BG Chap 13 - The factors that constitute knowledge
Kṛṣṇa describes twenty factors to help understand the jīva and Paramātmā, who are the knowers of the field. Of these eighteen are common to both the devotees and the jñānīs. However, the devotees zealously engage in one of the factors - avyabhicāriṇī bhakti. The other seventeen items manifest automatically for those engaged in that one item. The devotees do not devote effort to the 17 items individually. The last two items namely Adhyātma-jñāna-nityatva and Tattva-jñānārtha-darśana are especially for the jñānīs. These 20 factors help in realization of the Lord. The opposite of these factors – meaning pride, pretension etc – is ignorance, contrary to realization. Thus this is the real process of knowledge and not the interaction of the twenty four elements of the field mentioned before. This is actually the means to get out of the entanglement of those elements.
It is interesting to note that Kṛṣṇa's description of knowledge is not information based like it is in today's world. Rather knowledge is about the saintly behavior of a person to understand reality - jīva and Paramātmā.
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