1 Gita Sloka Every Day - Chapter 13 - Kshetra Kshetrajna Yoga - Sloka 2

The entire content of this mail is from Swami Adidevananda's translation of Ramanuja's  Gita  Bhashya and Swami Chidbhavananda's Bhagavad Gita, both published by Ramakrishna Mission

1 Gita Sloka  Every Day - Chapter 13 - Kshetra Kshetrajna Yoga - Sloka 2

Kshetrajnam cha api mam viddhih sarva kshetreshu bharat I 

Kshetra kshetrajnoh gyanam yat  tat gyanam ma na tam mama II sloka 2 

क्षेत्रज्ञं च अपि मम विद्धिः सर्व क्षेत्रेषु भरता I 
क्षेत्र क्षेत्रज्ञो ज्ञानं यत् तत् ज्ञानं म न तं मम II श्लोक 2
   

And know me as the kshetrajna in all kshetras, O Bharata. The knowledge of the kshetra and the kshetrajna is deemed by me as true knowledge.

Prakriti and Purusha are respectively called as kshetra and kshetrajna - the non-self and self. The former is insentient and the latter is sentient. The purusha identifies himself with the prakriti and fancies that its characteristics are all his own. It is like the colour of a flower which seems transposed to a crystal kept near it. That purusha is called as Jivatman who identifies himself with the prakriti that he handles. The differentiation in prakriti is infinite; for this reason the jivatman are also infinite.

The cosmic intelligence is Iswara. While he appears to be imbued with the characteristics of the prakriti,  he is actually untouched by it. He is the innermost self in all beings. The individual souls and the universe have no existence independent of Iswara. He is therefore the kshetrajna in all the kshetras.Though containing everything in himself, he is eternally free, pure and blissful.

Jnana or knowledge is the true understanding of both -  kshetra and the kshetrajna. The knowledge pertaining to the kshetra is classified as Apara vidya or the lower knowledge  and that pertaining to the kshetrajna as Para vidya or the Superior knowledge. To be well-versed and versatile in the vedas, agamas, grammar, rhetoric ad the branches of science and arts - all these come under the lower knowledge. Brahma jnana or self knowledge is the superior knowledge is the supreme knowledge  

Enquiry commences with a diligent study of nature and culminates in Brahma jnana. Secular knowledge bereft of the sacred is therefore incomplete. The former is the stepping stone to the latter. True knowledge consists of wisdom pertainin gto the phenomenon and the Noumenon.

A harmonious combination of the two enquiries into the Purusha and Prakriti constitutes true knowledge. Knowing the one to the exclusion of the other is imperfect knowledge. The scientific enquiry of the modern man is a true search into the prakriti. It has taken him very near purusha. The scientist will soon come to know that the manifest universe has its origin and sustenance in the cosmic intelligence.

One is not termed as rich merely by owning money. There are signs of one's being rich. His house would be well lit in all the rooms. Whereas the poor man can not afford to have many lights.

 The human body is the tabernacle of the lord. It should not be kept in the darkness of ignorance. It should be lit with the lamp of wisdom. When you illuminate your heart with this lamp, you will behold the benign lord there. Jnana can be gained by one and all. There are in the human temple two entities - the little jivatman and the great paramatman. The former is dependent on the latter. As the electricity from the source illuminates all the houses, the paramatman gives light to the jivatmans. The divine knowledge illumines your body, yourself and the paramatman.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa