The Teachings of the Bhagavadgita - 10.7. Swami Krishnananda.
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Friday, August 27, 2021. 6:39. PM.
Chapter 10: The One Supreme Absolute Alone Is - 7.
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The fifteenth chapter again describes the nature of this universe, with a different type of emphasis – the subject which was touched upon in the thirteenth and the fourteenth chapters already. The thirteenth, fourteenth, and the fifteenth chapters concern themselves with cosmological themes, creation, and the entire series of the levels of manifestation, God's role in this creation and man's relationship to God, the connection with the universe, with the other principles, and so on. These are all in varieties of ways mentioned in the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth chapters.
The fifteenth chapter has an importance of its own because it very poetic. It has its own majesty, and in a beautiful allegory it compares the whole of creation to a tree with its roots above and branches spread below. This allegory of a tree is also to be found in certain mystical scriptures of the West, like the Scandinavian myth of 'The Tree of Yggdrasil', as it is called – they compare the universe to a large tree. There is some point in taking this as a suitable comparison in for the way in which universe spreads itself out, because the universe is like a spread-out, large banyan tree – asvatthavraksha, the peepul – the only difference being its roots are above and the roots are not below, as we have in the case of other peepul trees here.
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Urdhva-mulam adha-shakham (Gita 15.1) – We have never seen a tree like that, where the tree's roots are above; they are fixed to the sky as it were. (Explained below)
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Gita-Ch-15, Slo-1 :
shri-bhagavan uvacha
"Urdhva-mulam adhah-shakham ashvattham prahur avyayam
chhandansi yasya parnani yas tam veda sa veda-vit
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Translation :
śhrī-bhagavān uvācha—the Supreme Divine Personality said;
ūrdhva-mūlam—with roots above;
adhaḥ—downward;
śhākham—branches;
aśhvattham—the sacred fig tree;
prāhuḥ—they speak;
avyayam—eternal;
chhandānsi—Vedic mantras;
yasya—of which;
parṇāni—leaves;
yaḥ—who;
tam—that;
veda—knows;
saḥ—he;
veda-vit—the knower of the Vedas.
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Tatvam :
Gita - 15.1: The Supreme Divine Personality said: They speak of an eternal aśhvatth tree with its roots above and branches below. Its leaves are the Vedic hymns, and one who knows the secret of this tree is the knower of the Vedas.
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Commentary :
Lord Shree Krishna speaks of the eternal Aśhvatth tree, which is an upside-down peepal (sacred fig) tree with its roots above and branches below. Aśhvatth also means; which will not remain the same even on the next day or something which is constantly changing. The Sanskrit word for the world, Sansar is defined in the Sanskrit dictionary as sansaratīti sansāraḥ; something that is constantly shifting. Another Sanskrit word for the world Jagat is also defined as gachchhatīti jagat, that means it is a constantly moving world. The world is not just moving or constantly changing, but someday it will be completely destroyed and reverted unto God. Therefore, the world we live in is temporary, or Aśhvatth.
The Lord explains that this material world is like a huge Aśhvatth tree for the soul. Its roots are going upwards (ūrdhva-mūlam) originating from God; nourished and supported by Him. The trunk and branches which are extending downwards (adhaḥ-śhākham) encompass all the life-forms from different abodes of the material realm. Its leaves are the Vedic mantras (chhandānsi), which describe rituals, ceremonies, and its reward. By performing such rituals, the soul can ascend to the heavenly abodes and enjoy celestial pleasures, but eventually, when the rewards deplete, they have to fall back to earth.
In this way, the leaves of the Aśhvatth tree nourish the material existence of the souls and perpetuate the continuous cycle of life and death. Due to this continuity, the beginning and the end are not experienced by the souls. Hence, this tree form of the world is Avyayam or eternal. As the water from the oceans evaporates forming clouds that rain the earth, which then forms rivers, and eventually flows back to the oceans. Likewise, the cycle of life and death is also continuous.
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The Vedas also mention this tree:
ūrdhvamūlo ’vākśhākha eṣho ’śhvatthaḥ sanātanaḥ (Kaṭhopaniṣhad 2.3.1)
“The aśhvatth tree, with its roots upward and branches downward is eternal.”
ūrdhvamūlaṁ arvākśhākhaṁ vṛikṣhaṁ yo samprati
na sa jātu janaḥ śhraddhayātmṛityutyurmā mārayaditi (Taittirīya Āraṇyak 1.11.5)
“Those who know this tree with its roots upward and branches downward will not believe that death can finish them.”
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The intention of describing this tree in the Vedas was to make us understand that, we are beyond the cycle of life and death, and we should work towards cutting this tree down. For the same purpose, Lord Shree Krishna has mentioned that one who understands the secret (of cutting) this tree of samsara is the knower of the Vedas (veda vit).
End.
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But this is a very interesting analogy for us, for the purpose of meditation even. We know very well that we are always accustomed to this concept of the 'above' whenever we think of the higher realities, especially the Creator. Don't we look up when we pray to God? Do we look down on the ground? This is a symbolic inclination of the human consciousness – to recognise the transcendence of higher realities. And, whenever we speak of the sky, we look above, as if the sky is only above, though it is also underneath. If the sky is all around the earth, why should we say it is above?
This earth is hanging in space, in mid-space – there is no below for the earth. But it is a notion of our mind on account of our inability to see the whole structure of this planetary system, and we cannot believe that we are a moving in a spaceship called this earth. We are not in a rocket, though it is so, perhaps, in some way. We are rushing, rocket-like, in some direction, but we think we are on the solid ground of the Earth. This habit of the human mind is to consider that it is on a low ground, and everything which is of a controlling nature and an administrative type, especially divine in nature is above because the world and everything connected to the world is considered as 'effect' which proceeds from a cause, and the cause being superior, is also transcendent.
And we, like children, think that all transcendent things are above in a spatial way, and look up. But, it is above also in a logical sense. Logically, God is above us. To repeat what I told you earlier, He is above in the same way as the higher class in a school is above the lower class. It is not above in space – it is not a 'spatial aboveness'. We don't find the higher classes in a school or a college standing in the sky and the lower classes below – yet, we still say it is a higher class.
So in what sense do we call it a higher class?
You know very well – it is a 'logical, conceptual higherness'.
In that sense we speak of the 'higher self' transcendent to the lower self. We conceive of the realities above the world as 'above' in a very very specific, psychic, psychological or philosophical sense, mystical manner. In this way, we have to conceive that the rootedness of the tree of this universe in the Transcendent Being – God the Creator, the Absolute, and the descending of this tree, and all the effects that you see here, spread out as branches of which we are all parts.
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