BG 13.20 — Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhagavad Gītā 13.20Chapter 13 · Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña-Vibhāga-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · anuṣṭubh

कार्यकरणकर्तृत्वे हेतुः प्रकृतिरुच्यते ।

पुरुषः सुखदुःखानां भोक्तृत्वे हेतुरुच्यते ॥

kārya-karaṇa-kartṛtve hetuḥ prakṛtir ucyate

puruṣaḥ sukha-duḥkhānāṃ bhoktṛtve hetur ucyate

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

meaning

*Prakṛti* is the cause of the body, the senses, and the capacity for action; *puruṣa* is the cause of the experiencing of pleasure and pain.

ekras · bhāṣya

Prakriti is named the cause of karya — the body; karana — the senses; kartritve — agency. Purusha is named the cause of bhoktritva — experiencing — of sukha and duhkha, pleasure and pain.

Krishna divides the field: prakriti is responsible for the doing; purusha is responsible for the tasting. The body acts because matter is structured for action; pleasure and pain register because consciousness is structured to register them.

Shankara reads precisely. Prakriti and purusha are both anadi — they are the two powers of Ishvara without which lordship itself would be impossible. Prakriti, the tri-guna maya-shakti, is the cause of all vikara — body, senses, and their objects. Purusha, the unchanging witness, is the cause of bhoga — experience of sukha-duhkha. The verse's allocation is precise: doing belongs to the field; tasting belongs to the witness. Crucially, the witness's bhoktritva is not the witness's contamination — it is the structural fact that without consciousness no experience occurs.

Madhusudana reads the verse through the chapter 7 prakritis. The kshetra-lakshana tri-guna maya-shakti is the cause of vikara — the sixteen — and guna-parinamana — the three. The jiva-purusha is the cause of bhoga because his dharma-adharma generates the karmic field he then inhabits. Both registers operate together: Sankhya names what is happening; Vedanta names what is real.

Ramanuja reads with characteristic warmth: the body, karya, and the cognitive-action senses, karana, act because prakriti — the mode of matter that is Bhagavan's body — is their efficient cause when animated by the purusha who dwells within as adhishthatri, indwelling controller. The purusha's kartritva is real but derivative: it is the capacity to initiate effort for body-dwelling, dependent on Ishvara's sustaining presence. The bhakta's agency belongs to him; the agency's possibility belongs to Bhagavan.

Madhva reads on the bheda-frame: prakriti with its vikara — the guna-triad of sattva, rajas, tamas — is the instrumental cause of all karya in the body-world. The vikaras are enumerated separately from the gunas because even a small difference from the state of laya — dissolution — constitutes sarga, manifestation. The jiva-purusha is the eternally distinct experiencer, real in his bhoktritva, dependent on Hari for the conditions of bhoga.

Vallabha reads prakriti and purusha not as the inert Sankhya dyad but as Bhagavan's own svarupa-shaktis — maya-shakti, the unmanifest causal power, and its amsha-jivas, partial expressions — both anadi because non-different from the one anadi Purushottama.

Bhagavan yad-rcchaya, by sovereign will, enters the sukshma-daivi-guna-mediated field and the entire causal frame is His lila.

Shridhara reads cleanly: prakriti and purusha both anadi — were they to have a beginning, an infinite regress of prior causes would follow. Therefore Parameshvara's shaktis must be eternal, as Shankara's bhashya itself extensively establishes. Vikara — body, senses — and guna-parinamana — sukha, duhkha, moha — name the precise causal labor of the field, while the witness remains the structural condition of any experience at all.

Context

where

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

who speaks

Krishna → Arjuna

preceded by — BG 13.19

Know that prakṛti and puruṣa are both without beginning, and that every modification of the field, together with the three guṇas, is born of prakṛti alone.

What's going on

Prakṛti is the cause of the body, the senses, and the capacity for action; puruṣa is the cause of the experiencing of pleasure and pain.

