BG 13.4 — Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhagavad Gītā 13.4Chapter 13 · Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña-Vibhāga-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · anuṣṭubh

ऋषिभिर् बहुधा गीतं छन्दोभिर् विविधैः पृथक् ।

ब्रह्मसूत्रपदैश् चैव हेतुमद्भिर् विनिश्चितैः ॥

ṛṣibhir bahudhā gītaṃ chandobhir vividhaiḥ pṛthak

brahma-sūtra-padaiś caiva hetumadbhir viniścitaiḥ

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

meaning

The sages have sung of this truth in many ways and through many Vedic hymns, and the Brahma-sūtra has settled it with precise, reasoned arguments.

ekras · bhāṣya

Sung by rishis in many modes, separately through the various meters of scripture, and concluded by the Brahma-sutra padas with reasoned certainty. The same kshetra-kshetrajna distinction has been sung many ways and finally settled by the Brahma-sutras.

Krishna grounds His teaching in the whole tradition before He delivers it concisely.

Shankara reads precisely. The yathatmya — precise nature — of kshetra and kshetrajna, the field's vikara, its causal ground, and the powers of the kshetrajna that belong to its upadhis: all of this has been declared by the rishis in many modes and clinched by the Brahma-sutras with hetumadbhih vinishchitaih — reasoned, settled. The chapter's authority is the whole tradition; what follows is summary, not innovation.

Madhusudana reads with characteristic precision. The kshetra is jada, drishya, paricchinna, joined with iccha-adi-dharma and indriya-adi-vikara, arising from its cause. The kshetrajna is svaprakasha chaitanya-ananda-svabhava, possessing shaktis that appear as upadhi-krita. The ca-particles gather every qualifier into one comprehensive summary — sung by rishis, by Vedic meters, settled by the Brahma-sutras with reasoned conclusion.

Ramanuja reads with characteristic warmth: the body-field and the knowing soul — and the further truth that both are Vasudeva's body — have been sung by seers such as Parashara, by the four Vedas separately, by the Taittiriya tracing the sheaths from annamaya to anandamaya. The Brahma-sutras settle each piece — the field's nature from na viyad ashruteh, the jiva's nature from na atma ashruteh, and Bhagavan as mover from parat tu tat-shruteh. Hear now in plain summary.

Madhva reads on the bheda-frame: the field is yadvikari — bound to its own modifications. It arises from the Mover and moves by the Mover, and that Mover is svatantra Hari, whose essence is untouched by field-nature. The seers and the Brahma-sutras established the distinction with reasons; the jiva's knower-hood is eternally derivative.

Vallabha reads through pushti-marga: Krishna now elaborates what was compressed — substance, support, modifications, purpose, intrinsic nature, and the kshetrajna's svarupa. The seers sang, the Brahma-sutras settled; but the disciple is to hear it from Krishna directly, not from inference — prasada-disclosure flowing through scripture into the disciple's hearing.

Shridhara reads cleanly: prakriti in its twenty-four divisions is the kshetra, but the body-form is foregrounded because ahamkara — I-making — is most vivid there. The field is jada by nature, possessed of iccha-adi-dharma in its evolved form, joined to indriya-adi-vikara, arising from prakriti-purusha union, differentiated into sthavara and jangama beings. Sung by rishis, by Vedas, settled by Brahma-sutras.

Context

where

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

who speaks

Krishna → Arjuna

preceded by — BG 13.3

Hear from me briefly what this field is, what it is like, how it changes, where it comes from, and who the knower is and what power he holds.

What's going on

The sages have sung of this truth in many ways and through many Vedic hymns, and the Brahma-sūtra has settled it with precise, reasoned arguments.

Sūtras through this verse (54)

ĀnandagiriclassicalA

The two-niṣṭhā axisbetween

13.1Two niṣṭhās, three kāṇḍas — keystone.───→here13.4───→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.───→here13.4───→13.32Touches without being stained.

