Vedanta Talks - Swami Sarvapriyananda
May 21, 2026 · 1 hr 32 min · 12 segments
Swami Sarvapriyananda continues teaching verse 6 from the fifteenth chapter, entitled Purushottama Yoga, the Yoga of the Supreme Being, of the Bhagavad Gita. This series of talks by Swami…
Swami SarvapriyanandaHostSo the fifteenth chapter, if you recall, it starts by describing samsara, world, our lives, and it describes it as a tree, as the, um, great banyan tree, the great, um, uh, tree of samsara.
And the tree is a little strange because its roots are up there, and that means they are transcendent, they are subtle, and its branches and leaves are down here, which means our real nature...
Down here means this physical world where we live, our bodies, this world we inhabit, what's going on here, other people, this physical world of matter, you know.
And the su-subtlest of all, it says the roots are in the air, and roots are a-above, and the branches are below of this very strange tree.
The roots means the source of all this, the origin of all this, the, the, um, foundation or the, the, the reality behind all this is Atman, Brahman, pure consciousness, God, whatever you call it.
There's a spiritual reality behind all this, and that's our real nature, but we do not know it.
And then it goes on to say, what is that real nature and whether we should investigate and find that out.
It says, what is that spiritual nature? It, uh, says, "Na tad bhasayate suryo na shashanko na pavakah | Yad gatva na nivartante tad dhama paramam mama" Very beautiful verse.
It says, "That reality is not illumined by the sun, nor by the moon, nor by fire." It's the sixth verse.
"Going to which, attaining to which one does, um, one does not come back again into this world of sams-- into samsara." So this possibility that there is a, a spiritual existence, a spiritual reality, which is our goal.
Until we attain to that, we will keep coming back to this, as the poet says, this veil of, veil of tears.
We'll keep coming back, and we'll keep repeating these little dramas which we, we're going through samsara.
Um, in the Judeo-Christian worldview, Judaism, Islam, Christianity, uh, it is this one life.
You exist after you are dead, and you'll come back again, but that's not good news because you repeat [chuckles] and repeat and repeat until we have learnt our spiritual lessons.
But the point of it is that this limited existence is the veil of tears.
Um, it is subject to sorrow, unhappiness, lack of fulfillment, even when things go well, which they rarely do.
The existentialists in the twentieth century, they call it the existential angst.
So the fifteenth chapter, if you recall, it starts by describing samsara, world, our lives, and it describes it as a tree, as the, um, great banyan tree, the great, um, uh, tree of samsara.
And the tree is a little strange because its roots are up there, and that means they are transcendent, they are subtle, and its branches and leaves are down here, which means our real nature...
Down here means this physical world where we live, our bodies, this world we inhabit, what's going on here, other people, this physical world of matter, you know.
And the su-subtlest of all, it says the roots are in the air, and roots are a-above, and the branches are below of this very strange tree.
The roots means the source of all this, the origin of all this, the, the, um, foundation or the, the, the reality behind all this is Atman, Brahman, pure consciousness, God, whatever you call it.
There's a spiritual reality behind all this, and that's our real nature, but we do not know it.
And then it goes on to say, what is that real nature and whether we should investigate and find that out.
It says, what is that spiritual nature? It, uh, says, "Na tad bhasayate suryo na shashanko na pavakah | Yad gatva na nivartante tad dhama paramam mama" Very beautiful verse.
It says, "That reality is not illumined by the sun, nor by the moon, nor by fire." It's the sixth verse.
"Going to which, attaining to which one does, um, one does not come back again into this world of sams-- into samsara." So this possibility that there is a, a spiritual existence, a spiritual reality, which is our goal.
Until we attain to that, we will keep coming back to this, as the poet says, this veil of, veil of tears.
We'll keep coming back, and we'll keep repeating these little dramas which we, we're going through samsara.
Um, in the Judeo-Christian worldview, Judaism, Islam, Christianity, uh, it is this one life.
You exist after you are dead, and you'll come back again, but that's not good news because you repeat [chuckles] and repeat and repeat until we have learnt our spiritual lessons.
But the point of it is that this limited existence is the veil of tears.
Um, it is subject to sorrow, unhappiness, lack of fulfillment, even when things go well, which they rarely do.
The existentialists in the twentieth century, they call it the existential angst.
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3 of 6
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Why comfort can dull spiritual curiosity
Is Life Really Suffering?
Questioning the pessimism of classic teachings
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