Desire: having earlier got a thing of a certain kind, a cause of pleasure, then, getting another of the same kind, one wishes to take it as a cause of pleasure; that desire is a quality of the inner instrument, and being a thing to be known, it is field. So too aversion: having experienced a thing of a certain kind as a cause of pain, then, getting another of the same kind, one hates it; that aversion, being a thing to be known, is field. So too pleasure, the agreeable, of the nature of serene sattva, being a thing to be known, is field; and pain, of a disagreeable nature, being a thing to be known, is field too. The aggregate is the joining-together of body and senses. The function of the inner instrument made manifest in it, like fire in a heated iron ball, a consciousness shot through with the savour of the reflected light of the Self's consciousness, is consciousness; and it too, being a thing to be known, is field. Steadiness, by which the body and senses, fallen into weariness, are held up; that too, being a thing to be known, is field. The mention of desire and the rest is to indicate all the qualities of the inner instrument. He sums up what has been said: this field, in brief, together with its modification beginning with the great principle, has been declared. The field, the joining-together of the array of field-divisions, which was called 'this body, the field', has been explained, divided by the divisions of the great elements and the rest, ending with steadiness. The field-knower, qualified as about to be told, the field-knower from the knowledge of whom, with his powers, deathlessness comes, the Blessed Lord will Himself state with His qualifications, by 'the thing to be known, which I shall declare' (Gītā 13.12) and the rest. Now He sets out the array of means to the knowledge of Him, marked by humility and the rest; possessed of which, one becomes fit, qualified, for the knowing of the thing to be known, and is called a renouncer steadfast in knowledge, given wholly to it. That array of humility and the rest, since it is a means to knowledge, the Blessed Lord lays down under the word 'knowledge'.

Freedom from conceit is the absence of disdain toward eminent people. Freedom from pretence is the absence of pretence, pretence being the carrying out of duty for the sake of being thought righteous and for the sake of fame. Non-injury is the absence of causing pain to others by speech, mind, and body. Forbearance is the keeping of the mind unchanged toward those who give one pain, even while being pained by them. Uprightness is the single form of the workings of speech, mind, and body toward others. Service of the teacher is being given to prostration, repeated questioning, attendance, and the like toward the teacher who bestows knowledge of the self. Purity is the fitness, in mind, speech, and body, established by scripture, for the knowledge of the self and its means. Steadiness is unwaveringness in the matters told in the science of the self. Self-restraint is the turning back of the mind from objects other than the own form of the self.

This is a brief sub-gloss. For a fuller reading of this verse, see Madhusūdana, Śaṅkara, or Rāmānuja above.

Desire and the rest are the modifications.