A core teaching · reflective in mood · builds on earlier teachings
“Your reactions belong to the field, not to the knower.”
Desire, aversion, pleasure, pain, the body, consciousness, and steadiness: this field, together with its changes, is briefly described.
The verse in reading order — each Sanskrit word with its meaning beneath. Tap a word to focus on it.
Read literallydesire · aversion · pleasure · pain · the body as a composite · consciousness · steadiness · this · field · briefly · with changes · is described
The field includes the body, feelings, impulses, and the mind's steadiness. All of these are part of what changes, not the knower behind them.
Krishna speaks this verse, on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, in the chapter titled "Kshetra Kshetrajna Vibhaga" (Field and Knower of the Field).
Verse 7 sits in Chapter 13 of the Bhagavad Gita — Kshetra Kshetrajna Vibhaga, "Field and Knower of the Field". The chapter has 35 verses in total.
A teenager feels attraction, then irritation, then boredom within one family dinner and takes each as the truth about himself. Krishna would file all of them under the field: changing contents, separate from the knower.
Did you like this verse?
Desire, aversion, pleasure, pain and even steadiness belong to the field, Krishna says, along with its changes.
What this verse means
The field includes the body, feelings, impulses, and the mind's steadiness. All of these are part of what changes, not the knower behind them.
Context & commentary
After naming the field's basic parts, Krishna now includes desire, aversion, pleasure, pain, and steadiness as part of the same changing nature.
What it looks like today
A teenager feels attraction, then irritation, then boredom within one family dinner and takes each as the truth about himself. Krishna would file all of them under the field: changing contents, separate from the knower.
“You can stop confusing your moods and reactions with who you are.”
Explore related themes: kshetrajna (20 verses), kshetra (14 verses)