The Field and Its Knower
The body is called the field, and one who knows it is called the knower of the field.
Krishna introduces the crucial distinction between the field (kshetra—the body-mind complex) and the knower of the field (kshetrajna—the conscious Self). The body is the arena of experience; the Self is the witness of all experience. This discrimination is fundamental to self-knowledge. Most suffering comes from confusing ourselves with the field—identifying with body, mind, and circumstances rather than the unchanging awareness that knows them.
This body, O son of Kunti, is called the field, and one who knows this body is called the knower of the field.
This distinction parallels the subject-object division in Western philosophy—the 'I' who experiences is never the object experienced.
Bhagavad Gita
Written about in
- What the Bhagavad Gita says about the self
The body is the ground of experience, and something knows that ground. Every other claim the Gita makes about the self depends on keeping those two apart.