Sūtras through this verse (54)

ĀnandagiriclassicalA

The two-niṣṭhā axisbetween

13.1Two niṣṭhās, three kāṇḍas — keystone.───→here13.20───→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.───→here13.20───→13.32Touches without being stained.

VallabhaclassicalD

Chapter-opening preludesbetween

13.2Architectural claim: the Lord's own bhāṣya.───→here13.20───→14.1Two-verse prelude names guṇa-vibhāga.

show all 54

RamsukhdasclassicalK

The body is not yoursstation · anchor

───→here13.20───→

ĀnandagiriclassicalB

Three hexads = tat tvam asibetween

13.1Vākyārtha hexad begins. Anchor.───→here13.20───→15.20Whole teaching named guhyatamaṃ śāstram.

ĀnandagiriclassicalD

Praśna-bīja chapter openingsbetween

13.1Ch 13 opens by binding to the middle hexad.───→here13.20───→18.1Final chapter compresses seed and answer.

ĀnandagiriclassicalE

Pūrvapakṣa via nanu / āśaṅkyabetween

13.1Boundary protected by stylized doubt.───→here13.20───→18.66Closing verse opened by doubt-and-answer.

ĀnandagiriclassicalG

Anūdyate, na vidhīyatebetween

13.7Twenty jñāna-qualities: still description.───→here13.20───→14.22Guṇātīta-lakṣaṇa follows the same rule.

ĀnandagiriclassicalJ

Prakṛti is never autonomousbetween

13.1Prakṛti's autonomy blocked at boundary. Anchor.───→here13.20───→14.1Modes belong to the Lord's prakṛti.

ĀnandagiriclassicalL

Akṣarayojanā — word-fit firstbetween

13.1Same discipline at the keystone chapter.───→here13.20───→18.1Final chapter opens with the same form.

RāmānujaclassicalF

Two prakṛtis · jīva as eternal aṃśastation

───→here13.20───→

RāmānujaclassicalK

Tri-guṇa diagnostic for the bhaktastation

───→here13.20───→

RamsukhdasclassicalK

The body is not yoursstation

───→here13.20───→

Gauravmodernchaplaincy_kit_of_tools

Chaplaincy Kit Of Toolsbetween

13.7Itihasa stories and the witness virtues. 'Amanitvam adambhitvam ahimsa kshantir ───→here13.20───→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;───→here13.20───→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───→here13.20───→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───→here13.20───→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.───→here13.20───→14.1Beyond sāṅkhya: the modes that bind.

RāmānujaclassicalG

Māyā is real causal powerbetween

13.2Those who posit ajñāna in Brahman fail.───→here13.20───→18.61The yantrin reading forecloses the residue.

RāmānujaclassicalI

Vibhūti as evidence for antaryāminbetween

13.2The whole vibhūti clinches sāmānādhikaraṇya.───→here13.20───→18.42Even brāhmaṇa grounded here.

RamsukhdasclassicalA

What binds you (and how to let go)between

12.20The devotee holds this teaching dearest.───→here13.20───→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.───→here13.20───→13.21Clinging to modes causes any new birth.

RamsukhdasclassicalI

The Lord already inside the heartbetween

13.17The Knowable lives as the inner light.───→here13.20───→15.15Seated in every heart; memory comes from Me.

Gauravmodernthree_yogas_braid

Three Yogas Braidexit

12.12'Shreyo hi jnanam abhyasaj jnanad dhyanam vishishyate, dhyanat karma-phala-tyaga───→here13.20───→

Madhvaclassicalmadhva_pratibimba

Madhva Pratibimbabetween · other

9.9Like one detached, not actually───→here13.20───→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.───→here13.20───→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.───→here13.20───→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.───→here13.20───→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.───→here13.20───→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.───→here13.20───→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.───→here13.20───→14.1Now, the highest of all knowings.

VallabhaclassicalF

Soul as part of the highest Personbetween

13.3The soul is part of the supreme Person.───→here13.20───→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.───→here13.20───→13.24The threefold-knower catalogue goes to silence.

