Gita 13.04 Use your sphere of influence for bringing about the ultimate change

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.

Thank you. Here Krishna is giving a summary of what all he is going to speak in a succinct way. Krishna is answering Arjuna's question about Kshetra and Kshetragya intersection.

Out of six questions. So, Krishna has been asked by Arjuna, please tell me what is Prakriti and Purusha, what is Kshetra and Kshetragya, and what is Gyan and Gaya. Krishna is saying here that he will answer about Gyan and Gaya, about Kshetra and Kshetragya in the first section.

He started his answer from text two, and the answer will go on till text seven. So, here he gives a quick summary. Tat Kshetram Ichchaya Drukcha Yadvikari Yathashchayat.

So, Tat Kshetra, that Kshetra, now Prakriti is material nature, and Kshetra is that area of material nature on which a particular embodied soul, a Kshetragya has influence. So, the Tat Prabhavascha, Yathashchayat Prabhavascha, what is the Prabhava of the living entity. So, for example, an elephant has influence on a huge mass of flesh, it has a giant body, and it can move that body according to its plan, according to its desire, within limitations, of course, but still it has control over a huge body.

Compare that with the ant, Tat Prabhavascha, the ant also has Prabhava, but that Prabhava is limited to a tiny body. Now, this, the area of influence that we have, that is determined by the kind of body we have. In human form, a person who has a tall, hefty body, a lot of brawn in it, that person may have some advantages.

It's also situations where there is face-off with other people, but a far greater advantage in human society comes not from the brawn that we have, but the brain we have. From the physical size point of view, many animals are much bigger, much swifter, much stronger. So, Prabhava of different living entities is different in terms of the body that they have and the capacities of the body.

In human form, the Prabhava is not so much through the brawn, it is through the brain. So, a person who has a powerful speaking capacity, for example, that person can galvanize many others to do things, even that person oneself may not be all that powerful, may not be all that influential in terms of physical strength. So, now the Kshetra undergoes, where does it come from? What is it made up of? What transformation does it undergo? Where does it ultimately belong to? What are the influences that it has? All that I will tell you in summary.

The answer is distributed over many verses over here. In fact, the answer to this question, we can trace it into various verses. For example, Kshetra and Kshetravikar, what it is made up of, what it is, there are six texts.

Kshetravikar is mentioned in the seven texts. And then where it comes from, that is analyzed in the later part when Krishna talks about Prakriti and Purusha, there he mentions briefly about Kshetra also. So, we will focus on the theme of Prabhava over here.

Actually, in human form, the Kshetra that we have is relatively smaller as compared to say many giant trees or huge animals. But the Prabhava that we have in the Kshetra can be substantially more than the Prabhava that other animals can have, the influence that we human beings can have on our body and through our body on the world, and ultimately through our body on our own selves in terms of purifying ourselves. So, all that is remarkable.

For example, the lower species, when they get the urge to, say, mate, they simply mate. When a cat sees a rat, it simply bounces on that rat and eats it. It doesn't have any free will to do anything otherwise.

But we human beings, on the other hand, have the free will to choose. And by our choices, we can change situations. We can actually change things for the better.

We can improve things. We can modify things. We can take our, we can, by exercise, tone our bodies.

We can, through medicine, improve our health. We can, through technology, bring about changes in the outer world, which the lower species are not able to do. Now, all this is because we human beings have a greater intelligence, a more advanced intelligence than that which is given by the, that which is given to the lower species.

And ultimately, this higher intelligence is meant for a spiritual purpose. It is meant for the purpose of attracting our heart to Krishna, for learning to love Krishna. How does that happen? We all interact with various objects in this world.

And by the interaction with those objects, we hope to gain pleasure of some kind or the other. Now, we may get pleasure also, but the pleasure, the capacity of the worldly objects to give pleasure is finite. And even our capacity through our Kshetra, the body to enjoy the pleasure is also finite.

When we, say, eat some delicious food, how much food can we actually eat? Not really much. Similarly, how much can we, if someone wants to have sex pleasure? Even if people live in a free licentious culture, where people are available for enjoyment, still, there is not much that can, the body's capacity itself to limit, to enjoy is very limited. After a few moments of enjoyment of sensual stimulation, then the body's capacity to enjoy drains out.

And that's it. So, like that, if we recognize that, if we consider our Kshetra Prabhava, the world as it is, is not a source of much pleasure. We want to make some changes either in ourselves, in the things around us, in the things that we can get or get and enjoy, so that we will become happy.

But with this end in mind, we have used our intelligence in various ways, especially through technology in today's world, for improving things. And we have improved things to a large extent in terms of the reach technology has provided, the mobility that technology has provided, many other fields. But ultimately, after all this, material things, the pleasure that they provide, is temporary.

And that fundamental fact, no one can change. That's why, no matter what we do, we stay dissatisfied. No matter what all we achieve, we find that, oh, this does not give me pleasure.

And we stay unfulfilled. So, the influence of the Kshetra that we have, it is meant ultimately, so that we can raise our consciousness to the spiritual level. And by raising our consciousness to the spiritual level, we can gain lasting happiness.

We can rise towards Krishna, become united with Him in loving devotion. That is the path to lasting satisfaction. Currently, our consciousness is caught in, when consumed by material things.

And to the extent we are, we can free our consciousness from its obsession with matter, to the extent we can entangle our consciousness in Krishna's all attractive features, in His glories, to that extent, the Kshetra Prabhav that we have, the influence in the body, the influence on the, the capacity to influence things around us that we have, that will get an, give us a supremely auspicious result. So, the intelligence that we have, the capacity to make changes with the intelligence that we have, all this is meant to be directed in a progressive way towards attaining Krishna and towards relishing the Sangha of Krishna in our own life. This is how we will all move closer towards Krishna and we will ultimately find lasting fulfillment.

So, the purpose of the analysis of Kshetra is to recognize that we are meant to use the Kshetra that we have, we human beings have the Kshetra, the area of influence with which we can turn towards, raise our consciousness towards Krishna and therein find lasting satisfaction. Thank you.