Purushottama Yoga
Purushottama Yoga • 20 verses
Krishna uses the metaphor of the Ashvattha tree (the cosmic tree of existence) to describe the illusory nature of the phenomenal world, and reveals himself as the Purushottama — the Supreme Person beyond both the perishable and the imperishable.
Chapter Overview
Krishna opens with an upside-down tree. Roots above, branches below, leaves that are the verses of the scriptures — the whole visible world, growing downward, fed by the gunas, sending out roots that bind wherever they touch.
You will not find its beginning or its end by inspecting it, he says. It is not felled by study. Cut it with the axe of non-attachment, and then look for what it grew from.
What follows is the chapter's tenderest turn. A fragment of the divine, he says, becomes a living being in this world — and when it takes a body or leaves one, it carries the mind and senses along the way wind carries scent from a flower.
He names himself in ordinary places. The warmth in the belly that digests your food. The moisture in the moon that feeds every plant. The memory you are using now, and the forgetting.
Above the perishable and the imperishable both, he says, there is a third thing. That is what he is.
Key Verses
श्रीभगवानुवाच | ऊर्ध्वमूलमधःशाखमश्वत्थं प्राहुरव्ययम् | छन्दांसि यस्य पर्णानि यस्तं वेद स वेदवित् ||१५-१||
śrībhagavānuvāca . ūrdhvamūlamadhaḥśākhamaśvatthaṃ prāhuravyayam . chandāṃsi yasya parṇāni yastaṃ veda sa vedavit ||15-1||
The Blessed Lord said: They (the wise) speak of the indestructible peepul tree having its root above and branches below, whose leaves are the metres or hymns: he who knows it is a knower of the Vedas.
अधश्चोर्ध्वं प्रसृतास्तस्य शाखा गुणप्रवृद्धा विषयप्रवालाः | अधश्च मूलान्यनुसन्ततानि कर्मानुबन्धीनि मनुष्यलोके ||१५-२||
adhaścordhvaṃ prasṛtāstasya śākhā guṇapravṛddhā viṣayapravālāḥ . adhaśca mūlānyanusantatāni karmānubandhīni manuṣyaloke ||15-2||
Below and above spread its branches, nourished by the Gunas; sense-objects are its buds; and below, in the world of men, stretch forth the roots, originating action.
न रूपमस्येह तथोपलभ्यते नान्तो न चादिर्न च सम्प्रतिष्ठा | अश्वत्थमेनं सुविरूढमूलं असङ्गशस्त्रेण दृढेन छित्त्वा ||१५-३||
na rūpamasyeha tathopalabhyate nānto na cādirna ca sampratiṣṭhā . aśvatthamenaṃ suvirūḍhamūlaṃ asaṅgaśastreṇa dṛḍhena chittvā ||15-3||
Its form is not perceived here as such, neither its end nor its origin, nor its foundation nor resting place: having cut asunder this firmly rooted peepul tree with the strong axe of non-attachment.
ततः पदं तत्परिमार्गितव्यं यस्मिन्गता न निवर्तन्ति भूयः | तमेव चाद्यं पुरुषं प्रपद्ये | यतः प्रवृत्तिः प्रसृता पुराणी ||१५-४||
tataḥ padaṃ tatparimārgitavyaṃ yasmingatā na nivartanti bhūyaḥ . tameva cādyaṃ puruṣaṃ prapadye . yataḥ pravṛttiḥ prasṛtā purāṇī ||15-4||
Then That goal should be sought for, whither having gone none returns again. I seek refuge in that Primeval Purusha Whence streamed forth the ancient activity or energy.
निर्मानमोहा जितसङ्गदोषा अध्यात्मनित्या विनिवृत्तकामाः | द्वन्द्वैर्विमुक्ताः सुखदुःखसंज्ञैर्- गच्छन्त्यमूढाः पदमव्ययं तत् ||१५-५||
nirmānamohā jitasaṅgadoṣā adhyātmanityā vinivṛttakāmāḥ . dvandvairvimuktāḥ sukhaduḥkhasaṃjñaira- gacchantyamūḍhāḥ padamavyayaṃ tat ||15-5||
Free from pride and delusion, victorious over the evil of attachment, dwelling constantly in the Self, their desires having completely turned away, freed from the pairs of opposites known as pleasure and pain, the undeluded reach the eternal goal.