lord's prakṛti.

ĀnandagiriclassicalL

Akṣarayojanā — word-fit firstbetween

13.1Same discipline at the keystone chapter.───→here13.16───→18.1Final chapter opens with the same form.

Gauravmodernchaplaincy_kit_of_tools

Chaplaincy Kit Of Toolsbetween

13.7Itihasa stories and the witness virtues. 'Amanitvam adambhitvam ahimsa kshantir ───→here13.16───→17.15Mantra and speech. 'Anudvega-karam vakyam satyam priya-hitam cha yat, svadhyaya-

Gauravmoderninterfaith_cosmology

Interfaith Cosmologybetween

9.29'Samo'ham sarva-bhuteshu na me dveshyo'sti na priyah.' I am equal in all beings;───→here13.16───→13.27'Samam sarveshu bhuteshu tishthantam parameshvaram.' The same Lord seated equal

Gauravmodernsanatana_dharma_101

Sanatana Dharma 101between

9.27Dharma-as-offering pillar. 'Yat karoshi yad ashnasi yaj juhoshi dadasi yat.' Gau───→here13.16───→13.27Atman / Brahman pillar. 'Samam sarveshu bhuteshu tishthantam parameshvaram.' The

Gauravmodernwitness_self_neti_neti

Witness Self Neti Netibetween

6.29'Sarva-bhuta-stham atmanam sarva-bhutani cha'tmani, ikshate yoga-yuktatma sarvat───→here13.16───→13.32'Anaditvan nirgunatvat paramatma'yam avyayah, sharira-stho'pi Kaunteya na karoti

RāmānujaclassicalC

Three ṣaṭkas (1–6 / 7–12 / 13–18)between

13.1Open the third ṣaṭka: field and knower.───→here13.16───→14.1Beyond sāṅkhya: the modes that bind.

RāmānujaclassicalF

Two prakṛtis · jīva as eternal aṃśabetween

7.13Modes hide the higher.───→here13.16───→13.20Both natures beginningless.

RāmānujaclassicalG

Māyā is real causal powerbetween

13.2Those who posit ajñāna in Brahman fail.───→here13.16───→18.61The yantrin reading forecloses the residue.

RāmānujaclassicalI

Vibhūti as evidence for antaryāminbetween

13.2The whole vibhūti clinches sāmānādhikaraṇya.───→here13.16───→18.42Even brāhmaṇa grounded here.

RamsukhdasclassicalA

What binds you (and how to let go)between

12.20The devotee holds this teaching dearest.───→here13.16───→13.21Clinging to modes is why you are reborn.

RamsukhdasclassicalD

The three modes (sattva, rajas, tamas) at workbetween

7.12The modes come from the Lord, not in Him.───→here13.16───→13.21Clinging to modes causes any new birth.

RamsukhdasclassicalI

The Lord already inside the heartbetween

10.20I am the Self in every heart.───→here13.16───→13.17The Knowable lives as the inner light.

RamsukhdasclassicalK

The body is not yoursbetween

6.3Body, senses, and mind: none of them yours.───→here13.16───→13.20Nature causes the act; you only experience.

Ramsukhdasclassical

Sādhaka Sañjīvanī commentary at this versebetween

───→here13.16───→

RāmānujaclassicalK

Tri-guṇa diagnostic for the bhaktaapproach

───→here13.16───→13.20Both natures cause the body's binding.

Gauravmodernthree_yogas_braid

Three Yogas Braidexit

12.12'Shreyo hi jnanam abhyasaj jnanad dhyanam vishishyate, dhyanat karma-phala-tyaga───→here13.16───→

Madhvaclassicalmadhva_pratibimba

Madhva Pratibimbabetween · other

9.9Like one detached, not actually───→here13.16───→13.30Seer of non-action by Hari's light

AbhinavaguptaclassicalE

Field and field-knower as Parameśvarabetween

13.12Hands and feet on every side, beyond all.───→here13.16───→15.16Two persons inside the field, one beyond.

MadhvaclassicalT2

Soul depends on Lord — the gap that does not closebetween

6.9Souls differ by nature not by accident alone.───→here13.16───→13.23Soul and Lord coexist in the body, not as one.

MadhvaclassicalT5

Mirror-and-image — how seeming-action worksbetween

9.9He sits like one detached, not actually detached.───→here13.16───→13.30The seer of non-action sees by Hari's light.

MadhvaclassicalT8

Direct vision — the only proximate causebetween

12.12Anabhimlāna-śruti names every rung in order.───→here13.16───→13.25Three classes, one ladder, each class on a different rung.

