BG 13.6 — Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña-Vibhāga-Yoga

Bhagavad Gītā 13.6Chapter 13 · Kṣetra-Kṣetrajña-Vibhāga-Yoga · Krishna → Arjuna · anuṣṭubh

इच्छा द्वेषः सुखं दुःखं संघातश् चेतना धृतिः ।

एतत् क्षेत्रं समासेन सविकारमुदाहृतम् ॥

icchā dveṣaḥ sukhaṃ duḥkhaṃ saṃghātaś cetanā dhṛtiḥ

etat kṣetraṃ samāsena sa-vikāram udāhṛtam

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

meaning

Desire, aversion, pleasure, pain, the body's composite mass, awareness, and steadiness, together with their transformations, Krishna says, are the field described in brief.

ekras · bhāṣya

Desire, aversion, pleasure, pain, the sanghata — the body's composite mass — chetana, sentience, and dhriti, steadiness. With their vikaras, modifications, this is the kshetra in brief.

Krishna names seven movements that pulse through the field: two affective (desire, aversion), two felt (pleasure, pain), one structural (composite body), one apparent-sentience (chetana), one volitional (steadiness). With these the field is complete — and crucially each item belongs to the field, not to the knower.

Shankara reads precisely. The seven items are samasena — in brief — completing the kshetra-anatomy that began with the twenty-four tattvas in 13.5. Note the architectural move: chetana is listed inside kshetra. The field's apparent-awareness, the seeming-sentience that the body wears, is itself an item within the field — not the kshetrajna. The kshetrajna is the witness that sees even chetana from outside. The recognition is structurally important to Shankara's whole reading.

Madhusudana synthesizes two levels. At the Sankhya level, avyakta is mulaprakriti, buddhi its first evolute, ahamkara the second; the maha-bhutas arise from tamas-ahamkara in canonical sequence. At the Vedantic level, avyakta is anirvachaniya maya-shakti; buddhi is the primal ikshana — 'it saw'; ahamkara is the sankalpa 'I shall become many.' The vikaras of 13.6 — iccha through dhriti — operate at both registers, and the disciple holds them as both.

Ramanuja reads with characteristic warmth: iccha, dvesha, sukha, duhkha are kshetra-vikaras, modifications belonging to the field yet experienced by the jivatman as its dharmas — because the atman is in kshetra-sambandha, field-conjunction. The sanghata, formed from the pancha-bhutas evolving from avyakta, is the adhara — the substratum — that makes both the atman's enjoyment and its liberation possible. Chetana names that substratum's capacity to uphold experience.

Madhva reads on the bheda-frame: each item — iccha, dvesha, sukha, duhkha, sanghata, chetana, dhriti — belongs irreducibly to the paratantra order. The eternally distinct jiva's iccha and dvesha are real affections of the bounded knower, not illusions to be dissolved; the field is genuinely other than Hari, and the jiva is genuinely embedded in it.

Vallabha reads through pushti-marga: the kshetra is the maha-bhuta-composite — the sthula-sharira — and also the linga-sharira's ashraya formed of ahamkara, buddhi, mahat, the eleven indriyas, the subtle elements. The vikaras listed are the dynamic pulse of Krishna's own shakti playing through the instrument; in pushti-marga even the field's desires and aversions are the Lord's lila moving.

Shridhara reads cleanly: having established the twenty-four tattvas in 13.5, the enumeration closes here with iccha through dhriti — sa-vikaram, with all modifications — completing the kshetra in samasena, brief summary form.

Context

where

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

who speaks

Krishna → Arjuna

preceded by — BG 13.5

The field consists of the five great elements, the ego-sense, intellect, and the unmanifest root-matter, along with the ten sense and action organs, mind as the eleventh, and the five objects of sense.

What's going on

Desire, aversion, pleasure, pain, the body's composite mass, awareness, and steadiness, together with their transformations, Krishna says, are the field described in brief.

Sūtras through this verse (54)

ĀnandagiriclassicalA

The two-niṣṭhā axisbetween

13.1Two niṣṭhās, three kāṇḍas — keystone.───→here13.6───→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.───→here13.6───→13.32Touches without being stained.

VallabhaclassicalD

Chapter-opening preludesbetween

13.2Architectural claim: the Lord's own bhāṣya.───→here13.6───→14.1Two-verse prelude names guṇa-vibhāga.

show all 54

ĀnandagiriclassicalB

Three hexads = tat tvam asibetween

13.1Vākyārtha hexad begins. Anchor.───→here13.6───→15.20Whole teaching named guhyatamaṃ śāstram.

ĀnandagiriclassicalD

Praśna-bīja chapter openingsbetween

13.1Ch 13 opens by binding to the middle hexad.───→here13.6───→18.1Final chapter compresses seed and answer.

ĀnandagiriclassicalE

Pūrvapakṣa via nanu / āśaṅkyabetween

13.1Boundary protected by stylized doubt.───→here13.6───→18.66Closing verse opened by doubt-and-answer.

ĀnandagiriclassicalG

Anūdyate, na vidhīyatebetween

12.12Bhakta's gradient read as description.───→here13.6───→13.7Twenty jñāna-qualities: still description.

