The Yoga of the Field and the Knower of the Field

Krishna completes the description of the field by including everything you experience: desire, aversion, pleasure, pain, the aggregate body, consciousness, and steadfastness. The field is comprehensive—it includes your physical body, your mind, your emotions, your desires, your aversions, your pleasures, your pains, your consciousness, your determination. Everything you can experience or identify with is the field. Most people think they are these things. They say 'I am my desires' or 'I am my emotions' or 'I am my body' or 'I am my consciousness.' But you're not. You're the knower who experiences all of this. The field has modifications—it changes constantly. Desires change, aversions shift, pleasure comes and goes, pain arises and subsides, the body ages, consciousness fluctuates, determination wavers. But the knower—you—remains constant. This complete description helps you recognize the full scope of the field, so you can distinguish it from the knower. The field is everything you have. The knower is what you are. When you understand this distinction, you can use the field—your body, mind, emotions, desires, consciousness—without being defined by it. The field changes. The knower remains. This is the foundation of freedom.