CHAPTER
15: THE YOGA OF THE SUPREME PERSON
About the
realization of the characteristcs, virtue and glory of God
(1) The Supreme Lord said: 'Anyone who knows
that the as'vattha is said to be an imperishable tree that has its
roots upwards, its branches downwards and of which the leaves are the
Vedic hymns, knows the Vedas. (2) Extending downward and upward, its branches
by the modes of nature downward developed twigs as the sense objects
and to the extending roots the karma that binds one to the human world.
(3-4)
The form of this tree which is without a beginning or end cannot be
perceived in this world nor can one see how it is maintained; this
strongly rooted Banyan must be cut by the weapon of detachment. After
doing so one has to find out about that place for which one is going
and from where one never returns and then surrender to Him, the
Primordial Original Person, from whom everything extended since time
immemorial.
(5) Without pride
and its illusion, having overcome bad association, understanding the
eternal, dissociated from the lust and liberated from identifying with
the dualities of happiness and distress, one unbewildered attains that
everlasting refuge. (6) Going
to that place which is not lit by the sun or the moon, nor by fire, one
never returns; that abode is the Supreme of Mine. (7) The embodied soul in its own local existence
is certainly an eternal part of Me, with the mind as the sixth of the
senses carried in its material position. (8) The body one gets as also is given up takes
its Lord to all these along like the fragrance carried by the air from
its source. (9)
With the hearing, seeing, touching as also the tasting and smelling, he
from within the mind enjoys the objects of the senses. (10) Either leaving the body, staying in the body
or enjoying the body associated with the modes of nature are things the
ignorant cannot understand, but those who have the spiritual vision
can. (11) Those who
endeavor and are of yoga perceive from being of the soul, but those
endeavoring who do not act in favor of the soul do not see this,
however developed their minds are.
(12) The splendor
that is found in the light of the sun illumining the entire world and
is also seen in the moon and the fire; understand that splendor to be
from Me. (13)
I permeate the planetary systems and sustain the living beings by My
energy and nourish all the plants together with the soul-given juice. (14) Enacting as the fire of digestion in the
bodies of all living beings, I keep the balance of the ingoing and
outgoing breath and do digest the four kinds of foodstuff. (15) Residing in the heart of all beings they
have from Me remembrance, knowledge and reasoning; I am certainly
knowable by the Vedas, I am its author and the one who knows its
meaning surely too.
(16) There are two
kinds of being in the world: the perishable and the imperishable state;
all the living beings are perishable while of the oneness to the many
it is said that one does not perish. (17) The supreme person is but the other soul in
the beyond of whom is said that pervading the three worlds He is
maintaining as the inexhaustible Lord. (18) Because I am
to the fallible transcendental and beyond the fallible the best,
therefore I am in the world and in the Vedic literature celebrated as
the Supreme Personality. (19) Anyone who without a doubt knows Me thus as
the Supreme Personality - he, knowing all, renders devotional service
unto Me in all respects, o son of Bharata.
(20) Understanding
this most confidential part of the revealed scripture thus disclosed by
Me, o sinless one, one becomes intelligent and perfected in ones doing,
o son of Bharata.'
Spoken by Anand Aadhar Prabhu
to the text offered below