VallabhaclassicalD

Chapter-opening preludesbetween

13.2Architectural claim: the Lord's own bhāṣya.───→here13.4───→14.1Two-verse prelude names guṇa-vibhāga.

show all 54

ĀnandagiriclassicalB

Three hexads = tat tvam asibetween

13.1Vākyārtha hexad begins. Anchor.───→here13.4───→15.20Whole teaching named guhyatamaṃ śāstram.

ĀnandagiriclassicalD

Praśna-bīja chapter openingsbetween

13.1Ch 13 opens by binding to the middle hexad.───→here13.4───→18.1Final chapter compresses seed and answer.

ĀnandagiriclassicalE

Pūrvapakṣa via nanu / āśaṅkyabetween

13.1Boundary protected by stylized doubt.───→here13.4───→18.66Closing verse opened by doubt-and-answer.

ĀnandagiriclassicalG

Anūdyate, na vidhīyatebetween

12.12Bhakta's gradient read as description.───→here13.4───→13.7Twenty jñāna-qualities: still description.

ĀnandagiriclassicalJ

Prakṛti is never autonomousbetween

13.1Prakṛti's autonomy blocked at boundary. Anchor.───→here13.4───→14.1Modes belong to the Lord's prakṛti.

ĀnandagiriclassicalL

Akṣarayojanā — word-fit firstbetween

13.1Same discipline at the keystone chapter.───→here13.4───→18.1Final chapter opens with the same form.

Gauravmodernchaplaincy_kit_of_tools

Chaplaincy Kit Of Toolsbetween

9.27Karma-as-frame. 'Yat karoshi yad ashnasi yaj juhoshi dadasi yat, yat tapasyasi K───→here13.4───→13.7Itihasa stories and the witness virtues. 'Amanitvam adambhitvam ahimsa kshantir

Gauravmoderninterfaith_cosmology

Interfaith Cosmologybetween

9.29'Samo'ham sarva-bhuteshu na me dveshyo'sti na priyah.' I am equal in all beings;───→here13.4───→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───→here13.4───→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───→here13.4───→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.───→here13.4───→14.1Beyond sāṅkhya: the modes that bind.

RāmānujaclassicalF

Two prakṛtis · jīva as eternal aṃśabetween

7.13Modes hide the higher.───→here13.4───→13.20Both natures beginningless.

RāmānujaclassicalG

Māyā is real causal powerbetween

13.2Those who posit ajñāna in Brahman fail.───→here13.4───→18.61The yantrin reading forecloses the residue.

RāmānujaclassicalI

Vibhūti as evidence for antaryāminbetween

13.2The whole vibhūti clinches sāmānādhikaraṇya.───→here13.4───→18.42Even brāhmaṇa grounded here.

RamsukhdasclassicalA

What binds you (and how to let go)between

12.20The devotee holds this teaching dearest.───→here13.4───→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.───→here13.4───→13.21Clinging to modes causes any new birth.

RamsukhdasclassicalI

The Lord already inside the heartbetween

10.20I am the Self in every heart.───→here13.4───→13.17The Knowable lives as the inner light.

RamsukhdasclassicalK

The body is not yoursbetween

6.3Body, senses, and mind: none of them yours.───→here13.4───→13.20Nature causes the act; you only experience.

Ramsukhdasclassical

Sādhaka Sañjīvanī commentary at this versebetween

───→here13.4───→

RāmānujaclassicalK

Tri-guṇa diagnostic for the bhaktaapproach

───→here13.4───→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───→here13.4───→

Madhvaclassicalmadhva_pratibimba

Madhva Pratibimbabetween · other

9.9Like one detached, not actually───→here13.4───→13.30Seer of non-action by Hari's light

AbhinavaguptaclassicalE

Field and field-knower as Parameśvarabetween

13.3Sāṅkhya kept; the pointer is rotated.───→here13.4───→13.12Hands and feet on every side, beyond all.

MadhvaclassicalT2

Soul depends on Lord — the gap that does not closebetween

6.9Souls differ by nature not by accident alone.───→here13.4───→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.───→here13.4───→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.───→here13.4───→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.───→here13.4───→18.66I shall release you from every wrong.

ŚrīdharaclassicalI

His evenness as ground for refugebetween

9.29Even to all — yet near to those who turn.───→here13.4───→13.10A steady evenness is the seeker's mark.

