The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita : 16.1. - Swami Krishnananda.
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Tuesday, 02 Jan 2024 06:50.
Chapter 16: The Supreme Person-1,
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The Fifteenth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita is a very important one in its own way. It commences with a description of the universe, comparing it to a vastly spread-out tree sprouting forth from the root, which is Brahman. Curiously enough, the analogy of the tree is brought out in a way which is novel, unique and highly instructive. To give us an idea of the transcendence of the Supreme Creative Principle, ranging beyond all perceptible phenomena, the Gita compares this root to something that is beyond and above, from which emanates the tree of the universe spreading its branches downwards in the form of the varieties of objects perceived by the senses and cognised by the mind, and the experiences everyone undergoes in life. Even as the whole tree is contained in the seed, the entire universe is in the Absolute in an undifferentiated manner, originally. The roots of the universe are above and the branches are below. In this respect this tree is different in its manifestation from the trees that we see here on earth, who have their roots below and the branches shooting forth above towards the sun and the sky.
We always look up above into the skies when we think of God or offer our prayers to the Almighty. This is a sentiment of every individual mind. We look outward, we look inward and we look above. These are the ways in which we can cast our outlook in the envisagement of values. When everything appears mysterious and confounding, we look up in awe and consternation, expressing our inability to grasp the mystery, or the secret of things. All this universe, whatever be the variety contained in it, is an offshoot of the One, Indivisible Presence, the Supreme Brahman. Everything that we see or sense in any manner has proceeded from that one root. Even as the various branches, the twigs, the leaves and the flowers and the fruits of a tree can be said to be present hiddenly in a minute and invisible form in the seed, the universe, whatever be its variety and extent, has to be there in Brahman, because it cannot come from anywhere else.
To us, who are parts of this manifestation, who are perching like birds on this tree of the cosmos, everything looks mysterious. This comparison of the universe to a tree is not an innovation of the Bhagavadgita by itself. This image occurs also in the Kathopanishad, where almost the same words are used for the description of the tree of the universe. And even in the Veda, as far as the Rigveda itself, some sort of reference can be found to this tree of the cosmos. We are told that there are two birds living in a single tree. Though in the Gita no mention is made of the birds living in the tree, there is a description of this tree standing for this wide-spread manifestation before us.
The universe is a multitudinous variety scattered into particulars appearing to be different from one another in every way, and yet connected and related together by the organic grasp of the Supreme Presence of the seed of this tree. As in the seeds that we see in this world we cannot locate the pervasive character of the seed through the branches, etc., notwithstanding the fact that we have to infer this essence in every part of the tree, we see only the tree and not the seed; likewise, we see only the universe and not the root of it. Yet, this original seed is omnipresently pervading every bit of this tree, and the manifestations or the varieties are the ramifications of the essence of this root, this seed, Brahman, the Absolute.
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To be continued
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