Sanskrit
क्षेत्रज्ञं चापि मां विद्धि सर्वक्षेत्रेषु भारत । क्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञयोर्ज्ञानं यत्तज्ज्ञानं मतं मम ॥
kṣetrajñaṃ cāpi māṃ viddhi sarvakṣetreṣu bhārata kṣetrakṣetrajñayor jñānaṃ yat taj jñānaṃ mataṃ mama
Translation
Understand Me as the Knower of the Field in all Fields, O Bhârata. Wisdom as to the Field and the Knower of the Field, that in My opinion is the wisdom.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The move from “a knower” to “Me as the Knower in all Fields” is the verse’s real claim: it universalizes the individual witnessing- consciousness of verse 2 into a single principle present in every body. This is the same identification of the personal and the cosmic that chapter 10’s vibhuti catalogue makes at length, compressed here into one line — and it’s what licenses the later description of purusha (from verse 20 onward) as one reality distributed across all embodied experience rather than one soul per body. The move from “a knower” to “Me, the Knower in all fields” universalizes the individual witness into one principle in every body — the same personal/cosmic identification as chapter 10’s vibhūti, compressed to a line. It licenses BG 13.17’s “undivided, yet seated as if divided.””
Study deeper
Word by word
- kṣetrajñaṃ cāpi māṃ viddhiक्षेत्रज्ञं चापि मां विद्धि
- know Me also as the knower of the field (kṣetrajñam + ca + api + mām + viddhi)
- sarvakṣetreṣu bhārataसर्वक्षेत्रेषु भारत
- in all fields, O Bhārata (sarva-kṣetreṣu + bhārata)
- kṣetrakṣetrajñayor jñānaṃ yatक्षेत्रक्षेत्रज्ञयोः ज्ञानं यत्
- the knowledge of the field and its knower (kṣetra-kṣetrajñayoḥ + jñānam + yat)
- taj jñānaṃ mataṃ mamaतज् ज्ञानं मतं मम
- that, in My view, is [true] knowledge (tat + jñānam + matam + mama)
Commentary
Site Commentary
Notice how gently the biggest claim in the verse is framed: “that in My opinion is the wisdom” (mataṃ mama) offers a cosmic identity claim — Krishna as the Knower present in every field — in the soft, personal register of a stated view rather than an unchallengeable decree. The mismatch is worth sitting with: the largest claim in the chapter so far arrives in the gentlest grammatical clothing.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Site Commentary — Second Reading
Read forward, this line is quiet groundwork for teachings the Gita hasn’t reached yet — chapter 6’s description of the yogi who sees the same self in all beings and treats another’s joy and sorrow as their own only follows logically if the knower in one body and the knower in another are genuinely the same thing, not merely similar things. The metaphysics stated here plainly, almost in passing, is the load-bearing premise under an ethical claim the text will make later without re-deriving it.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- When you're sure of something large and important — a belief about yourself, a hard-won conviction — you don't need to state it as an unchallengeable decree; framing it plainly as your considered view doesn't make the claim any less serious.
Professional
- When recommending something with major architectural or strategic implications, framing it as 'this is my assessment' rather than an unchallengeable verdict doesn't weaken the recommendation — it makes room for scrutiny that a pronouncement stated as bare fact forecloses.
Family & Social
- When you need to say something big and important to someone close to you — a boundary, a hard truth — say it as your own considered view rather than an absolute decree; the size of the claim doesn't require the harshest possible delivery.
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