ŚrīdharaclassicalL

Chapter prefaces as the bhāṣya's spinebetween

13.2I lift my devotees, so I now teach truth.───→here13.4───→14.1Now, the highest of all knowings.

VallabhaclassicalF

Soul as part of the highest Personbetween

13.3The soul is part of the supreme Person.───→here13.4───→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.───→here13.4───→13.24The threefold-knower catalogue goes to silence.

VallabhaclassicalK

Aphorism, gloss, full commentarybetween

13.2The Lord himself writes the third ṣaṭka. .───→here13.4───→15.15The bhāṣya-author is named by the Lord himself.

ŚrīdharaclassicalG

Soul as His portion, neither cut nor identicalapproach

───→here13.4───→14.26Fit for the state of brahman, not fused.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalA

Knowing and acting are one powerexit

11.34Already slain — the question is finally retired.───→here13.4───→

AbhinavaguptaclassicalC

Vision is the structural centerexit

11.49Cosmic returns to gracious; ananya means non-dual.───→here13.4───→

AbhinavaguptaclassicalD

Avatāra: appearance without departureexit

11.46Cosmic and gracious one self-luminous.───→here13.4───→

VallabhaclassicalE

Three paths, one teaching orderexit

13.2The third ṣaṭka is the Lord's own bhāṣya.───→here13.4───→

ŚaṅkaraclassicalE

Ignorance is the only enemybetween

13.2One Self lights every body as one sun lights all.───→here13.4───→18.66Beginningless habit ends only with self-knowledge.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalK

Liberation while still embodiedbetween

5.29Knowing Me, all wandering ceases at once.───→here13.4───→13.34One Self, untouched, in every body.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalC

Antaryāmin — the indweller as standing referentbetween

13.2'Cāpi' marks two — not one identity.───→here13.4───→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.───→here13.4───→18.66Counterfeit reasonings named, then rejected.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalF

Saṅgati — anticipation-and-resolutionbetween

13.1The kṣetra-question resolves 12.20's hint.───→here13.4───→18.1Tyāga-question resolves ch. 16-17's typology.

JayatīrthaclassicalA

Body and embodied — the inference runs on the dehī sidebetween

2.24Uncuttable, unburnt, steady, all-pervading.───→here13.4───→13.5Field and knower: body-self cut returns.

JayatīrthaclassicalC

Refuting Śaṅkara-style readings, named or unnamedbetween

11.16Aneka- is not just two-or-more.───→here13.4───→13.5Brahma-sūtra is text, not just utterance.

JayatīrthaclassicalI

Lakṣaṇā-control — literal preferred when availablebetween

11.16Aneka- means many; no upacāra needed.───→here13.4───→13.5Brahma-sūtra is text, not paraphrase.

MadhusūdanaclassicalE

Devotion is how knowing actually arrivesbetween

12.20Saguṇa worship ripens into nirguṇa knowing.───→here13.4───→13.13Only the formless can be the ultimately taught.

MadhusūdanaclassicalH

Krishna with form is the ground beneath formless Brahmanbetween

11.55The crystal verse names the saguṇa in absolute form.───→here13.4───→13.13Not a power-of-the-Lord; the Lord himself, formless.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalH

The Lord is friend of every beingexit

11.55Acting for Me, holding Me supreme — that is the road.───→here13.4───→

MadhusūdanaclassicalA

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

13.1The last six work what 'are' really means.───→here13.4───→

Ekrasmodernvairagya

Vairāgya — dispassion as instrumentbetween · v2

6.35Practice and dispassion───→here13.4───→13.8Field-knowledge as virtues

Ekrasmodernparadox_of_doership

Paradox of doership — kartṛtvabetween · v2

5.14Lord neither acts nor causes───→here13.4───→13.20Prakriti causes, puruṣa enjoys

Śabda · lemmas (13 unique · 13 occurrences)

