Bhagavad Gita Summary: Chapter 15: Purushottamayoga orThe Yoga of the Supreme Purusha.

Chapter 15: Purushottamayoga (20 verses) The Yoga of the Supreme Purusha.

The last six chapters all deal with the relation between Purusha and Prakriti and the Three Gunas. This chapter uses the image of the world tree. According to H. P. Blavatsky: 'World. As a prefix to mountains, trees, and so on, it denotes a universal belief. Thus the “World-Mountain” of the Hindus was Meru. As said in Isis Unveiled: “All the world-mountains and mundane eggs, the mundane trees, and the mundane snakes and pillars, may be shown to embody scientifically demonstrated truths of natural philosophy. All of these mountains contain, with very trifling variations, the allegorically-expressed description of primal cosmogony ; the mundane trees, that of subsequent evolution of spirit and matter; (Theosophical Glossary)'

1- The Tree of Samsara. (1-5) 

1. They speak of the indestructible Asvattha having its root above and branches below, whose leaves are the metres. He who knows it knows the Vedas.

2. Below and above are its branches spread, nourished by the gunas, sense-objects its buds; and below in the world of man stretch forth the roots ending in action. 

Just as a person taking his meal runs away leaving the dish when he knows that it contains poison, similarly once the idea of the impermanence of this world gets stamped on the mind one runs away from attachment. The detachment thus gained does not leave you even if you try to get rid of it. In this fifteenth chapter Shri Krishna is explaining how the world is impermanent using the simile of a tree.

The entity which is known as Maya does not exist. Actually it is like the child born to a barren woman and is named Maya. It cannot be said that Maya is real nor can it be said that it is unreal. It cannot survive in the presence of knowledge and yet it is called beginningless. It is the holder of many principles and just as clouds are formed in the sky the universe is formed in her. All sorts of forms and shapes are folded into the folds of her fabric. She is the root of the world-tree, source of the worldly affairs illuminated by the dim light of improper unrighteous knowledge. Such an entity as Maya is takes shelter in the Brahman and appears through its power. The Maya which is created from Brahman makes it forget its own nature. This is the first root of the world-tree. Non-realisation of the Self as Brahman is the main root-bulb of the tree at its top. It is called "Beejabhaava" or "the root principle" in the form of Maya by Vedantis. The sleep state of deep ignorance is called its "Bijankurabhaava" or "seedsprout principle" while the dream and wakeful states are its "Phalabhaava" or "fruit principle". This is how Vedantins thus express these aspects of Maya but in all this understand that the basic root is the ignorance.

At the end of the Kali-Yuga the barks of the trees in all the four yugas are shed and the tree dries but when the Krita- Yuga starts again the barks grow many times faster. One cannot understand how many branches grow and how many fall. (Dnyaneshwari; 15:125-129, transl. M.R. Yardi) 

Cut the Tree and seek the Goal. (3-4)

3. Its form is not perceived as such here, neither its end nor its origin nor its existence. Having cut asunder this firm-rooted Asvattha with the strong sword of dispassion.

4. Then That Goal should be sought for, whither having gone none return again. " I seek refuge in that Primeval Purusha whence streamed forth the Ancient Current."

Strong : strengthened by a resolute bent of mind towards the Supreme Self and sharpened again and again on the whetstone of the practice of true discrimination. Cut asunder : uprooted the Tree of samsara with its seed.  (Baghavad Gita, with the Commentary of Sri Sankaracharya, transl. A. Mahadeva Sastri, 1901)

The Path to the Goal. (5) 

5. Free from pride and delusion, with the evil of attachment conquered, ever dwelling in the Self, their desires having completely turned away, liberated from the pairs of opposites known as pleasure and pain, the undeluded reach that Goal Eternal. 

2- The Goal of the Path (6-11)

The Goal is the Lord's Glorious Being. (6) 

6. That, the sun illumines not, nor the moon, nor fire ; That is My Supreme Abode, to which having gone none return.

The primeval place which is seen without seeing and known without knowing is called the Primeval Man (Adya Purusha). But even he is described by Shrutis by taking help of attributes and make meaningless noise that it has a name and form. But people who are disgusted with heaven and worldly life swear that they will not be reborn and turn to yoga and knowledge. Then they become detached and turn their back to worldly life and crossing the Brahmalok which is the highest stage attainable by the path of action they march ahead. (15:275-284). (Dnyaneshwari; 14:371 -398, transl. M.R. Yardi) 

Jiva is a ray of the Lord. (7) 

7. A ray of Myself, the eternal Jiva in the world of Jivas, attracts the senses, with manas the sixth, abiding in Prakriti. 

