Nature, the Supreme Being, and Consciousness

The Supreme Lord says:

“Field” is called the body, and “knower of the field” is called one who knows the body.

Understand that in all bodies, the knower, I am also. And to know the body, to know the possessor of the body, that is the knowledge. This is My thought.

Now listen, I beg you: in few words I will describe the field of action, how it is constituted, its metamorphoses, its source, as well as the knower of this field and its influence. This knowledge, of the field of action and its knower, has been expounded by various sages in various Vedic writings (of the Vedas, the original holy scriptures), especially the Vedanta-sutra (sacred book) where cause and effect are presented with great reason.

The combination of the five great elements, the false ego (identification with one's body, and the desire to dominate matter and material nature), the intelligence, the unmanifested, the ten sense organs, the mind and the five sense objects, and then desire and aversion, joy and sorrow, signs of life and conviction, are, in short, the field of action and what results from the interactions of its constituent elements.

Humility, modesty, non-violence, tolerance, simplicity, the act of approaching an authentic spiritual master, purity, constancy and self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense pleasure, freedom from false ego and the clear perception that birth, sickness, old age and death are evils to be fought; Detachment from wife, children, home and all that is connected with it, equality of mind in all situations, pleasant or distressing; pure and constant devotion to Me, seeking out solitary places and detachment from the masses, recognising the importance of spiritual realisation, and the philosophical search for the Absolute Truth, such I declare to be knowledge, and ignorance all that goes against it.

I will now instruct you in the object of knowledge, and its knowledge will make you taste the eternal. It is called brahman, the spiritual; it is without beginning, and subordinate to Me. He transcends the world of matter, and with it the effects and causes inherent in it.

Everywhere his hands and legs, his eyes and faces, and nothing escapes his hearing. Thus the Supreme Soul is everywhere present.

The original source of the senses of all beings, the Supreme Soul is nevertheless devoid of them. It is the sustainer of all, yet it remains unattached. And beyond the three gunas (the three attributes and modes of influence of material nature: virtue, passion and ignorance), He remains the Master.

The Supreme Truth is within as well as without, in the moving as well as in the still; It surpasses the power of perception and understanding bound to the material senses. It is infinitely distant and yet very near. Though seemingly divided, the Supreme Soul remains indivisible; It is One.

Though She sustains all beings, understand that She also devours them and makes them all grow.