Texts 6-7

maha-bhutany ahankaro
buddhir avyaktam eva ca
indriyani dasaikam ca
panca cendriya-gocarah

iccha dvesah sukham duhkham
sanghatas cetana dhrtih
etat kshetram samasena
sa-vikaram udahrtam

Translation

The five great elements, false ego, intelligence, the unmanifested, the ten senses and the mind, the five sense objects, desire, hatred, happiness, distress, the aggregate, the life symptoms, and convictions—all these are considered, in summary, to be the field of activities and its interactions. 

Commentary by Srila Prabhupada 

From all the authoritative statements of the great sages, the Vedic hymns and the aphorisms of the Vedanta-sutra, the components of this world can be understood as follows. First there are earth, water, fire, air and ether. 

These are the five great elements (maha-bhuta). Then there are false ego, intelligence and the unmanifested stage of the three modes of nature. Then there are five senses for acquiring knowledge: the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. Then five working senses: voice, legs, hands, anus and genitals. Then, above the senses, there is the mind, which is within and which can be called the sense within. Therefore, including the mind, there are eleven senses altogether. Then there are the five objects of the senses: smell, taste, form, touch and sound. Now the aggregate of these twenty-four elements is called the field of activity. If one makes an analytical study of these twenty-four subjects, then he can very well understand the field of activity. Then there are desire, hatred, happiness and distress, which are interactions, representations of the five great elements in the gross body. The living symptoms, represented by consciousness and conviction, are the manifestation of the subtle body—mind, ego and intelligence. These subtle elements are included within the field of activities. 

The five great elements are a gross representation of the false ego, which in turn represents the primal stage of false ego technically called the materialistic conception, or tamasa-buddhi, intelligence in ignorance. This, further, represents the unmanifested stage of the three modes of material nature. The unmanifested modes of material nature are called pradhana. 

One who desires to know the twenty-four elements in detail along with their interactions should study the philosophy in more detail. In Bhagavad-gita, a summary only is given. 

The body is the representation of all these factors, and there are changes of the body, which are six in number: the body is born, it grows, it stays, it produces by-products, then it begins to decay, and at the last stage it vanishes. Therefore the field is a nonpermanent material thing. However, the kshetra-jna, the knower of the field, its proprietor, is different.

Commentary by Sri Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur

In this verse the nature of the field is described. Mahabhutani refers to ether, air, fire, water and earth. Ahankara refers to false ego, the cause of the mahabhutas. Buddhi refers to mahat tattva, composed of vijnana, the cause of ahankara. Avyakta refers to prakrti, the cause of mahat tattva. Indriyani refers to the ten senses: eye, ear, nose, skin, tongue, hands, feet, genital, anus and voice. Eka refers to the mind. The five indriya-gocard are the sound, touch, form, taste and smell. The field is made of these twenty four elements.

Sanghata is the body, evolving from the twenty four elements. Iccha, dvesa, sukha and duhkha are well known. Cetana is a mental function constituted of knowledge. Dhrti is perseverance. Iccha and other qualities mentioned here are qualities of the mind not the soul, and thus they are included in the field. These are representative of sankalpa and other qualities mentioned in the sruti(not being an exhaustive list of the qualities of the mind):

kamah sankalpo vicikitsa sraddha dhrtir hrir dhir bhir ity etat
sarvam mana eva

Desire, determination, uncertainty, faith, lack of faith, perseverance, lack of perseverance, humility, intelligence, and fear are all products of the mind. Brhad Aranyaka Upanisad 1.5.3

By this list, the qualities of the field which was previously promised by the word yadrk in verse 3 have been shown. This field with its six transformations (savikara), such as birth and growth, has thus been briefly described (udahrtam).