^283:12 Renunciation of the fruit of all action, as a means to the attainment of Bliss, is merely extolled here by the declaration of the superiority of one over another. Wherefore? Because it constitutes a common factor which immediately precedes Peace, both in the case of the man of wisdom who is steadily engaged in devout contemplation, and also of the ignorant one who, unable to tread the paths taught before, takes it up as the easiest means to Bliss.

^285:16 Free from dependence--on the body, the senses, the sense-objects, and their mutual connections.

Prompt: able to decide rightly and immediately in matters demanding prompt action.

Every undertaking--calculated to secure objects of desire, whether of this world or of the next.

^285:17 Hates: Frets at receiving anything undesirable.

Grieves--at parting with a beloved object.

Desires--the unattained.

^286:18 Content with anything, homeless: content with the bare means of bodily sustenance. Says the Mahabharata,--

"Who is clad with anything, who is fed on any food, who lies down anywhere, him the gods call a Brahman."--Shanti Parva.

THIRTEENTH CHAPTER

Arjuna said:

Prakriti and Purusha, also the Kshetra and the knower of the Kshetra, knowledge, and that which ought to be known--these, O Keshava, I desire to learn.

The Blessed Lord said:

1. This body, O son of Kunti, is called Kshetra, and he who knows it is called Kshetrajna by those who know of them (Kshetra and Kshetrajna).

2. Me do thou also know, O descendant of Bharata, to be Kshetrajna in all Kshetras. The knowledge of Kshetra and Kshetrajna is considered by Me to be the knowledge.

3. What the Kshetra is, what its properties are, what are its modifications, what effects arise from what causes, and also who He is and what His powers are, that hear from Me in brief.

4. (This truth) has been sung by Rishis in many ways, in various distinctive chants, in passages indicative of Brahman, full of reasoning, and convincing.

5-6. The great Elements, Egoism, Intellect, as also the Unmanifested (Mula Prakriti), the ten senses and the one (mind), and the five objects of the senses; desire, hatred, pleasure, pain, the, aggregate, intelligence, fortitude,--the Kshetra has been thus briefly described with its modifications.

7. Humility, unpretentiousness, non-injury, forbearance, uprightness, service to the teacher, purity, steadiness, self-control;

8. The renunciation of sense-objects, and also absence of egoism; reflection on the evils of birth, death, old age, sickness and pain;

9. Non-attachment, non-identification of self with son, wife, home, and the rest, and constant even-mindedness in the occurrence of the desirable and the un-undesirable;

10. Unswerving devotion to Me by the Yoga of non-separation, resort to sequestered places, distaste for the society of men;