Indian stream·Bhagavad Gita·Discourse 15: The Yoga of the Supreme Spirit
Puruṣottama-yoga — the upside-down aśvattha tree
The famous opening image of the aśvattha-tree of cosmic existence — with its roots above and branches below, leaves the Vedic hymns. The chapter culminates in the doctrine of puruṣottama, the Supreme Person who transcends both the kṣara (perishable) and the akṣara (imperishable) — Kṛṣṇa's most explicit theistic self-revelation.
Source context
- Theme
- the immutable supreme spirit (Purushottama) transcending the perishable and imperishable trees of existence
- Soul-faculty
- Consciousness Soul
Steiner
- GA 146, 1913-06-05Steiner discusses the gunas (sattwa, rajas, tamas) and Krishna's teaching on the soul's ascent toward the imperishable, treating the Bhagavad Gita's metaphysics of the perishable and imperishable as a pre-Christian prefiguration of the soul's relation to the cosmic spirit — a preparation distinct from the Mystery of Golgotha.
- GA 142, 1912-12-28Steiner identifies the Bhagavad Gita as the harmonious interpenetration of the three Vedic spiritual streams, situating its doctrine of the supreme spirit above individual soul (Atman) and world-soul (Brahman) within the broader Eastern wisdom tradition.
Cross-tradition
- Advaita VedantaShankara's commentary on the Gita reads Purushottama (the Supreme Person beyond Kshara and Akshara) as structurally congruent with Nirguna Brahman transcending both the conditioned and unconditioned poles of manifestation.
- NeoplatonismCross-tradition congruence exists between Purushottama transcending the perishable and imperishable trees and Plotinus's schema of the One standing above Nous and Soul, with the latter two corresponding to the imperishable and perishable principles respectively.
- KabbalahThe Zoharic image of the inverted cosmic tree (Etz Chaim) rooted above in Ein Sof and branching downward into the Sefirot presents a structural parallel to the Ashvattha tree of Discourse 15, rooted above in the imperishable and ramifying below into the phenomenal world.
Discourse 15: The Yoga of the Supreme Spirit
15:1The Blessed Lord said: With roots above, branches below, the Asvattha is said
to be indestructible; the leaves of it are hymns; he who knoweth it is a Veda-knower.
15:2Downwards and upwards spread the branches of it, nourished by the qualities;
the objects of the senses its buds; and its roots grow downwards, the bonds of action in the world of men.
15:3Nor here may be acquired knowledge of its form, nor its end, nor its origin, nor
its rooting place; this strongly rooted Asvattha having been cut down, by the unswerving weapon of non-attachment.
15:4That path beyond may be sought, treading which there is no return. I go indeed
to that Primal Man, whence the ancient energy forth-streamed.
15:5Without pride and delusion, victorious over the vice of attachment, dwelling
constantly in the Self, desire pacified, liberated from the pairs of opposites known as pleasure and pain, they tread, undeluded, that indestructible path.
15:6Nor doth the sun lighten there, nor moon, nor fire; having gone thither they
return not; that is My supreme abode.
15:7A portion of Mine own Self, transformed in the world of life into an immortal
Spirit, draweth round itself the senses of which the mind is the sixth, veiled in matter.
15:8When the Lord acquireth a body and when He abandoneth it, He seizeth these
and goeth with them, as the wind takes fragrances from their retreats.
15:9Enshrined in the ear, the eye, the touch, the taste and the smell, and in the mind
also, He enjoyeth the objects of the senses.
15:10The deluded do not perceive (Him) when He departeth or stayeth, or enjoyeth,
swayed by the qualities; the wisdom-eyed perceive.
15:11Yogis also, struggling, perceive Him, established in the Self; but though
struggling the unintelligent perceive Him not, their selves untrained.
15:12That splendour issuing from the sun that enlighteneth the whole world, that
which is in the moon and in fire, that splendour know as from Me.
15:13Permeating the soil, I support beings by my vital energy, and having become
the delicious Soma I nourish all plants.
15:14I, having become the Fire of Life, take possession of the bodies of breathing
things, and united with the life-breaths, I digest the four kinds of food.
15:15And I am seated in the hearts of all, and from Me memory and wisdom and
their absence. And that which is to be known in all the Vedas am I; and I indeed the Veda- knower and the author of the Vedanta.
15:16There are two Energies in this world, the destructible and the indestructible;
the destructible is all beings, the unchanging is called the indestructible.
15:17The highest Energy is verily Another, declared as the Supreme Self, He who
pervading all sustaineth the three worlds, the indestructible Lord.
15:18Since I excel the destructible, and am more excellent also than the
indestructible, in the world and in the Veda I am proclaimed the Supreme Spirit.
15:19He who undeluded knoweth Me thus as the Supreme Spirit, he, all-knowing,
worshippeth Me with his whole being, O Bharata. e Verse 15:20: Thus by Me this most secret teaching hath been told, O sinless one. This known, he hath become illuminated, and hath finished his work, O Bharata.
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