ĀnandagiriclassicalJ

Prakṛti is never autonomousbetween

13.1Prakṛti's autonomy blocked at boundary. Anchor.───→here13.6───→14.1Modes belong to the Lord's prakṛti.

ĀnandagiriclassicalL

Akṣarayojanā — word-fit firstbetween

13.1Same discipline at the keystone chapter.───→here13.6───→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───→here13.6───→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;───→here13.6───→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───→here13.6───→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───→here13.6───→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.───→here13.6───→14.1Beyond sāṅkhya: the modes that bind.

RāmānujaclassicalF

Two prakṛtis · jīva as eternal aṃśabetween

7.13Modes hide the higher.───→here13.6───→13.20Both natures beginningless.

RāmānujaclassicalG

Māyā is real causal powerbetween

13.2Those who posit ajñāna in Brahman fail.───→here13.6───→18.61The yantrin reading forecloses the residue.

RāmānujaclassicalI

Vibhūti as evidence for antaryāminbetween

13.2The whole vibhūti clinches sāmānādhikaraṇya.───→here13.6───→18.42Even brāhmaṇa grounded here.

RamsukhdasclassicalA

What binds you (and how to let go)between

12.20The devotee holds this teaching dearest.───→here13.6───→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.───→here13.6───→13.21Clinging to modes causes any new birth.

RamsukhdasclassicalI

The Lord already inside the heartbetween

10.20I am the Self in every heart.───→here13.6───→13.17The Knowable lives as the inner light.

RamsukhdasclassicalK

The body is not yoursbetween

6.3Body, senses, and mind: none of them yours.───→here13.6───→13.20Nature causes the act; you only experience.

Ramsukhdasclassical

Sādhaka Sañjīvanī commentary at this versebetween

───→here13.6───→

RāmānujaclassicalK

Tri-guṇa diagnostic for the bhaktaapproach

───→here13.6───→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───→here13.6───→

Madhvaclassicalmadhva_pratibimba

Madhva Pratibimbabetween · other

9.9Like one detached, not actually───→here13.6───→13.30Seer of non-action by Hari's light

AbhinavaguptaclassicalE

Field and field-knower as Parameśvarabetween

13.3Sāṅkhya kept; the pointer is rotated.───→here13.6───→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.───→here13.6───→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.───→here13.6───→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.───→here13.6───→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.───→here13.6───→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.───→here13.6───→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.───→here13.6───→14.1Now, the highest of all knowings.

VallabhaclassicalF

Soul as part of the highest Personbetween

13.3The soul is part of the supreme Person.───→here13.6───→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.───→here13.6───→13.24The threefold-knower catalogue goes to silence.

VallabhaclassicalK

Aphorism, gloss, full commentarybetween

13.2The Lord himself writes the third ṣaṭka. .───→here13.6───→15.15The bhāṣya-author is named by the Lord himself.

ŚrīdharaclassicalG

Soul as His portion, neither cut nor identicalapproach

───→here13.6───→14.26Fit for the state of brahman, not fused.

AbhinavaguptaclassicalA

Knowing and acting are one powerexit

11.34Already slain — the question is finally retired.───→here13.6───→

AbhinavaguptaclassicalC

Vision is the structural centerexit

11.49Cosmic returns to gracious; ananya means non-dual.───→here13.6───→

AbhinavaguptaclassicalD

Avatāra: appearance without departureexit

11.46Cosmic and gracious one self-luminous.───→here13.6───→

VallabhaclassicalE

Three paths, one teaching orderexit

13.2The third ṣaṭka is the Lord's own bhāṣya.───→here13.6───→

ŚaṅkaraclassicalE

Ignorance is the only enemybetween

13.2One Self lights every body as one sun lights all.───→here13.6───→18.66Beginningless habit ends only with self-knowledge.

ŚaṅkaraclassicalK

Liberation while still embodiedbetween

5.29Knowing Me, all wandering ceases at once.───→here13.6───→13.34One Self, untouched, in every body.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalC

Antaryāmin — the indweller as standing referentbetween

13.2'Cāpi' marks two — not one identity.───→here13.6───→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.───→here13.6───→18.66Counterfeit reasonings named, then rejected.

VedāntadeśikaclassicalF

Saṅgati — anticipation-and-resolutionbetween

13.1The kṣetra-question resolves 12.20's hint.───→here13.6───→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.───→here13.6───→15.16Refusing kṣara=inert, akṣara=soul.

JayatīrthaclassicalI

Lakṣaṇā-control — literal preferred when availablebetween

13.5Brahma-sūtra is text, not paraphrase.───→here13.6───→15.16Bhūta covers jīva; literal range holds.

