... and Christian", of his most recent book. 5 He starts with the Chhandogya Upanishad's two terms ksetrajna and a-ksetrajfia, "knower of the field" and "non-knower of the field" and goes on to quote from it the passage (8.3.2): "Just as [a group of people] who do not know the country (aksetrajnd) might wander about and pass over a hidden hoard of gold time and again without finding it, so do all... find precisely the same simile in the Gospel of St. Matthew", he quotes 13:44: "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which someone has found; he hides it again, goes off happy, sells Page 69 everything he owns and buys the field." Zaehner's comment 7 now runs: "The treasure which Jesus calls the 'kingdom of heaven' is also 'discernment' (viveka)... involved. Dick Batstone's Letter 1 Baskerville Road, London S.W.18, England. 20 May 1971. Dear Mr. Sethna, When not receiving an answer from an Ashramite, I never know whether (a) he has not got my letter because of hazards of the post, or (b) he has got it, but, being so absorbed in a phase of concentrated sadhana, he has simply found it irrelevant and scrunched ...
... his last questions demand a clear distinction between renunciation of works and this subtler renunciation he is asked to prefer; the actual difference between Purusha and Prakriti, the Field and the Knower of the Field, so important for the practice of desireless action under the drive of the divine Will; and finally a clear !14.21! statement of the practical operations and results of the three modes... three gunas or modes of the Nature-Force and habituated to move unquestioningly in that field, like the generality of men. He justifies his name only in being so far pure and sattwic as to be governed by high and clear principles and impulses and habitually control his lower nature by the noblest Law which he knows. He is not of a violent Asuric disposition, not the slave of his passions, but has been... who stood in the relation to him of father, of son, of grandson, connections by blood and connections by marriage,—all these social ties have to be cut asunder by the sword. It is not that he did not know these things before, but he has Page 23 never realised it all; obsessed by his claims and wrongs and by the principles of his life, the struggle for the right, the duty of the Kshatriya ...
... his last questions demand a clear distinction between renunciation of works and this subtler renunciation he is asked to prefer; the actual difference between Purusha and Prakriti, the Field and the Knower of the Field, so important for the practice of desireless action under the drive of the divine Will; and finally a clear statement of the practical operations and results of the three modes of Prakriti... is unfailing. The figure of Krishna is the symbol of the Divine's dealing with humanity. Arjuna, as we know him in the Mahabharata, is the rajasic man who governs his rajasic actions by a high sattwic ideal. At the opening of the episode in the Gita, we find him advancing to the field of a gigantic struggle, to Kurukshetra, with the full acceptance of the joy of battle, as to "a holiday of fight"... Gunas or modes of the Nature-Force and habituated to move unquestioningly in that field, like the generality of men. He justifies his name only in being so far pure and sattwic as to be governed by high and clear principles and impulses and habitually control his lower nature by the noblest Law which he knows. He is not of a violent Asuric disposition, not the slave of his passions, but has been ...
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