Lord Krishna
Divine TeacherThe 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 9
Verse 9
The Yoga of the Field and the Knower of the Field
Dispassion toward sense objects, absence of ego, and perceiving the evil in birth, death, old age, and disease—
Context & Meaning
The qualities of knowledge continue: detachment from sense pleasures (vairāgya), the absence of ego (anahaṅkāra), and the clear-sighted perception of the suffering inherent in the cycle of birth, death, old age, and disease. This last quality — seeing the suffering embedded in physical existence — is not pessimism but clarity. The person who sees clearly that the body is subject to birth, aging, sickness, and death naturally loosens their grip on it. This clear perception is itself liberating; it redirects attention from what is transient to what is permanent.
Scholar Commentaries
1 commentary · Public domainRamanujacharya
VishishtadvaitaAnudarśanam — perceiving, seeing clearly. This is not a theoretical belief about suffering but an ongoing, lucid perception of the nature of embodied existence. The wise person does not forget, even in moments of pleasure, that the body ages and dies. This sustained clarity is what makes vairāgya — genuine dispassion — possible.