BG 13.7

13.7 इच्छा desire? द्वेषः hatred? सुखम् pleasure? दुःखम् pain? सङ्घातः the aggregate? चेतना intelligence? धृतिः fortitude? एतत् this? क्षेत्रम् field? समासेन briefly? सविकारम् with modifications? उदाहृतम् has been described.Commentary These principles form the frame or the skelteton on which the world of forms is built. All these are mental states and treated as properties of the body by the Sankhya school of thought. According to the NyayaYaiseshika schools? these are the inherent alities of the Self. The modifications have a beginning and an end. Only that which is unchanging can be the witness of these modifications. The knower of the field is unchanging. He is the witness of the field and its modifications.Desire is a modification of the mind. It is an earnest longing for an object. It is a Vritti (thoughtwave) born of Rajas which urges a man who has once experienced a certain object of pleasure to get hold of it as conducive to his pleasure when he beholds the same object again. This is the property of the inner sense. It is the field because it is knowable.You enjoy a certain sensual object. The impression of this is produced in the subconscious mind. This impression is vivified or revived through memory or remembrance of the sensual pleasure. Then desire arises to enjoy the object again. Repetition of the sensual enjoyment intensifies the memory and desire. Renunciation of the objects and meditation thin out the impressions and the desires.If anyone gives a description of the beautiful scenery of Badri Narayana or Mount Kailasa at once a desire arises in our minds to vist those places. If a man says that very good sweetmeats and mangoes are available in Bangalore? a desire to get these objects crops up in your mind. Therefore memory of sensual enjoyments and the hearing of the alities of the sensual objects are the root causes of desires. Hope fattens the desires. Hope gives a new lease of life to desires. Desire excites the mind and the senses. Desire makes the mind restless. Desire makes the mind wander in the sensual grooves.An object which is sweet and pleasant to you at one moment produces the very reverse of that sensation at another moment. Everyone of you might have had this experience. Objects are pleasant only when there is a longing for them. But they are unpleasant when there is no longing for them. Therefore desires are the cause of pleasure. If satisfaction arises through enjoyment of the objects? pleasure will cease. If your mind is destitute of desires then you will always enjoy serenity? eanimity? balance or poise in spite of many obstalces or adversities. The foundation of desire is the love of sensual pleasures. Desires run along the path of your inclination? proclivity or tendency or taste. Desire is the fuel. Thought is the fire. If you withdraw the fuel of desire? the fire of thought will be extinguished like an oilless lamp. The intellect becomes impure by association with desires.Hatred is a modification of the mind. It is a negative one. It is a Vritti that impels a man who,experienced pain from a certain object to dislike it when he beholds the same object again. Hatred also is field because it is knowable. The modification that arises in the mind when your desire is not fulfilled is called hatred.Pleasure is agreeable? peaceful? made of Sattva. This is also the field because it is knowable.Pain is disagreeable or unpleasant. It is also the field because it is knowable.Sanghata Aggregate? the combination of the body and the senses or the bundle of the 35 components of the body.Chetana Intelligence is a mental state which manifests itself in the aggregate just as fire manifests itself in a ball of iron. This is also the field because it is knowable. Chetana means consciousness and also the activity of the vital airs.Dhriti Firmness? courage? fortitude. It is a Sattvic modification of the mind. The body? the senses and the mind are sustained by firmness when they are depressed and agitated. The five elements are antagonistic to each other. Water destroys earth. Fire dries up water. Water puts out fire. Wind puts out a lamp (fire). Ether absorbs the wind. The five elements fight amongst themselves and yet they (that have a natural dislike for one another) dwell together ite amicably in the same body. Each element beautifully cooperates with the others in carrying on the common functions of the body harmoniously. Each element nourishes the other elements also with its own alities. Dhriti is firmness or the power by which these fighting elements are held in union and harmony and kept in a state of steadiness and balance. This is also the field because it is knowable.Desire and the other alities that are spoken of in this verse stand for all the alities of the mind. The field that is mentioned in the first verse has been dealth with in all its different forms in the fifth and the sixth verses.

— vedicscriptures · exposition · source ↗

From all the authoritative statements of the great sages, the Vedic hymns and the aphorisms of the Vedānta-sūtra, the components of this world can be understood as follows. First there are earth, water, fire, air and ether. These are the five great elements ( mahā-bhūta ). Then there are false ego, intelligence and the unmanifested stage of the three modes of nature. Then there are five senses for acquiring knowledge: the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. Then five working senses: voice, legs, hands, anus and genitals. Then, above the senses, there is the mind, which is within and which can be called the sense within. Therefore, including the mind, there are eleven senses altogether. Then there are the five objects of the senses: smell, taste, form, touch and sound. Now the aggregate of these twenty-four elements is called the field of activity. If one makes an analytical study of these twenty-four subjects, then he can very well understand the field of activity. Then there are desire, hatred, happiness and distress, which are interactions, representations of the five great elements in the gross body. The living symptoms, represented by consciousness, and convictions are the manifestation of the subtle body – mind, ego and intelligence. These subtle elements are included within the field of activities. The five great elements are a gross representation of the false ego, which in turn represents the primal stage of false ego technically called the materialistic conception, or tāmasa-buddhi, intelligence in ignorance. This, further, represents the unmanifested stage of the three modes of material nature. The unmanifested modes of material nature are called pradhāna. One who desires to know the twenty-four elements in detail along with their interactions should study the philosophy in more detail. In Bhagavad-gītā , a summary only is given. The body is the representation of all these factors, and there are changes of the body, which are six in number: the body is born, it grows, it stays, it produces by-products, then it begins to decay, and at the last stage it vanishes. Therefore the field is a nonpermanent material thing. However, the kṣetra-jña, the knower of the field, its proprietor, is different.

— vedicscriptures · exposition · source ↗