What Happens When You Invert the Tree

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THE SPEAKING

TREE: What Happens When You

Invert the Tree

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/OPINION/Editorial/THE_SPEAKING_TREE_What_happens_when_you_invert_the_tree/articleshow/1085471.cms

Parmarthi Raina

 

The Bhagavad Gita is often called

the 'essence of all the Vedas'. Chapter 15, with 20 verses, is

considered the essence of the Gita.

 

It covers all the fundamental concepts

of Vedanta God and His transcendental omnipotence and omniscience;

embodied souls as parts of God and their involvement in the cycle of

birth and death; actions by jivas; nature of the atma or soul and the

process of its transmigration; renunciation of worldly values; and

bhakti and jnana as the main spiritual disciplines by which one can

overcome samsara.

 

In its last verse, Krishna says, "This,

the most profound and secret of Vedic scriptures, has now been revealed

by Me, A true understanding of it makes a man really wise and his

endeavours lead him to perfection".

 

The chapter begins with Krishna

describing the material universe as an enormous asvattha or pipal tree,

but growing upside down like the reflection of a tree on the bank of a

pond.

 

The roots of the tree grow upwards into

the unseen Brahmn or Supreme Being, and its trunk, branches and leaves

representing prakriti or nature along with its constituents, the three

gunas, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, and its evolutes, the living entities,

grow downward representing the material world that we see around us.

 

Asvattha means temporary. The attractive

leaves of the asvattha tree are said to be Vedic hymns by following

which one is rewarded with tasty fruits. These fruits are actually

harmful because by consuming them the jiva remains bound to samsara.

 

Engrossed in the sensuously attractive

foliage, the jiva sees the asvattha tree as everlasting and, desirous

of enjoying material pleasures, remains entangled in it. The Lord urges

man to realise the tree's true nature and obtain freedom from it by

severing its roots with the powerful weapon of non-attachment.

 

Krishna says the person who seeks a

place in the eternal kingdom of the Supreme must be free from false

pride and delusion, have no attachments to material things, be free from

worldly desires, and be unaffected by dualities such as pleasure and

pain, happiness and distress.

 

In the process of transmigration the

jiva carries his samsakars or impressions, tendencies and inclinations

accumulated in past lives from one body to another and takes a new body

commensurate with his samskaras, through which he enjoys the sense

objects desired by that body.

 

In the embodied state the jiva remains

deluded and struggles hard with his five senses and the mind to survive

in this material world.

 

Krishna says that all jivas are

parts of Him, as immortal spirit souls. He, as paramatma, resides in

their hearts and it is He who gives them remembrance, know-ledge and

forgetfulness. It is He who keeps all the galaxies and planets steady

in their orbits.

 

He is the source of the light and

splendour of the sun, moon and fire. He is purushottama, the Supreme

Being, who is transcendental and pervades all the three worlds and

sustains them. He is the fertility of the earth and He provides

digestive powers to all living beings.

 

But, being transcendental, He is

unaffected by all these activities. He is the knower of the Veda and

the ori-ginal teacher of Vedanta. Krishna says: "Those who contemplate

on Me as the Purushottama, know all and they love Me and adore Me with

all their being".

 

Anyone who reaches His abode, which is

self-luminous, never returns to the material world.