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KRISHNA:
MEN call the Aswattha,—the Banyan-tree,— | |
| Which hath its boughs beneath, its roots on high,— | |
| The ever-holy tree. Yea! for its leaves | |
| Are green and waving hymns which whisper Truth! | |
| Who knoweth well the Aswattha, knows all. | 5 |
| |
| Its branches shoot to heaven and sink to earth, 1 | |
| Even as the deeds of men, which take their birth | |
| From qualities: its silver sprays and blooms, | |
| And all the eager verdure of its girth, | |
| |
| Leap to quick life at touch of sun and air, | 10 |
| As men’s lives quicken to the temptings fair | |
| Of wooing sense: its hanging rootlets seek | |
| The soil beneath, helping to hold it there, | |
| |
| As actions wrought amid this world of men | |
| Bind them by ever-tightening bonds again. | 15 |
| If ye knew well the teaching of the Tree, | |
| What its shape saith; and whence it springs; and, then | |
| |
| How it must end, and all the ills of it, | |
| The axe of sharp Detachment ye would whet, | |
| And cleave the clinging snaky roots, and lay | 20 |
| This Aswattha of sense-like low,—to set | |
| |
| New growths upspringing to that happier sky,— | |
| Which they who reach shall have no day to die, | |
| Nor fade away, nor fall—to Him, I mean, | |
| FATHER and FIRST, Who made the mystery | 25 |
| |
| Of old Creation; for to Him come they | |
| From passion and from dreams who break away; | |
| Who part the bonds constraining them to flesh, | |
| And,—Him, the Highest, worshipping alway— | |
| |
| No longer grow at mercy of what breeze | 30 |
| Of summer pleasure stirs the sleeping trees, | |
| What blast of tempest tears them, bough and stem | |
| To the eternal world pass such as these! | |
| |
| Another Sun gleams there! another Moon! | |
| Another Light,—a Light which none shall lack | 35 |
| Whose eyes once see; for those return no more | |
| They have attained My Uttermost Abode! | |
| |
| When, in this world of manifested life, | |
| The undying Spirit, setting forth from Me, | |
| Taketh on form, it draweth to itself | 40 |
| From Being’s storehouse,—which containeth all,— | |
| Senses and intellect. The Sovereign Soul | |
| |
| Thus entering the flesh, or quitting it, | |
| Gathers these up, as the wind gathers scents, | |
| Blowing above the flower-banks. Ear and Eye, | 45 |
| And Touch and Taste, and Smelling, these it takes,— | |
| Yea, and a sentient mind;—linking itself | |
| To sense-things so. | |
| |
| The unenlightened ones | |
| Mark not that Spirit when he goes or comes, | 50 |
| Nor when he takes his pleasure in the form, | |
| Conjoined with qualities; but those see plain | |
| Who have the eyes to see. Holy souls see | |
| Which strive thereto. Enlightened, they behold | |
| That Spirit in themselves; but foolish ones, | 55 |
| Even though they strive, discern not, having hearts | |
| Unkindled, ill-informed! | |
| |
| Know, too, from Me | |
| Shineth the gathered glory of the sun | |
| Which lightens all the world: from Me the moon | 60 |
| Draws silvery beams, and fire fierce loveliness. | |
| I penetrate the clay, and lend all shapes | |
| Their living force; I glide into the plant— | |
| Its root, leaf, bloom—to make the woodland green | |
| With springing sap. Becoming vital warmth, | 65 |
| I glow in glad, respiring frames, and pass | |
| With outward and with inward breath to feed | |
| The body with all meats. 2 | |
| |
| For in this world | |
| Being is twofold: the Divided, one; | 70 |
| The Undivided, one. All things that live | |
| Are “the Divided.” That which sits apart, | |
| “The Undivided.” | |
| |
| Higher still is ONE, | |
| The Highest, holding all whose Name is LORD, | 75 |
| The Eternal, Sovereign, First! Who fills all worlds, | |
| Sustaining them. And—dwelling thus beyond | |
| Divided Life and Undivided—I | |
| Am called of men and Vedas, God Supreme, | |
| The PURUSHOTTAMA. | 80 |
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| Who knows Me thus, | |
| With mind unclouded, knoweth all, dear Prince! | |
| And with his whole soul ever worshippeth Me. | |
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| Now is the sacred secret Mystery | |
| Declared to thee! Who comprehendeth this | 85 |
| Hath wisdom! He is quit of works in bliss! | |
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Here ends Chapter XV. of the Bhagavad-Gîtâ | |
entitled “Purushottamapraptiyôgô,” | |
or “The Book of Religion by | |
attaining the Supreme” | 90 |
