Bhagavdgita Chapter 13 Kshtra-Kshetrajna Vibhaga Yoga

Chapter 13 Kshtra-Kshetrajna Vibhaga Yoga

Sarvendriyagunaabhaasam sarvendriyavivarjitam;
Asaktam sarvabhricchaiva nirgunam gunabhoktru cha.

Shining by the functions of all the senses, yet without the senses;
unattached, yet supporting all; devoid of qualities, yet their experiencer.

Interpretation

After taking about the power of senses in the previous shloka, Lord Krishna in this shloka is describing about the senses and their characteristics. The first part of the shloka talks about a very complex thing of the Lord’s sensory perceptions. Here Lord says that His senses are shining with glory by performing all the sensory activities, yet it appears as if there are no senses attached to God. The second part of the shloka speaks about the functions. He says that His senses are not having any qualities that are expected of the sense organs but they support all the beings in this world and gives them the experience of those senses. Last but not the least, Lord uses the word unattached to these senses.

Extending Interpretation to Mankind’s Life!

I would like to start with a quote from puranas which says “Viruddha dharmo ruposa, vaishvaryat purushottamah” which means God is the powerhouse of the infinite contradictory attributes existing at the same time. Last shloka we had understood how the sensory perceptions of the God exists in multiple dimensions unlike ours that exists only in three dimensions. Now this shloka talks about God possessing and not possessing senses at the same time. The understanding of this is simple. When we see sun during the day, we say sun is there. When we dont see it in the night, we say, sun has set and will only rise tomorrow. Till then sun is not there. Just because sun is invisible to us it doesnt mean that sun is not there. Sun is there but our senses cant see his existence.

If we take the same analogy forward, none of the beings existing can see God’s senses and its only visible to God. There would be times where God Himself doesnt use those senses and He Himself gets a feeling that it is not there. It is just like the feeling of sleep that a person has. If you are asleep, all your senses go to sleep but that doesnt mean they dont exist. In the same way, during Brahma’s night, when Brahma is asleep, He also thinks that His senses are not there. This is a part of Vishnu maya which Brahma, who is the creator of the Universe experiences.

The second part of the shloka focuses on Him being unattached. What is this in-attachment that Lord is talking about? Being a supreme sense and the sustainer of all the creations, Lord Sri Maha Vishnu sits in every person’s sensory mind and keeps track of all their karmas and gives results to their actions. Yet, he is unattached to any person or his soul. If He finds a good person committing all good things, He doesnt become attached to that person or wants to do good to him. He only looks at their acts and judges them and gives appropriate results to all their actions. Only at the time of Moksha Lord Sri Maha Vishnu, comes in His true form and shows His vishwaroopam for one last time to the senses so that the soul gets that knowledge of the God. With that knowledge soul goes to Jana loka, to meditate upon it and never to returns again to this world.