इच्छा द्वेषः सुखं दुःखं संघातश् चेतना धृतिः / एतत् क्षेत्रं समासेन सविकारम् उदाहृतम्
icchā dveṣaḥ sukhaṃ duḥkhaṃ saṃghātaś cetanā dhṛtiḥ / etat kṣetraṃ samāsena sa-vikāram udāhṛtam
Desire, aversion, pleasure, pain, the body, consciousness, courage — all this with its modifications is the kṣetra!
Word by word (7)
- icchā
- — desire, wish — the impulse toward what is attractive · Icchā is the first of the 7 vikāras — the dynamic modifications of the kṣetra. It is rajasic in nature. Even the subtlest wish (icchā) belongs to the field, not the Knower. The witness of desire is not itself desiring.
- dveṣaḥ
- — aversion, repulsion — the impulse away from what is repellent · Icchā and dveṣa are the Gita's fundamental dyad (desire and aversion). Ch.3 V34 calls them the two great obstacles seated in the sense organs. The Sāṃkhya tradition lists rāga-dveṣa as the two kliśa that sustain saṃsāra.
- sukhaṃ duḥkhaṃ
- — pleasure and pain — the twin poles of sensory/mental experience · Sukha-duḥkha are experiences in the field, observed by the Knower. One of the Gita's liberating insights: 'sama-duḥkha-sukha' (equanimity in pleasure/pain) is possible only when I know I am the kṣetrajña, not the one who suffers pleasure or pain.
- saṃghātaḥ
- — the body-aggregate — the physical body as a composed, held-together structure (saṃ + ghāta = together + striking/compounding) · Saṃghāta = the conglomerate physical body. This term emphasises that the body is a temporary assembly, not a permanent entity. It's what holds the 24 tattvas together into a functional organism.
- cetanā
- — consciousness-principle, the sentience that animates the body-field · Cetanā here means the functional vitality or sentience of the body — the life-force that makes it responsive. This is NOT the Ātman itself but the reflection of Ātman in the field (cidābhāsa). Even this apparent consciousness is part of the kṣetra.
- dhṛtiḥ
- — courage, will, the sustaining force that holds the body-mind in function · Dhṛti = holding, sustaining. The force that keeps us going when fatigued or afraid. It is listed here as a field-modification — even the will to persist is part of the kṣetra, not the kṣetrajña.
- etat kṣetram samāsena sa-vikāram udāhṛtam
- — 'This kṣetra — with its modifications — has been declared in brief' (formal closure of the kṣetra enumeration) · 'Samāsena' = in brief/concisely; 'sa-vikāram' = together with its vikāras (modifications/changes); 'udāhṛtam' = declared/stated. This half-verse is the formal stamp closing the kṣetra definition begun in V6. After this, Krishna pivots to jñāna (V8 onward).
Krishna closes the kṣetra definition by adding the 7 dynamic modifications: desire, aversion, pleasure, pain, the body-aggregate, the functional consciousness-force, and the sustaining will. Everything together — the 24 neutral tattvas from V6 plus these 7 living modifications — constitutes the kṣetra in its full dynamic reality. Then Krishna says 'this has been declared in brief' — a formal stamp completing the definition.
A modern analogy
If V6 listed the parts of the car (engine, fuel, sensors), V7 lists what the car does when running — the dynamics: acceleration (icchā), braking (dveṣa), smooth ride (sukha), rough ride (duḥkha), the vehicle itself (saṃghāta), the dashboard lights indicating life (cetanā), the battery-charge that keeps it going (dhṛti). All car. The driver watches.
What it does NOT mean
People think 'consciousness' (cetanā) must be the Ātman. But Krishna lists cetanā here as a field-property — the functional animation of the body. The Ātman is the pure witness behind even this cetanā.
The 7 vikāras in V7 correspond to the operational dimension of the kṣetra (V6 = static structure; V7 = dynamic process). Together V6-V7 cover all 31 'items' (24+7) that make up embodied existence. Śaṃkara reads cetanā not as the Ātman but as the reflection of consciousness in the body (cidābhāsa). Dhṛti as a kṣetra-quality is particularly subtle: even the courage to continue exists within the field-mechanism.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
[V7 absent from SW indexed — SW 13.6 MISSING] [4]
[Arnold full chapter text; verse covers desire, hate, pleasure, pain, the aggregate, thought, and persistence] [7]
...desire, aversion, pleasure, pain, body, consciousness, courage, thus in brief has been declared the Kshetra with changes. [9]
...desire, aversion, pleasure, pain, body consciousness, courage, all this in brief has been declared to be Kshetra in its modified form. [13]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Thinking → clinging → craving → anger. The chain of suffering begins in where you let your mind dwell.
Yoga is the disconnection from suffering — practise it with firm resolve and a mind that does not despond.
Rājasic sukha: arises from sense-object contact — nectar-like at first, poison-like at the end.
The enemy is desire and anger, born of rajas — all-devouring, all-sinful. Know this as your internal enemy.
Three gates to hell, destructive of the self: kāma, krodha, lobha. Therefore abandon this triad.
Brahman-become, serene, neither grieving nor desiring, equal to all beings — he attains supreme bhakti to Me.