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CHAPTER FIFTEEN The Yoga of the Supreme PersonTEXT 1: The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: It is said that
there is an imperishable banyan tree that has its roots upward and its
branches down and whose leaves are the Vedic hymns. One who knows this tree
is the knower of the Vedas. TEXT 2: The branches of this tree extend downward and upward,
nourished by the three modes of material nature. The twigs are the objects of
the senses. This tree also has roots going down, and these are bound to the
fruitive actions of human society. TEXTS 3-4: The real form of this tree cannot be perceived in this
world. No one can understand where it ends, where it begins, or where its
foundation is. But with determination one must cut down this strongly rooted
tree with the weapon of detachment. Thereafter, one must seek that place from
which, having gone, one never returns, and there surrender to that Supreme
Personality of Godhead from whom everything began and from whom everything
has extended since time immemorial. TEXT 5: Those who are free from false prestige, illusion and false
association, who understand the eternal, who are done with material lust, who
are freed from the dualities of happiness and distress, and who,
unbewildered, know how to surrender unto the Supreme Person attain to that
eternal kingdom. TEXT 6: That supreme abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or
moon, nor by fire or electricity. Those who reach it never return to this
material world. TEXT 7: The living entities in this conditioned world are My
eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very
hard with the six senses, which include the mind. TEXT 8: The living entity in the material world carries his
different conceptions of life from one body to another, as the air carries
aromas. Thus he takes one kind of body and again quits it to take another. TEXT 9: The living entity, thus taking another gross body, obtains
a certain type of ear, eye, tongue, nose and sense of touch, which are
grouped about the mind. He thus enjoys a particular set of sense objects. TEXT 10: The foolish cannot understand how a living entity can
quit his body, nor can they understand what sort of body he enjoys under the
spell of the modes of nature. But one whose eyes are trained in knowledge can
see all this. TEXT 11: The endeavoring transcendentalists who are situated in
self-realization can see all this clearly. But those whose minds are not
developed and who are not situated in self-realization cannot see what is
taking place, though they may try. TEXT 12: The splendor of the sun, which dissipates the darkness of
this whole world, comes from Me. And the splendor of the moon and the
splendor of fire are also from Me. TEXT 13: I enter into each planet, and by My energy they stay in
orbit. I become the moon and thereby supply the juice of life to all vegetables. TEXT 14: I am the fire of digestion in the bodies of all living
entities, and I join with the air of life, outgoing and incoming, to digest
the four kinds of foodstuff. TEXT 15: I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me come
remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas, I am to be known.
Indeed, I am the compiler of Vedānta, and I am the knower of the Vedas. TEXT 16: There are two classes of beings, the fallible and the
infallible. In the material world every living entity is fallible, and in the
spiritual world every living entity is called infallible. TEXT 17: Besides these two, there is the greatest living
personality, the Supreme Soul, the imperishable Lord Himself, who has entered
the three worlds and is maintaining them. TEXT 18: Because I am transcendental, beyond both the fallible and
the infallible, and because I am the greatest, I am celebrated both in the
world and in the Vedas as that Supreme Person. TEXT 19: Whoever knows Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead,
without doubting, is the knower of everything. He therefore engages himself
in full devotional service to Me, O son of Bharata. TEXT 20: This is the most confidential part of the Vedic scriptures, O sinless one, and it is disclosed now by Me. Whoever understands this will become wise, and his endeavors will know perfection. |