ŚrīdharaclassicalA

The Gītā as raft across griefbetween

13.2For their rescue, truth-knowledge is uttered.───→here13.16───→18.66I shall release you from every wrong.

ŚrīdharaclassicalL

Chapter prefaces as the bhāṣya's spinebetween

13.2I lift my devotees, so I now teach truth.───→here13.16───→14.1Now, the highest of all knowings.

VallabhaclassicalF

Soul as part of the highest Personbetween

13.3The soul is part of the supreme Person.───→here13.16───→15.7The soul is My eternal part — its ānanda hidden. .

VallabhaclassicalJ

Strategic silence — pointers, not absencesbetween

13.1Skipped — the next verse's prelude does the work.───→here13.16───→13.24The threefold-knower catalogue goes to silence.

VallabhaclassicalK

Aphorism, gloss, full commentarybetween

13.2The Lord himself writes the third ṣaṭka. .───→here13.16───→15.15The bhāṣya-author is named by the Lord himself.

ŚrīdharaclassicalG

Soul as His portion, neither cut nor identicalapproach

───→here13.16───→14.26Fit for the state of brahman, not fused.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalA

Knowing and acting are one powerexit

11.34Already slain — the question is finally retired.───→here13.16───→

AbhinavaguptaclassicalC

Vision is the structural centerexit

11.49Cosmic returns to gracious; ananya means non-dual.───→here13.16───→

AbhinavaguptaclassicalD

Avatāra: appearance without departureexit

11.46Cosmic and gracious one self-luminous.───→here13.16───→

ŚrīdharaclassicalI

His evenness as ground for refugeexit

13.10A steady evenness is the seeker's mark.───→here13.16───→

VallabhaclassicalE

Three paths, one teaching orderexit

13.2The third ṣaṭka is the Lord's own bhāṣya.───→here13.16───→

ŚaṅkaraclassicalE

Ignorance is the only enemybetween

13.2One Self lights every body as one sun lights all.───→here13.16───→18.66Beginningless habit ends only with self-knowledge.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalK

Liberation while still embodiedbetween

5.29Knowing Me, all wandering ceases at once.───→here13.16───→13.34One Self, untouched, in every body.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalC

Antaryāmin — the indweller as standing referentbetween

13.2'Cāpi' marks two — not one identity.───→here13.16───→15.15Memory and forgetting both come from Him.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalE

Pūrva-pakṣa — name the rival, close the doorbetween

13.3Knower and field: the boundary is sharp.───→here13.16───→18.66Counterfeit reasonings named, then rejected.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalF

Saṅgati — anticipation-and-resolutionbetween

13.1The kṣetra-question resolves 12.20's hint.───→here13.16───→18.1Tyāga-question resolves ch. 16-17's typology.

JayatīrthaclassicalC

Refuting Śaṅkara-style readings, named or unnamedbetween

13.5Brahma-sūtra is text, not just utterance.───→here13.16───→15.16Refusing kṣara=inert, akṣara=soul.

JayatīrthaclassicalI

Lakṣaṇā-control — literal preferred when availablebetween

13.5Brahma-sūtra is text, not paraphrase.───→here13.16───→15.16Bhūta covers jīva; literal range holds.

MadhusūdanaclassicalE

Devotion is how knowing actually arrivesbetween

13.13Only the formless can be the ultimately taught.───→here13.16───→15.1Krishna is the ground, not a partner-god.

MadhusūdanaclassicalH

Krishna with form is the ground beneath formless Brahmanbetween

13.13Not a power-of-the-Lord; the Lord himself, formless.───→here13.16───→14.27I am the foundation of formless Brahman itself.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalH

The Lord is friend of every beingexit

11.55Acting for Me, holding Me supreme — that is the road.───→here13.16───→

JayatīrthaclassicalA

Body and embodied — the inference runs on the dehī sideexit

13.5Field and knower: body-self cut returns.───→here13.16───→

MadhusūdanaclassicalA

Three groups of six: you, the Lord, the joiningexit

13.1The last six work what 'are' really means.───→here13.16───→

Ekrasmodernvairagya

Vairāgya — dispassion as instrumentbetween · v2

13.9Indifference to objects───→here13.16───→15.5Free of pride and delusion

Ekrasmodernparadox_of_doership

Paradox of doership — kartṛtvabetween · v2

5.14Lord neither acts nor causes───→here13.16───→13.20Prakriti causes, puruṣa enjoys

Śabda · lemmas (11 unique · 15 occurrences)

