The Blessed Lord spoke to Arjuna, saying, "This body, O son of Kunti, is known as the field. Those who truly understand call the one who knows this field the knower of the field. But know this, O Bharata: I am the knower of the field in all bodies. To comprehend the distinction between the field and its knower is, in my view, genuine knowledge. Listen as I briefly explain what the field is—its nature, its transformations, its origin, and its influence. This wisdom has been sung by sages in many ways, through various Vedic meters and the precise statements of the Brahma-sutras. The field consists of the great elements—earth, water, fire, air, and space—along with ego, intellect, and the unmanifest. It includes the ten senses, the mind as the eleventh, and the five sense objects. Within it are desire and aversion, pleasure and pain, the aggregate of the body, consciousness, and firmness. This, in short, is the field and its modifications. True knowledge is found in humility, sincerity, nonviolence, patience, uprightness, reverence for the teacher, purity, steadiness, and self-control. It is marked by detachment from sense objects, absence of ego, and a clear vision of the faults inherent in birth, death, old age, and disease. Non-attachment, not clinging to family or home, and maintaining equanimity in both favorable and unfavorable circumstances are also part of knowledge. Unwavering devotion to me through exclusive yoga, delight in solitude, and lack of attraction to crowds are signs of wisdom. Constancy in spiritual knowledge and the vision of truth's purpose—these are called knowledge; anything contrary is ignorance. Now, I will declare what is to be known, the knowledge of which leads to immortality: the beginningless, supreme Brahman, which cannot be simply called existence or nonexistence. This Brahman pervades everything, with hands, feet, eyes, heads, faces, and ears everywhere in the world. Though it shines through all the qualities of the senses, it is itself without senses, unattached yet sustaining all, without qualities yet the enjoyer of them. This supreme reality is both outside and inside all beings; it moves and yet is unmoving. Subtle and unknowable, it is both far and near. Though undivided among beings, it appears as if divided; it is the supporter of all, absorbing and generating them. It is the light beyond all lights, transcending darkness. It is knowledge, the object of knowledge, and attainable through knowledge, established in the hearts of all. Thus, I have briefly explained the field, knowledge, and the knowable. Whoever understands this becomes fit for my state. Both nature and spirit are without beginning; all modifications and qualities arise from nature. Nature is the cause of creation—of effects, causes, and agents. Spirit is the cause of experiencing pleasure and pain. The spirit, dwelling in nature, enjoys the qualities born of nature; attachment to these qualities leads to birth in good and evil wombs. Within this body, the supreme spirit is also called the witness, the consenter, the supporter, the enjoyer, the great Lord, and the supreme self. Whoever knows spirit and nature, along with their qualities, is not born again, regardless of how he lives. Some perceive the self within the self by meditation, others by the path of knowledge, and still others by the path of action. Some, not knowing in these ways, hear from others and worship; they too, devoted to hearing, surely cross beyond death. Whatever being is born, whether unmoving or moving, arises from the union of the field and the knower of the field. He who sees the supreme Lord equally present in all beings—the imperishable within the perishing—truly sees. Seeing the Lord everywhere, he does not harm the self by the self, and thus attains the highest goal. He who sees that all actions are performed entirely by nature, and regards the self as non-agent, truly sees. When he perceives the manifold existence of beings as resting in the One and its expansion from That alone, he attains Brahman. Because it is beginningless and without qualities, the supreme self is imperishable; though dwelling in the body, O Kaunteya, it neither acts nor is tainted. Just as all-pervading space is not tainted due to its subtlety, so the self, though present everywhere in the body, remains untainted. As the one sun illumines the entire world, so does the knower of the field illumine the whole field, O Bharata. Those who, with the eye of knowledge, perceive the distinction between the field and the knower of the field, and see liberation from the nature of beings, attain the supreme. The Blessed Lord continued, "Once more, I shall declare the highest knowledge among all knowledges, by knowing which sages have attained supreme perfection. Resorting to this knowledge, they become like me; at creation they are not born, and at dissolution they do not suffer. My womb is the great Brahman; in that I place the seed, and from that arises the birth of all beings, O Bharata. Whatever forms are produced in all wombs, the great Brahman is their womb, and I am the seed-giving father. Sattva, rajas, and tamas—the three qualities arise from nature and bind the imperishable embodied one to the body, O mighty-armed. Of these, sattva, being pure, is illuminating and free from sickness; yet it binds, O sinless one, by attachment to happiness and knowledge.