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 senseobjects
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 am I 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