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TEXT 6-7 maha-bhutany ahankaro
iccha dvesah sukham duhkham
SYNONYMS  maha-bhutani--great
elements; ahankarah--false ego; buddhih--intelligence; avyaktam--the
unmanifested; eva--certainly; ca--also; indriyani--senses;
dasa-ekam--eleven; ca--also; panca--five; ca--also;
indriya-go-carah--objects of the senses; iccha--desire; dvesah--hatred;
sukham--happiness; duhkham--distress; sanghatah--the
aggregate; cetana--living symptoms; dhrtih--conviction; etat--all
this; ksetram--the field of activities; samasena--in summary;
sa-vikaram--interaction; udahrtam--exemplified.
TRANSLATION The five
great elements, false ego, intelligence, the unmanifested, the ten senses,
the mind, the five sense objects, desire, hatred, happiness, distress,
the aggregate, the life symptoms, and convictions--all these are considered,
in summary, to be the field of activities and its interactions.
PURPORT From all the
authoritative statements of the great sages, the Vedic hymns and the aphorisms
of the Vedanta-sutra, the components of this world are earth, water,
fire, air and ether. These are the five great elements (mahabhuta).
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 touch. Then five working senses: voice,
legs, hands, the anus and the 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 is desire, hatred,
pleasure and pain, which are interactions, representations of the five
great elements in the gross body. The living symptoms, represented by consciousness
and conviction, 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 subtle false ego. They
are a representation in the material conception. Consciousness is represented
by intelligence, of which the unmanifested stage is the three modes of
material nature. The unmanifested three modes of material nature is called
pradhana.
One who
desires to know the twenty-four elements in detail along with their interactions
should study the philosophy in more detail. In Bhagavad-gita, 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 begins to decay, and at the last stage it vanishes.
Therefore the field is a nonpermanent material thing. However, the ksetrajna,
the knower of the field, its proprietor, is different.
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