VallabhaclassicalK

Aphorism, gloss, full commentarybetween

13.2The Lord himself writes the third ṣaṭka. .───→here13.20───→15.15The bhāṣya-author is named by the Lord himself.

ŚrīdharaclassicalG

Soul as His portion, neither cut nor identicalapproach

───→here13.20───→14.26Fit for the state of brahman, not fused.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalA

Knowing and acting are one powerexit

11.34Already slain — the question is finally retired.───→here13.20───→

AbhinavaguptaclassicalC

Vision is the structural centerexit

11.49Cosmic returns to gracious; ananya means non-dual.───→here13.20───→

AbhinavaguptaclassicalD

Avatāra: appearance without departureexit

11.46Cosmic and gracious one self-luminous.───→here13.20───→

ŚrīdharaclassicalI

His evenness as ground for refugeexit

13.10A steady evenness is the seeker's mark.───→here13.20───→

VallabhaclassicalE

Three paths, one teaching orderexit

13.2The third ṣaṭka is the Lord's own bhāṣya.───→here13.20───→

ŚaṅkaraclassicalE

Ignorance is the only enemybetween

13.2One Self lights every body as one sun lights all.───→here13.20───→18.66Beginningless habit ends only with self-knowledge.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalK

Liberation while still embodiedbetween

5.29Knowing Me, all wandering ceases at once.───→here13.20───→13.34One Self, untouched, in every body.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalC

Antaryāmin — the indweller as standing referentbetween

13.2'Cāpi' marks two — not one identity.───→here13.20───→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.───→here13.20───→18.66Counterfeit reasonings named, then rejected.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalF

Saṅgati — anticipation-and-resolutionbetween

13.1The kṣetra-question resolves 12.20's hint.───→here13.20───→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.───→here13.20───→15.16Refusing kṣara=inert, akṣara=soul.

JayatīrthaclassicalI

Lakṣaṇā-control — literal preferred when availablebetween

13.5Brahma-sūtra is text, not paraphrase.───→here13.20───→15.16Bhūta covers jīva; literal range holds.

MadhusūdanaclassicalE

Devotion is how knowing actually arrivesbetween

13.13Only the formless can be the ultimately taught.───→here13.20───→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.───→here13.20───→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.───→here13.20───→

JayatīrthaclassicalA

Body and embodied — the inference runs on the dehī sideexit

13.5Field and knower: body-self cut returns.───→here13.20───→

MadhusūdanaclassicalA

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

13.1The last six work what 'are' really means.───→here13.20───→

Ekrasmodernparadox_of_doership

Paradox of doership — kartṛtvastation · v2 · station 4/6

───→here13.20───→

Ekrasmodernvairagya

Vairāgya — dispassion as instrumentbetween · v2

13.9Indifference to objects───→here13.20───→15.5Free of pride and delusion

Śabda · lemmas (11 unique · 14 occurrences)

हेतुः hetu ×2 — cause, reason, motive · nominative masculine singular noun
पुरुषः puruṣa — person, man; the cosmic Person; the Self (Sāṅkhya/Vedānta) · nominative masculine singular noun

show all 11

त्वे tva ×2 — you-ness; abstract suffix making 'X-ness' from X · locative neuter singular noun
उच्यते √vac ×2 — to speak (verbal root) · present indicative pass 3rd person singular verb
कार्य kārya — to be done, duty, effect · compound · also at 2.25, 2.28, 3.5, 3.17, 3.19, 4.16 +7
करण karaṇa — instrument, organ, means; act of doing · compound
कर्तृ kartṛ — doer, agent (from √kṛ) · compound
प्रकृतिः prakṛti — primordial nature (pra- + √kṛ 'do' — 'that from which all is made') · nominative feminine singular noun
सुख sukha — happiness, pleasure, ease · compound
दुःखानाम् duḥkha — suffering, sorrow, pain · genitive neuter plural noun
भोक्तृ bhoktṛ — enjoyer, experiencer (from √bhuj) · compound