बहुधा bahudhā — in many ways (bahu + -dhā)
विविधैः vividha — (vi- + vidha: kind) · instrumental neuter plural noun
पृथक् pṛthak — separately, distinctly, apart
विनिश्चितैः vi-√niści — to ascertain definitively (vi- + nis- + √ci) · instrumental neuter plural participle noun

show all 13

ऋषिभिः ṛṣi — seer, sage · instrumental masculine plural noun
गीतम् √gā — to go (verbal root) · nominative neuter singular participle noun
छन्दोभिः chandas — meter, prosody; the Vedic hymns · instrumental neuter plural noun
ब्रह्म brahman — Brahman (the Absolute); also: the Veda; sacred utterance · compound · also at 1.1, 2.72, 3.14, 3.15, 4.21, 4.24 +40
सूत्र sūtra — thread, aphorism, formula (from √siv 'sew') · compound
पदैः pada — foot, step, place, word · instrumental neuter plural noun
च ca — and; (homonym: also the consonant ca)
एव eva — indeed, truly, only (emphatic particle)
हेतुमद्भिः hetumat — (hetu + -mat: cause) · instrumental neuter plural noun

Praśna · so what (7)

01Why does Krishna invoke the seers, Vedic meters, and Brahma-sutras all at once — what does the layered appeal to authority accomplish here that a single citation would not?
02The verse says the kṣetra-kṣetrajña distinction has been 'sung in many ways' — does the plurality of tellings signal that no single rendering exhausts the truth, or merely that the tradition is unanimous?

show all 7

03Brahma-sutra-padas are called 'hetumad' (reasoned) and 'vinishcita' (conclusively settled) — what is the relationship between revealed authority (shruti) and philosophical argument (hetu) in establishing metaphysical facts?
04Each school hears a different primary claim in this verse: Shankara hears ontological summary, Ramanuja hears Vaishnava encyclopedic confirmation, Madhva hears the Mover-moved distinction — what does the divergence reveal about what each school most needs this verse to do?
05The Taittiriya sheath-sequence that Ramanuja cites ends with anandamaya-Paramatma inside the vijnanamaya soul — how does that nesting change the meaning of 'knowing the field'?
06If the field-knower's powers are upadhi-krita (adjunct-produced) per Shankara and Madhusudhana, yet per Madhva the knower-hood is eternally derivative, are these two claims saying the same thing or opposite things?
07This verse is an announcement of what is about to be elaborated — why does Krishna validate the forthcoming teaching by pointing backward to tradition rather than speaking on his own authority alone?

Vyavahāra · try it in your life

Advaita

Before a high-stakes meeting, pause and ask: which voice in me is the field — the anxious rehearsal, the self-image, the body's tension — and which is the witness that simply knows all of that is happening? The distinction is not exotic; it is available in any moment of stress as a change of vantage point, not a change of circumstance.

Viśiṣṭādvaita

When someone you love is suffering and you feel helpless, Ramanuja's reading offers a structural reframe: both you and they are the field, and both are held within the one who knows. Service to them (kainkarya) is not futile precisely because the body-field is Vasudeva's body — tending it is tending the Lord's own form.

show all 6

Dvaita

Madhva's insistence that the jiva's knowing is always derivative has a practical edge: it cuts the assumption that your understanding of a situation is self-sufficient. Check your reasoning against a source outside your own inference — scripture, a teacher, a trusted critic — because the field-knower is real but not independent.

Śuddhādvaita

Vallabha's framing turns the verse into an invitation: all the complexity of what you are — your drives, your resistances, your body's particular history — is not an obstacle to knowing Krishna but the very substance He is about to illuminate through His own disclosure. Bring all of it, not a sanitized version.

Bhakti

Sridhara's enumeration — jada nature, desire-qualities, sense-modifications, causal origin, differentiation into kinds of beings — is a checklist for honest self-observation. When you notice an emotional reaction, can you identify which layer it comes from: a sense-modification, a body-state, a habitual pattern? Naming the layer is the beginning of the viveka (discernment) the verse presupposes.

Advaita-Bhakti

Madhusudhana's synthesis suggests that the same awareness that is svaprakasha (self-luminous) in its essential nature also appears through the adjunct-powers as personality, preference, and feeling. Living from that view, you do not need to suppress personality to be aware — awareness shows up as and through personality, not behind it.

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