'An integral portion of Myself—of the Supreme Self, of Narayana,—is the eternal Jiva (individual soul) in samsara, manifesting himself in every one as the doer and enjoyer. He is like the sun reflected in water ; the reflected sun is but a portion of the real sun; and on the removal of water the reflected sun returns to the original sun and remains as that very sun.—Or, it is like the akasa (space) in the jar, which is limited by the upadhi of the jar. This akasa of the jar is but a portion of the infinite akasa and becomes one with the latter on the destruction of the jar which is the cause of limitation ; then it returns no more. Thus the statement " to which having gone none return " is quite explicable.  (Baghavad Gita, with the Commentary of Sri Sankaracharya, transl. A. Mahadeva Sastri, 1901)

How Jiva dwells in the body and departs from it. (8-9)

The Self is visible only to the eye of knowledge. (10) 

10. Him who departs, stays and enjoys, who is conjoined with gunas, the deluded perceive not; they see, who possess the eye of knowledge. 

A person may attains this knowledge, his intellect may become so subtle as to penetrate even an atom and he may become learned in all branches of knowledge, but unless this learning is accompanied by detachment, he will not encounter me though I am all-pervasive. He may talk mouthfuls about discrimination but if he harbours sense-objects in his mind then definitely he will not find me. Even if all branches of knowledge are on the tip of his tongue as long as ego exists in the mind he will not attain me even after millions of births. (Dnyaneshwari; 15:391-397, transl. M.R. Yardi) 

No self-knowledge without Yoga. (11) 

11. Those who strive, endued with Yoga, perceive Him dwelling in the self; though striving, those of unrefined self, devoid of wisdom, perceive Him not. 

Those who strive, well balanced in their mind, behold Him, the Self, dwelling in their own mind (buddhi) : they recognise Him, " This I am. " But though striving to know Him by means of proper authorities such as the scriptures (sastra), men of unrefined self—whose self (mind) has not been regenerated by austerity (tapas) and subjugation of the senses, who have not abandoned their evil ways, whose pride has not been subdued,—behold Him not." (Baghavad Gita, with the Commentary of Sri Sankaracharya, transl. A. Mahadeva Sastri, 1901)

3- Immanence of the Lord (12-15)

Immanence of the Lord, (i) as the all-illumining Light of Consciousness. (12)

12. That light which residing in the sun illumines the whole world, that which is in the moon and in the fire, that light do thou know to be Mine.

(2) As the all-sustaining Life. (13)

(3) As the Digestive Fire in all living: organisms. (14)

(4) As the Self in the hearts of all. (15)

I dwell in the hearts (buddhi) of all sentient beings as their Self.''' Wherefore from Me, the Self of all sentient beings, are memory, knowledge, I as well as their loss. Just as knowledge and memory occur in righteous persons as a result of their good deeds (punyakarmani), so, as a result of their sins, loss of memory and knowledge occurs in the sinful. I, the Supreme Self, am to be known in all the Vedas. It is I who cause the Teaching of the Vedanta (Upanishads) to be handed down in regular succession, and It is I who know the Vedic Teaching. (Baghavad Gita, with the Commentary of Sri Sankaracharya, transl. A. Mahadeva Sastri, 1901)

4- The transcendence of the Lord (16-20)

The Lord beyond the perishable and the imperishable universe. (16-18)

18. Because I transcend the perishable and am even higher than the imperishable, therefore am I known in the world and in the Veda as 'Purushottama,' the Highest Spirit.

The Glory of Self-knowledge. (19-20)

19. He who, undeluded, thus knows Me, the Highest Spirit, he, knowing all, worships Me with his whole being, O Bharata.

The Self is in all things, and all things are in the Self. Whatever there may be of “shining” through any form or under any condition, that “shining” is from and of the Self. If this is recognized and admitted, we must begin to regard all things and beings in that light and act towards them upon that basis; in this way we act for and as the Self, and as we hold to and follow that practice, all ideas, habits and desires that conflict become overcome little by little, until at last we have the supreme power for good that comes with selflessness. (Crosbie, Essays on the Gita, 206)