Chapter 15
Purushottama Yoga
The Yoga of the Supreme Divine Personality · 20 verses
This chapter is traditionally called Purushottama Yoga, the yoga of the Supreme Person. It opens with a strange picture: an upside-down tree whose root is above and whose branches grow downward.
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The root above is the supreme source; the branches are the unfolding world. The tree stands for samsara, the round of worldly life. Krishna says to cut it with asanga, non-attachment, an inner sword sharpened by viveka, steady discernment. Then seek the supreme abode, the refuge from which no one returns, by taking shelter in the primal Person. The living being, the jiva, is an eternal portion (amsha) of the Lord, carrying the senses and the mind from body to body, seen only by the eye of knowledge. The Lord also sustains the world: he holds up the earth, ripens the plants, digests food as the inner fire, and sits in every heart as the source of memory. Finally Krishna names three: the perishable (kshara), the imperishable (akshara), and the Supreme Person (Purushottama) beyond both. He closes by calling this teaching a scripture whose knowing completes the seeker's task. The schools differ on whether the world-tree is an illusion or the Lord's real display, and on what the portion, the imperishable, and the goal truly are. Advaita Vedanta, Vishishtadvaita, Dvaita, and Shuddhadvaita each read them their own way.
- 1The Blessed Lord said: They speak of an imperishable fig tree with its roots above and its branches below, whose leaves are the Vedic hymns. The one who knows this tree knows the Vedas.
- 2Its branches spread below and above, nourished by the gunas, with sense objects for buds. And below, in the world of humans, its roots stretch onward, binding to action.
- 3Its form is not perceived here in that way, nor its end, nor its beginning, nor its foundation. This deep-rooted fig tree must be cut down with the strong axe of detachment.
- 4Then that state must be sought, the place from which, once reached, there is no return. I take refuge in that primal Person, from whom the ancient unfolding has streamed forth.
- 5Free from pride and delusion, having conquered the evil of attachment, ever devoted to the Self, with desire stilled, released from the dualities known as pleasure and pain, the undeluded reach that changeless state.
- 6Neither the sun nor the moon nor fire lights that place. Those who reach it do not return. That is my supreme abode.
- 7An eternal part of myself becomes the embodied self in the world of the living. It draws to itself the senses, with the mind as the sixth, which abide in material nature.
- 8When the embodied self takes on a body, and when it departs from one, it carries these with it, as the wind carries scents from their source.
- 9Presiding over the ears, the eyes, touch, taste, and smell, and over the mind, it enjoys the objects of the senses.
- 10The deluded do not see it as it departs, as it remains, or as it experiences, joined with the gunas. Those who have the eye of knowledge see it.
- 11The yogis who strive see it seated within themselves. But those of unrefined mind, lacking self-control, do not see it, even though they strive.
- 12The light in the sun that illumines the whole world, the light in the moon, and the light in fire: know that light to be mine.
- 13Entering the earth, I sustain all beings by my power. Becoming Soma, the moon full of sap, I nourish every plant.
- 14Becoming the digestive fire, I dwell in the bodies of living beings. Joined with the inward and outward breath, I digest the four kinds of food.
- 15I am seated in the hearts of all. From me come memory, knowledge, and their loss. I alone am what is to be known through all the Vedas. I am the author of the Vedanta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.
- 16There are two beings in the world: the perishable and the imperishable. All beings are the perishable. The unchanging is called the imperishable.
- 17But the Supreme Person is other than these. He is called the Supreme Self. Imperishable and the Lord, he enters the three worlds and upholds them.
- 18Since I transcend the perishable and am higher even than the imperishable, I am celebrated in the world and in the Vedas as the Supreme Person.
- 19Whoever knows me in this way, free from delusion, as the Supreme Person, knows all and worships me with their whole being.
- 20I have now spoken this most secret scripture. Understanding it, one becomes wise and accomplishes all that is to be done.