Praśna · so what (7)

01If prakrti is the real cause of action (kartrtva) and purusa only the witness-experiencer, who exactly bears moral responsibility for what the body does — and does the answer differ across these six schools?
02The verse says purusa is the 'cause of experiencing' sukha and duhkha — but the schools disagree sharply on whether that experiencing is real, borrowed, or illusory. What hangs on that disagreement for a practitioner trying to reduce suffering?

show all 7

03Anadi (beginninglessness) is asserted for both prakrti and purusa — yet three of the six schools also insist on Isvara's ultimate causation. How do they hold both claims without contradiction?
04Madhva insists even a tiny vikara difference from laya (dissolution) constitutes a fresh sarga (manifestation) — what does that imply for how we understand moment-to-moment mental fluctuation as a form of ongoing cosmogenesis?
05Vallabha reads this verse through Bhagavata 3.26: the Lord entered prakrti as lila, not bondage. If ordinary jivas replicate that pattern, what would it mean to live one's entanglement in matter as lila rather than as trap?
06The Advaita-bhakti school (Madhusudana) warns against krtahani and akrtabhyagama — the injustice of deeds going unrewarded or unpunished. How does the prakrti-purusa framework here serve as a guarantee of moral accountability in the cosmos?
07All six schools agree prakrti produces the gunas and their modifications (sukha, duhkha, moha). Is the goal to exit that production entirely, to redirect it, or to see through it — and which goal corresponds to which school?

Vyavahāra · try it in your life

Advaita

When a wave of anger or grief sweeps through you, practice the inquiry: 'Is this vikara happening in prakrti, or am I it?' The Advaita move is to locate the witnessing silence that watches the storm — body tense, thoughts churning, yet something unchanging notices. Daily: before reacting, one breath as the sakshi (witness), not the actor.

Viśiṣṭādvaita

Your competence at work — the hands that build, the mind that plans — is karya-karana operating through you as adhishthatr (indwelling purusa). Ramamuja's application: dedicate the effort deliberately to Bhagavan as the real agent; receive pleasure and pain as Bhagavan's kainkarya-prasad (grace of service-experience), not personal score. This is not passivity; it is re-attributing the authorship of action.

show all 6

Dvaita

Every moment of genuine joy or genuine sorrow is real data about your jiva-svabhava (individual soul's nature) in its current entanglement with the gunas. Madhva's application: do not dismiss experience as illusion. Instead, read sukha-duhkha as the meter showing how closely you are oriented toward Hari's will — pain signals misalignment, joy signals kainkarya (devoted service).

Śuddhādvaita

Vallabha's lila-lens transforms the 'trap' into a play-space: the desires, irritations, and delights of an ordinary day are Bhagavan's own enchantment playing itself out through your field. Practice: once a day, name one recurring vikara (habitual desire or aversion) and ask whether you can hold it as the Lord's lila moving through you rather than as your personal failing. This is not permission to indulge but a shift in the owner of the experience.

Bhakti

Sridhara's bhakti-philological stance yields a practical check: before acting on an impulse, ask which of two columns it belongs to — prakrti-sambhava vikara (the mechanical gunas doing their work) or a genuinely chosen orientation toward Bhagavan. This is not guilt but discernment (viveka). The field runs its course; the question is whether you are identified with the field or turning toward the knower of the field.

Advaita-Bhakti

Madhusudana's synthesis: carry both registers simultaneously. When suffering arrives, use Advaita's jnana-eye to see it as guna-parinamana arising from beginningless prakrti — real but not ultimately yours. Simultaneously use Bhakti's heart to bring that very duhkha to Krsna as an offering, trusting the karmic architecture (dharma-adharma-pruyukta) to be just. The two moves do not cancel; they are the full breath of spiritual life.

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 20: Krishna to Arjuna — Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña-Vibhāga-Yoga