Lost In The Field

Large red wings outstretched
Barely skimming the park's grass
Dancing lawnmowers

Spent a few hours in the afternoon at the park eating lunch, thinking, and reading some of a new translation of the Bhagavad Gita i stumbled on at the book store recently. Here's a sample from that amazing chapter 13, The Field And Its Knower:

Arjuna
And now, Krishna, I wish to learn about Prakriti and Brahman, the Field and the Knower of the Field. What is knowledge? What is it that has to be known?

[With questions like that, this guy is ready. Given a chance to ask questions, how many of us would come up with these? What is knowledge? What is it that has to be known?]

Sri Krishna
This body is called the Field, because a man sows seeds of action in it, and reaps their fruits. Wise men say that the Knower of the Field is he who watches what takes place within this body.

...

Now listen, and i will tell you briefly what the Field is; its nature, modifications and origin. I will tell you also who the Knower is, and what are his powers.

...Prakriti
Which is the cosmos
In cause unseen
And visible feature;
Intellect, ego;
Earth, water, and ether,
Air and fire;
Man's ten organs
Of knowing and doing,
Man's mind also;
The five sense-objects—
Sound in its essence,
Essence of aspect,
Essence of odour,
Of touch and of tasting;
Hate and desire,
And pain and pleasure;
Consciousness, lastly,
And resolution; These, with their sum
Which is blent in the body;
These make The Field
With its limits and changes.

Therefore I tell you;
Be humble, be harmless
Have no pretension,
Be upright, forbearing,
Serve your teacher
In true obedience,
Keeping the mind
And the body in cleanness,
Tranquil, steadfast,
Mast of ego,
Standing apart
From the things of the senses,
Free from self;
Aware of the weakness
In mortal nature,
Its bondage to birth,
Age, suffering, dying;
To nothing be slave...

Calmly encounter
The painful, the pleasant;
Adore me only
With heart undistracted;
Turn all your thought
Toward solitude, spurning
The noise of the crowd,
Its fruitless commotion;
Strive without ceasing
To know the Atman,
Seek this knowledge
And comprehend clearly
Why you should seek it;
Such, it is said,
Are the roots of true wisdom;
Ignorance, merely,
Is all that denies them.

[Let me repeat that last part again, i love it so much....
"Seek this knowledge
And comprehend clearly
Why you should seek it;
Such, it is said,
Are the roots of true wisdom;
Ignorance, merely,
Is all that denies them."

I think i mentioned this a while ago, it's much better to spend your time making sure you understand the questions than it is to argue about the answers. Wisdom lies in comprehending clearly why you should seek. So, where was i....]

...
Everywhere are His hands, eyes, feet; His heads and His faces;
This whole world is His ear; He exists, encompassing all things;
Doing the tasks of each sense, yet Himself devoid of the senses;
Standing apart, He sustains; He is free from the gunas but feels them.
He is within and without; He lives in the live and the lifeless;
Subtle beyond mind's grasp; so near us, so utterly distant;
Undivided, He seems to divide into objects and creatures;
Sending creation forth from Himself, He upholds and withdraws it;
Light of all lights, He abides beyond our ignorant darkness;
Knowledge, the one thing real we may study or know; the heart's dweller.

...
By the single sun
This whole world is illumined;
By its one Knower
The Field is illumined.

Who this perceives
With the eye of wisdom
In what manner the Field
Is distinct from its Knower,
How men are made free
From the toils of Prakriti;
His aim is accomplished,
He enters the Highest.

Translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood

Beautiful.