भूतेषु·भूत bhūta ×2 — being, creature; element; past, gone · locative neuter plural noun / compound
विभक्तम् vi-√bhaj — (vi- + bhaj: to share) · nominative neuter singular participle noun
स्थितम् √sthā — to stand, remain (verbal root) · nominative neuter singular participle noun
भर्तृ bhartṛ — supporter, husband, lord (from √bhṛ) · nominative neuter singular noun
ग्रसिष्णु grasiṣṇu — devouring, voracious (from √gras + -iṣṇu) · nominative neuter singular noun
प्रभविष्णु prabhaviṣṇu — powerful, sovereign (from pra- + √bhū + -iṣṇu) · nominative neuter singular noun

show all 11

च ca ×4 — and; (homonym: also the consonant ca)
अविभक्तम् avibhakta — undivided (a- + vibhakta, from vi- + √bhaj) · nominative neuter singular noun
इव iva — like, as if
तत् tad — that (distal demonstrative); also 3rd-person pronoun · nominative neuter singular noun
ज्ञेयम् jñā — to know (verbal root) · nominative neuter singular gdv noun

Praśna · so what (7)

01If the jneya is genuinely undivided, what exactly is doing the dividing — perception, language, karma, or something else — and can that dividing activity itself be observed?
02Ramanuja distinguishes sustainer, consumer and generator as evidence for the knower's distinctness from matter; in a living cell that consumes and replicates, where does that argument land today?

show all 7

03The verse says the jneya is 'dure sthitam' for the ignorant and 'antike' for the wise — is that a difference in the object or a difference in the instrument of knowing?
04Vallabha insists grace is required; Sankara insists inquiry (vicara) is required. Are these competing claims about the same gap or about different gaps?
05The Isa Upanisad mantra appears in three of the six commentaries — what does that convergence signal about which problem the verse was designed to solve?
06If Madhva's commentary is absent, what does its absence tell us about the verse's theological pressure-points — which questions does it force that Dvaita preferred not to answer on these terms?
07The verse names bhu-bhartr (sustainer), grasisnhu (swallower) and prabhavisnhu (generator) — are these three functions a complete list, or is there a gap that later commentators found and filled?

Vyavahāra · try it in your life

Advaita

When a meeting room goes quiet and you notice 'the silence is the same silence as when I am alone' — that noticing is pratici (inward turning). Use it: instead of filling the gap with chatter, hold the recognition that the knowing-space is not divided by the walls or the participants.

Dvaita

In a collaborative project each person has a genuine, irreducible role — not interchangeable parts. Dvaita's insistence on permanent distinctness is a workplace ethic: resist the temptation to flatten colleagues into roles or to merge your identity into the team. Distinct, dependent, and each answerable to the same source.

show all 5

Śuddhādvaita

Identify one activity today that you do 'for yourself' and one you do 'as service.' Then ask whether the energy animating both is actually the same energy. Vallabha's point is that when you feel Krsna's prasada in the first one, the distinction between the two dissolves — not by flattening but by recognition.

Bhakti

The Sridhara gold-ornament image is a concentration practice: look at any object — a cup, a screen, a tree — and ask 'what is it made of, and what is that made of?' Follow the chain back until you hit something that cannot be further reduced. That is 'antike' — it was never far.

Advaita-Bhakti

Madhusudana's 'nihitam guhayam' (placed in the cave of the heart) is an anchor phrase for anxious moments. When the jneya feels cosmically remote and the mind is overwhelmed, the prescription is not more analysis but a single inward turn — the cave is already there, the presence already placed. Use the phrase as a reset, not a conclusion.

Adhiṣṭhāna · substrate signature

substratev2.6-frozen

parserByT5-Sanskrit-multitask (Nehrdich/Hellwig/Keutzer EMNLP 2024)

mūlaBelvalkar critical edition (BORI 1947), via Ambuda multi-witness

show all metadata

weightsa=1 · b=0.01 · e_v=0.005 · z=0.2 · h=0 · th=0.01

anchorfit on Ramsukhdas's Sādhak Sañjīvanī (1980), frozen across the eight-commentator panel; cross-validated R@4 = 71.6% on Śaṅkara

extracted2026-04-21

methodPaper 1, Section II.B

↓ view raw per-verse object (JSON)↗ per-verse-object schema ↗ substrate code (MIT) + data (CC-BY 4.0)

The schema generalizes to any bounded-polysemy corpus with discrete primary text units, attested witness traditions, identifiable schools, and formal substrate. Port the per-verse object; refit weights on a domain-appropriate Layer-3 anchor; ship.

Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 13, Verse 16: Krishna to Arjuna — Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña-Vibhāga-Yoga