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Chapter 13 · Nature, the Enjoyer and Consciousness · 35 verses

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Nature & guṇasChapter 13 · Nature, the Enjoyer and Consciousness

Bhagavad-gītā As It Is · Text 13.6

Elements, senses and material experience

महाभूतान्यहङ्कारो बुद्धिरव्यक्तमेव च ।

इन्द्रियाणि दशैकं च पञ्च चेन्द्रियगोचरा: ॥ ६ ॥

इच्छा द्वेष: सुखं दु:खं सङ्घातश्चेतना धृति: ।

एतत्क्षेत्रं समासेन सविकारमुदाहृतम् ॥ ७ ॥

mahā-bhūtāny ahaṅkāro

buddhir avyaktam eva ca

indriyāṇi daśaikaṁ ca

pañca cendriya-gocarāḥ

icchā dveṣaḥ sukhaṁ duḥkhaṁ

saṅghātaś cetanā dhṛtiḥ

etat kṣetraṁ samāsena

sa-vikāram udāhṛtam

Translation

The five great elements, false ego, intelligence, the unmanifested, the ten senses and the mind, the five sense objects, desire, hatred, happiness, distress, the aggregate, the life symptoms, and convictions – all these are considered, in summary, to be the field of activities and its interactions.

Read Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport on Vedabase.io
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Understand it

What this verse is saying, and where it sits in the story.

The Field of Activities

  1. 1The verse lists the elements, senses, mind, feelings and other factors that make up the field of activities and its interactions.
  2. 2Prabhupāda explains that the body represents this temporary material field, while the knower of the field is different from it.
  3. 3Study the twenty-four elements and their interactions to better understand the field of activities.

Where we are

In the story

Chapter 13, Nature, the Enjoyer and Consciousness: elements, senses and material experience.

What it teaches

Theme summary

The modes of nature condition behavior.

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Key ideas in this verse

The spiritual concepts this verse connects to.

Key ideas: prakṛti, guṇa.

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Live it

Take one thing from this verse into your day.

Ask yourself

What does BG 13.6 establish in Śrīla Prabhupāda's translation and purport, and how does it connect to nature & guṇas?

Practice

Observe which mode shaped your last decision.

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Related verses

Keep going: verses that carry this teaching further.

Study notes are editorial summaries, not the translation. Confirm them in the original text and purport.

Ask the study guide

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