173. Bhagavad Gita | Chapter 15, Verses 1-4 (Contd.) | Swami Sarvapriyananda

The Blessed Lord said that they speak of the immutable Ashwattha tree with its root above and branches below, whose leaves are the Vedas.

He who knows it is a knower of the Vedas.

Its branches, nurtured by the gunas, spread below and above.

Its shoots are the sense objects and its rootlings are stretched below, producing actions in the world of men.

Its form as such is not experienced here, nor its end, nor its beginning, nor its continuity.

Having severed this deep-rooted Ashwatha tree with the strong weapon of non-attachment, one should next seek that goal, reaching which they do not return, saying, I seek refuge in that primordial Purusha from whom this eternal process has sprung.

It's a very sublime sequence of four verses.

Basically this whole of samsara is orbiting.

This is described as this upside down tree.

And it's not good news because it describes how we are stuck in so much suffering in this world.

And the only way out is death.

And even that's not a way out because you can get to come back again and repeat.

Congratulations.

And after some time, we begin to search for the ultimate questions, the point of it all.

What is going on here? Is there a point of it all? Can you hear me? Can we reach this? fulfillment, can we overcome suffering and spirituality begins there, spirituality begins there.

What is the way out? He says, you have to cut this tree down, cut this tree down, it's not as awful as it sounds because remember this very tree what is Samsara is Brahman, the ultimate reality itself is appearing as this.

The Buddhist saying, which I have often repeated, but I love it so much.

It is the primordial ground of being.

When you do not know it, it appears as samsara.

When you know it, when you are enlightened, that same thing appears as nirvana.

When we do not know that reality, Brahman, primordial ground of being, Buddha, nature, whatever you call it.

When we do not realize what it is, it appears as this upside down tree of samsara.

This very thing itself.

Here, when we know it truly, it will appear as moksha, as nirvana.

But it's the same reality.