Srila Prabhupada:
śrī bhagavan uvāca
idaṁ śarīraṁ kaunteya
kṣetram ity abhidhīyate
etad yo vetti taṁ prāhuḥ
kṣetrajña iti tad-vidaḥ
“The Supreme Lord said: This body, O son of Kuntī, is called the field, and one who knows this body is called the knower of the field.” (Bg. 13.2)
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, is instructing Arjuna about the knowledge of kṣetra and kṣetrajña. Kṣetra refers to the field, which is the body, and kṣetrajña refers to the knower of the field, who is the individual soul. If land is to be cultivated, there must be some cultivator, and if this body, which is likened unto a field, is to be cultivated, there must be a proprietor who can cultivate it. Now we have these material bodies, and it is our duty to cultivate them properly. That cultivation is called akarma, or work. A person may come to our place with a hoe to cultivate land, or he may come to simply drink coffee or tea. We have been given this particular type of body to cultivate and to attain required sense objects according to our desires. This body is a gift from God. God is very kind, and if someone wants something from Him, He allows it. “All right,” He says. “Take this.” His relationship to us is just like the relationship of a father to a son. The son may insist upon getting something from the father, and the father may try to convince him that what he wants is not for his good, saying, “My dear son, don’t touch this. This is not good for you.” But when the boy insists upon it, the father will allow him to have it. The affectionate father gives the son just what he wants. Similarly, the Supreme Father gives His sons and daughters just what they want. It is stated in Bhagavad-gītā that all beings, in all species of life, are his children.
sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya
mūrtayaḥ sam bhavanti yāḥ
tāsāṁ brahma mahad yonir
ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā
“It should be understood that all species of life, O son of Kuntī, are made possible by birth in this material nature, and that I am the seed-giving Father.” (Bg. 14.4)
In this material world, the mother, prakṛti, which is material nature, supplies us with the body, and the Supreme Father impregnates this matter with living souls. There is an erroneous theory current that only human beings have souls and that other living entities do not, but we understand from Vedic authority that there are 8,400,000 species of bodies, including plants and trees, and that they all have souls, otherwise they would not be able to develop and grow. In this verse Śrī Kṛṣṇa claims that all living entities, regardless of the forms they take in this material world, are his sons, and that they are related to Him as a son is related to his father.
This Kṛṣṇa consciousness is especially meant for understanding the position of the soul and its relationship with God.
kṣetrajñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi
sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata
kṣetra-kṣetrajñayor jñānaṁ
yat taj jñānaṁ mataṁ mama
“O scion of Bharata, you should understand that I am also the knower in all bodies, and to understand this body and its owner is called knowledge. That is My opinion.” (Bg. 13.3)
If we meditate upon this body and study whether or not we are actually the body, we will come to the conclusion that we are kṣetrajña, the knower of the body but not the body. If we study our finger and consider whether or not we are the finger, we will come to the conclusion that we are not the finger or any other part of the body, but that the finger, the arms, the legs, the head, etc. are our fingers, arms, legs, etc. In this way we can come to the conclusion that we are not these bodies but that the bodies belong to us. Therefore we say, “This is my body.” Unfortunately people in this modern civilization never stop to inquire what they are or who they are. They are simply laboring hard, working hard all day in an office or factory, under the impression that, “I am this body.” And if we ask people who they are, they reply, “I am Hindu, I am Moslem, I am Swedish, I am American, I am Christian, etc.” These are various identifications or designations of the body, but the fact is that we are not these bodies. The body is simply the field of our activities. We are no more the body than the cultivator of a field is the field.
There are different kinds of bodies and different activities in accordance to the different types of bodies. A dog enjoys one kind of activity, a cat enjoys another, and a human enjoys another. There are differences of activity due to differences of body. When we come to the platform of truth, however, and understand that we are not these bodies, then our activities change from material activities to spiritual activities. As long as we are operating under the bodily conception of life, our activities are material, but as soon as we understand, “I do not belong to this body, ahaṁ brahmāsmi, I am spirit soul,” our activities will be in accordance to that realization, that is to say that they will cease to be motivated from the material or bodily platform. Knowledge of our proper identity as separate from the body is real knowledge, but this knowledge is denied as long as we cling to bodily identification." Elevation to Krsna Consciousness, Chapter 3
