Gita Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen explained the distinction between the transitory, perishable physical body and the immortal, eternal and immutable soul. It also deals with the relationship between the individual soul and the ultimate soul.
Verses 13.1 - 13.19 Arjuna wanted to know from Krishna the meanings of prakrti (nature), purusha (the enjoyer]), the field and the knower of the field and of knowledge and the end of knowledge. Krishna explained that the body is the field, One who knows this body is called the knower of the field. God is the knower of all bodies. Knowledge is the understanding of the body and its owner. Krishna then gave the description of this field of activity, how it is constituted changed and produced, who is knower of the field and the influences of the knower.
Knowledge of the field of activities and of the knower of activities is described by various sages in the Vedas, particularly in the Vedanta-sutra’. In brief the field of activities includes the five great elements of air, water, earth, space and sky, false ego, intellect / intelligence, the non-manifest, the senses, the mind, the five sense objects, desire, hatred, happiness, distress, the aggregate, the life symptoms, and convictions. Knowledge consists of humility, modesty, non-violence, tolerance, simplicity, approaching a bona fide spiritual master, cleanliness, steadiness and self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification, absence of ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; non-attachment to children, wife, home and the rest, and even-mindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to God, resorting to solitary places, detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization, and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth. Anything contrary to knowledge is ignorance.
Brahman, the spirit, is the knowable, knowing which one tastes the eternal. Brahman is the creation of God, is beginning less, and lies beyond the cause and effect of this material world.
The Supersoul exists everywhere. It is the original sense-free source of all senses. It is unattached maintainer of all living beings and beyond the influence of but the master of the three Gunas of material nature. The Supreme Truth is beyond the power of the material senses to see or to know. The Supersoul appears to be divided, but actually not divisible. He is situated as one. The Supersoul creates, develops, maintains and destroys the created manifestations and the creation. He is the source of light in all luminous objects, beyond the darkness of matter, beyond all that is manifest, both knowledge and the object of knowledge as also the goal of knowledge, seated in the heart of everyone.
Verses 13.20 – 35 Material nature and the living entities are beginning less. Their transformations and the modes of matter are products of material nature. Nature is the cause of all material activities and effects, whereas the living being is the cause of the various sufferings and enjoyments in this world. The living being in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three Gunas/ properties/ modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species.
In the human body, Self is the transcendental enjoyer, God as the supreme proprietor, the overseer and the approving authority, exists as the Supersoul. The person who understands this philosophy concerning material nature, the living being and the interaction of the modes of nature is certain to attain liberation. Supersoul is perceived by some through meditation perceives, some others through the cultivation of knowledge, and still others through practicing desire-free actions. Again, those not conversant in spiritual knowledge, begin to worship God upon hearing about God from others. Because of their tendency to hear from authorities, they also transcend the path of birth and death.
Whatever one finds in existence, both moving and unmoving, is only the combination of the field of activities and the knower of the field. One who sees the Supersoul accompanying the individual soul in all bodies, and who understands that neither the soul nor the Supersoul is ever destroyed, actually sees. One who sees the Supersoul in every living being and equal everywhere does not degrade himself by his mind. Thus he approaches the transcendental destination. When a person observes that it is the material natured body that performs all activities and that the self does nothing, he / she perceive the Truth. When a person ceases to see different material bodies as having different identities, understands the concept of Brahman. Thus he sees that beings are expanded everywhere. The vision of eternity find enables one to see the soul is transcendental, eternal, and beyond the modes of nature. Despite contact with the material body, the soul does nothing and gets entangled with nothing. Just as the all pervading sky does not get tied to anything that we see in the sky due to its subtle nature, the soul, situated in Brahman vision, does not mix with the body in which it dwells. Just as the sun illuminates the universe, so does soul dwelling in the body illuminate the entire body with consciousness? The person, whose knowledge recognizes the difference between the body and the owner of the body and can understand the process of liberation from this bondage, also attains to the supreme goal.