[Advaita-l] kshetram and kshetraj~na

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

Advaitic interpretation of the sloka, as I understand.

"idam shareeram kountEya kshEtramityabhideeyate"

There is a line  after this – yetat dyo vettitam  praahuH kshetraj~na 
iti  tadvidaH| 

There are only two factors that  have been specified here – one is the
field and  another is knower of this field.   It is the same as saying
that there is  a saakshee that knows his kshetra .  Everybody knows
their  body and also mistakes that they are the body – that is part of
adhyaasa and that is why  the whole Geetopadesha starts. 

Krishna  now goes one step further  in the next sloka that was quoted. 
He does not need to do this second sloka  since he has already defined
the kshetraj~na is the one who knows  his  body.  That is every jiiva –
they can be million,  but each  jiiva  knows its  body and tries to
protect it.  

"kshEtrajnyam chApi mAm viddhi sarva kshEtrEshu bhArata"

For me this in fact reinforces  who that saakshee  really is.  There are
two words - cha api - Essentially telling arjuna that 'know also that' -
otherwise each jiiva may misunderstand that he is the kshetraj~na and
stops with that. Hence 'also'

 Therefore Krishna is now giving a  broader perspective of true nature
of jiiva or true nature of the kshetraj~na in the above statement.  That
is perfectly clear to me. There is samanvaya with this  and tat tvam asi
statement.  Who said that geeta does not teach advaita? 

>"KshEtrajnya"  is one who knows all bodies (sarva kshEtrEshu).  

Yes.

In this  statement  Krishna provides  further clarification  of who that
kshetraj~na  really is.

Since he has already established in the first sloka  it is saakshee 
that knows the shaariiram in each  jiiva, this statement becomes  a 
pramaaNa vaakyam to provide a new knowledge  that there is really one
kshetraj~na.   Notions of many jiiva-s are only notional and not
factual.  Ignorance is taking the notional as factual.  Krishna as  a
teacher  is now providing  a new understanding which jiiva does  not
know other wise.  In that sense Shaastra becomes a pramaaNa - otherwise
I donot need geeta to tell me that I know my body. I already know that
even before I opend geeta book.  

>and for this reason it can not be jeevAtma.    

Yes, for that reason  jiivaatma is notional and not factual and we need
shaastra to remove that notional misunderstanding. 


>Scientists estimate that
>so far only 20% of  all land-roving animals have been identified,  and 
they
>estimate 1.3 trillion species to exist in the ocean.

>Whoever thinks that Geeta is teaching that this jeevAtman himself  is
>"KshEtrajnya" in "sarva kshEtrEshu" should come forward to help our
>scientists with the the remaining 80% or accept the fact that it is
only
>correct to
>say that only the  Creator can be the Kshetrajnya in "sarva kshEtrEshu"

I failed to see any relevancy  of the  above statement  or logic of
helping the scientists in discovering of unknown species .  

This  is just another example of type of objections against Advaita.  I 
will try  not to generalize this as the measure of the quality of the
objections dvaitins are raising  against Advaita!

The rest of the mail is irrelevant for  me since it is build on the same
misinterpretation .  

Hari OM!
Sadananda


=====
What you have is His gift to you and what you do with what you have is your gift to Him - Swami Chinmayananda.

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