MadhusūdanaclassicalE

Devotion is how knowing actually arrivesbetween

12.20Saguṇa worship ripens into nirguṇa knowing.───→here13.6───→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.───→here13.6───→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.───→here13.6───→

JayatīrthaclassicalA

Body and embodied — the inference runs on the dehī sideexit

13.5Field and knower: body-self cut returns.───→here13.6───→

MadhusūdanaclassicalA

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

13.1The last six work what 'are' really means.───→here13.6───→

Ekrasmodernvairagya

Vairāgya — dispassion as instrumentbetween · v2

6.35Practice and dispassion───→here13.6───→13.8Field-knowledge as virtues

Ekrasmodernparadox_of_doership

Paradox of doership — kartṛtvabetween · v2

5.14Lord neither acts nor causes───→here13.6───→13.20Prakriti causes, puruṣa enjoys

Śabda · lemmas (13 unique · 13 occurrences)

इच्छा icchā — wish, desire, will · nominative feminine singular noun
द्वेषः dveṣa — aversion, hatred · nominative masculine singular noun
समासेन samāsena — in brief, summarily (instr. of samāsa)
उदाहृतम् ud-√āhṛ — to declare, proclaim (ud- + ā- + √hṛ 'bring up') · nominative neuter singular participle noun

show all 13

सुखम् sukha — happiness, pleasure, ease · nominative neuter singular noun
दुःखम् duḥkha — suffering, sorrow, pain · nominative neuter singular noun
संघातः saṃghāta — aggregate, collection, body (sam- + √han) · nominative masculine singular noun
चेतना cetanā — consciousness, awareness (from √cit) · nominative feminine singular noun
धृतिः dhṛti — firmness, steadiness, fortitude · nominative feminine singular noun · also at 10.34, 16.3, 18.33, 18.34, 18.35
एतत् etad — this (proximal demonstrative) · nominative neuter singular noun
क्षेत्रम् kṣetra — field, body (as the field of experience) · nominative neuter singular noun
स sa — with, having (prefix); also: he, that (pronoun)
विकारम् vikāra — modification, change (vi- + √kṛ) · nominative neuter singular noun

Praśna · so what (7)

01If icchā (desire) and dveṣa (aversion) are listed as kṣetra-modifications rather than ātman-properties, what does it mean that I experience them as 'mine'?
02Cetanā is placed inside the field alongside the inert body — how does this challenge the common intuition that 'awareness' is proof of a separate, non-material self?

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03The list ends with dhṛti (steadiness, will-to-hold) — why would the Gītā place willpower inside the field rather than with the witness-self?
04Saṃghāta means 'aggregate' or 'compound' — in what sense is the person I think of as 'me' a compound rather than a unity, and what follows from that?
05Rāmānuja says sukha and duḥkha are ātman-dharmas caused by kṣetrasambandha — does that mean suffering is inherent to embodiment itself, regardless of karmic cause?
06The verse says the field is described 'samāsena' (in brief) — what is left unsaid, and why might compression itself be philosophically significant here?
07If the entire field — from desire to willpower — is knowable as object, who or what is the knowing subject, and can that subject ever appear on any list?

Vyavahāra · try it in your life

Advaita

When you notice a craving arise — for food, approval, a particular outcome — practise recognizing it as an event in the kṣetra, a flicker in prakṛti, not the voice of your deepest self. The Advaita discipline is to pause before the pull of icchā and ask: 'who is aware of this desire?' That micro-pause is the beginning of viveka (discernment) in daily life.

Viśiṣṭādvaita

Rāmānuja's reading invites you to treat your body and its emotional movements as Bhagavān's body-in-miniature. When you feel duḥkha (pain), instead of only seeking its end, ask: 'what is this experience teaching me about where I am clinging to the field as if I owned it?' Use the ache as a pointer toward deeper kainkarya — offering the very discomfort back to the Lord.

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Dvaita

The Dvaita insistence that jīva-icchā is real — not illusory — means that your desires and aversions carry moral weight. You cannot dismiss a harmful impulse as 'just māyā'; it is your actual, bounded nature expressing itself. The practice is to bring every genuine desire before Hari in prayer and test whether it coheres with His will, sharpening moral responsibility rather than dissolving it.

Śuddhādvaita

In Puṣṭimārga, the entire field of experience — your longings, your resistances, your everyday steadiness (dhṛti) — is already the Lord's prasāda (gift). The application is not renunciation but receptivity: receive your own emotional life as you would receive prasāda at a temple, with gratitude and without the compulsion to hoard or discard. Let even dveṣa be acknowledged as the Lord's teaching arriving in a difficult wrapping.

Bhakti

Śrīdhara's reading suggests a devotional inventory: at the end of each day, run through the field-categories — what did I desire, what did I avoid, what brought me sukha, what brought duḥkha, what held me together? Offer each item by name to the Beloved. This is not spiritual accounting but a practice of intimacy: the Beloved receives the whole person, not a curated version.

Advaita-Bhakti

Madhusūdana's synthesis opens a double-barreled practice. Intellectually, trace any strong emotion back through its causal chain (ahaṃkāra → buddhi → avyakta) until you reach the māyā-root — this is jñāna-work that de-personalizes the charge. Then, from that de-personalized space, offer the emotion to Kṛṣṇa in bhakti. Neither jñāna alone (which can become cold) nor bhakti alone (which can become confused) but both, in that sequence, in a single act.

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