200. Soul Illuminates the Body
K rishna says, “Just as one Sun illuminates the entire solar system, the individual soul illuminates the entire body” (13.34). The soul is needed to bring life to the body which is like electricity bringing life to appliances. The thirteenth chapter of the Gita is titled ‘ Kshetra (field) Kshetrajna (knower of field) Vibhag Yoga ’ where Krishna clarifies that the physical body is called kshetra whose attributes include ahankaar (I am doer), intellect ( buddhi ), mind, ten senses, five objects of the senses, desire, hatred, pleasure, pain, material body and consciousness ( chetana ). The knower of kshetra is called kshetrajna . Krishna mentions about twenty aspects of knowledge, and he keeps humility at the beginning indicating that it is a virtue rather than a weakness. Other aspects of knowledge include forgiveness, self-control, dispassion ( vairagya ) towards sense-objects, absence of ahankaar , non-attachment and eternal equanimity towards desirable and undesir...