Lord Krishna

Divine Teacher

The Supreme Lord, the charioteer and divine guide of Arjuna. Krishna delivers the eternal wisdom of the Gita, revealing the nature of the soul, duty, and the path to liberation.

Speaking: Chapter 13, Verse 22

Verse 22

The Yoga of the Field and the Knower of the Field

The Purusha, dwelling in Prakriti, experiences the qualities born of Prakriti. Attachment to these qualities is the cause of its births in good and evil wombs.

Context & Meaning

The mechanism of bondage is identified: the soul dwells in Prakriti and experiences the qualities (guṇas) it produces. This experience is natural and not the problem. The problem is attachment (saṅga) — the soul's identification with what it experiences, its mistaking the field for itself. This attachment is what drives the cycle of rebirth, producing good or evil births according to the quality of the attachment. Liberation consists in the soul maintaining awareness while releasing attachment — continuing to witness without being entangled.

Scholar Commentaries

1 commentary · Public domain

Madhvacharya

Dvaita

Guṇasaṅga — attachment to the qualities of Prakriti — is the single root cause of the entire cycle of transmigration. The soul is not inherently bound; it becomes bound through identification with what is not itself. The path to liberation is the reverse: disidentification, discrimination between the soul and Prakriti, and recognition of the soul's true nature as witness, not agent or patient.