The Bhagavad Gita describes what it calls the “field of activities” in chapter 13.6,7
- The major elements of earth, air, fire, water, and ether, the false ego, spiritual intelligence, the unmanifest element in material nature, the ten senses along with the mind, and the five objects of the senses as sound, sight, touch, taste, and smell;
- Desire, disdain, happiness, distress, the perceptual faculty of the mind, determination; all this is declared to be the field of activities modified by the six transformations of the physical body beginning with birth and ending with death.
Verse six is clearly a description of the 24 material principles of Samkhya. But to me, verse 7 is more interesting. It seems to be an alternative description containing:
-
Two pairs of opposites
a. Desire and disdain
b. happiness and distress -
Two principles similar to Samkhya, represented as
a. The perceptual faculty of the mind (minus the faculty of action)
b. Determination, which is the equivalent of buddhi -
The six transformations of the body.
This raises a number of questions:
- What do the two pairs of opposites represent?
- Why is the perceptual faculty of the mind included, but the faculty of action not included?
- What are the six transformations of the body?
- Is this an alternative description? And if so, where does it come from?
Anybody have any insight?