Chapter 15 · deep: the cosmic tree and the Supreme

The Yoga of the Supreme Person

Puruṣottama Yoga

  1. 15.1 Saṃsāra is an eternal inverted tree rooted in Brahman; knowing this tree root to tip is true Vedic wisdom.
  2. 15.2 Guṇa-fed branches spread everywhere; in the human world, karma-roots grow downward entangling further.
  3. 15.3 The tree of saṃsāra has no graspable form, end, or origin — cut it with the firm axe of non-attachment.
  4. 15.4 After cutting the tree, seek the no-return abode — taking refuge in the Primordial Puruṣa, source of all.
  5. 15.5 Free from pride, moha, attachment and desire, the dvandva-unbound, undeluded ones reach the imperishable goal.
  6. 15.6 ★ No sun, moon, or fire illumines My supreme abode — going there, none returns. This is the Self-luminous Para-Brahman.
  7. 15.7 The jīva is an eternal fragment of Me — drawing the 6-sense apparatus (5 senses + mind) toward itself in Prakṛti.
  8. 15.8 Like wind carrying fragrance, the jīva takes its 6-sense apparatus from body to body through each birth and death.
  9. 15.9 Presiding over ear, eye, touch, taste, smell and mind, the jīva experiences sense-objects — saṃsāra's basic mechanism.
  10. 15.10 The deluded see only the body's states — birth, life, experience; the jñāna-eyed see the jīva behind all three.
  11. 15.11 Striving yogins with refined selves see the jīva within; those unrefined, even striving, do not see it.
  12. 15.12 The radiance in the sun illumining the whole world, and in moon and fire — know all that tejas as Mine.
  13. 15.13 I enter earth to uphold all beings by My energy, and as Soma — the nourishing moon-essence — I feed all plants.
  14. 15.14 I am Vaiśvānara — the digestive fire in every living body — digesting all four kinds of food with prāṇa and apāna.
  15. 15.15 ★ I am in every heart — source of memory, knowledge, and forgetting; all Vedas point to Me, their author and knower.
  16. 15.16 Two puruṣas: kṣara (all mutable beings) and akṣara (kūṭastha, immutable ground) — both about to be transcended.
  17. 15.17 ☆ Beyond both stands the uttama Puruṣa — Paramātmā, the inexhaustible Lord pervading and sustaining all three worlds.
  18. 15.18 Because I transcend both kṣara and akṣara, I am known in world and Veda as Puruṣottama — the Highest Puruṣa.
  19. 15.19 Knowing Me as Puruṣottama without delusion, one becomes all-knowing and worships Me with whole being.
  20. 15.20 ☆ This most secret śāstra spoken — knowing it, one becomes truly wise and kṛta-kṛtya: all duties fulfilled.