“A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again.” (Alexander Pope)

Quotes from Chapter 13 “The Yoga of the Division of the Cosmos into Body and Soul” from the Bhagavad Gita.

Knowledge of the field and of its knower

This very body (manifest form), is called the kshetra (field), and he who knows it is called the kshetrajna (knower of the field) by those who understand these things.

Know that I am the kshetrajna in all kshetras... I hold that knowledge of the field and of its knower is true knowledge.

What the field is, what its nature, its modifications, from what each evolved, who its knower is and what his powers, I shall explain briefly. Listen!

The rishis (sages) have sung of this in many ways, in different metres... making the intent logical and perfectly conclusive.

What is knowledge?

Humility, the absence of hypocrisy, non-violence, tolerance, righteousness, service of the teacher, purity, constancy, control of the mind,

Indifference to the objects of the senses, negation of the self, awareness of birth, death, old age, ill-health and pain as evils,

Non-attachment, not holding on to one's son, wife, household and such things, a constant equanimity amid all desired and undesired occurrences,

Unswerving, concentrated, disciplined devotion to Me (reality / truth), having recourse to solitary places, an aversion to places where ordinary people meet,

Permanence in knowledge of the Spirit, a vision of the true essence of Divine Knowledge – all this is said to be knowledge, all else is ignorance.

What is to be known, by knowing which one attains deliverance

I will tell you what is to be known, by knowing which one attains deliverance. It is the Supreme Brahman, without beginning, said to be neither imperishable nor perishable,

With hands and feet everywhere, eyes, heads and mouths on all sides, ears everywhere, He pervades everything, abiding in it.

He gives the impression of having the qualities of all the senses, yet is without the senses. Though unattached, He still supports everything. Void of qualities, He enjoys them nonetheless. [i.e. simulation]

He is outside and within all things. He is immovable and yet movable. Subtle, He is capable of being known. Far away, He is still near.

Undivided, He is broken up among all things. He must be realised as one who, supporting all things, destroys them and refashions them again.

He is said to be the Radiance among radiances, beyond darkness. Knowledge, the object of knowledge, and that which can be known only through knowledge. He is seated in the hearts of everyone.

I have thus briefly explained the field, knowledge, and the object. My devotee (seeker of truth), knowing this, is merged into My being (union with reality, liberation from illusion)...

Whatever is born, movable or immovable, comes into being through the union of the kshetra and the kshetrajna – bear this in mind...

He who sees the Supreme Lord, who is present equally in all creatures, who is not destroyed even when they are, he may be said to have truly perceived.

Perceiving the Lord as equally pervading everywhere, he does not let his self-sense (ego) destroy his (awareness of his) true Self and, in that way, he attains a state of excellence.

He who perceives that all aspects of actions are performed only through prakriti (constituents of nature) and also that the self is a non-doer, he may be said to have truly perceived.

On perceiving that the multifarious aspect of things is located in one point, from where it extends severally, he attains the Brahman.

Without beginning, devoid of qualities, the Supreme Self, imperishable, though stationed in the body, neither acts nor is touched in any way...

Just as ether (space), pervading everything, is unsmeared on account of its rarefied nature, in the same way the Self, present in everybody, is not besmirched.

Just as the Sun, alone lights up this entire world, so also does the Keeper of the field light up this entire field (manifest universe)...

Those who in this way, through the eye of wisdom, perceive the difference between the field and the one who knows it, and the manner of release of all beings from prakriti, they obtain the Supreme.

Also see the article, In Defence of Rationalism.