The Blessed One said:
1. They speak of the changeless peepal tree,
Its roots above, its branches below.
Its leaves are the Vedic hymns.
He who knows it, is the knower of the Veda.
2. Its branches stretch below and above, nourished by the gunas,
Its sprouts being the sense objects.
And down in the world of men,
It spreads out the roots that result in action.
3. Its form is thus not comprehended here,
Nor its end, nor its beginning, nor its foundation;
Cutting off this firmly rooted tree
With the firm weapon of nonattachment,
4. Then they should seek after that path from which, having gone,
Men do not return again. (Saying) I seek refuge only in that primal vision (purusa)
From which this ancient world manifestation came forth.
5. Those who are without arrogance and delusion,
The evil of attachment conquered, established in the inner self,
Freed from desires and from the pairs known as pleasure and pain,
Who are undeluded,
Go to that imperishable abode.
6. The sun does not shine on it, nor the moon nor fire;
After men come to this, my supreme dwelling-place,
They do not return.
7. A fraction of my self, in the world of the living
Becomes a living self, eternal,
And draws into its power the (five) senses and the mind as sixth, T
hat come from prakrti.
8. When the Lord takes on a body and also when he departs from it,
He goes taking these along,
Like the wind carrying perfume from their home.
9. He enjoys the objects of the senses,
Using the ear, eye, touch, taste and smell, and also the mind.
10. The deluded do not perceive him, whether he is departing or is staying,
Or, when experiencing objects joined to the gunas, T
hey see him who have the eye of wisdom.
11. The yogins, by striving, see him also Abiding in their self;
But the mindless whose self is unreadied, Though striving, do not see him.
12. That radiance in the sun which illumines the entire world,
The radiance in the moon and in fire:
Know that radiance as mine.
13. Entering the earth also, I support all beings by my power.
And becoming the sap-natured soma, I also nourish all plants.
14. And becoming the fire inhabiting the body of living beings
And being united with their life-breaths,
I prepare the four kinds of food.
15. And I am seated in the hearts of all;
From me are memory, wisdom and their loss.
I am the one to be known by the Vedas;
The author of the Vedānta,
I am also the knower of the Vedas.
16. There are two purusas in the world, the perishable and the imperishable;
The perishable is all beings, the imperishable is called Kūtastha (the imperishable).
17. But other than these is the uppermost purusa called the supreme self,
Who, as the imperishable Lord,
Enters the three worlds and sustains them.
18. Because I surpass the perishable and even the imperishable,
I am the supreme purusa celebrated in the world and in the Vedas,
19. He who, undeluded, thus knows me, as the supreme purusa (purusottama);
He is all-knowing and worships me with his whole being, O Bhārata.
20. Thus has this most secret teaching been disclosed by me, Blameless One;
Being enlightened to this, O Bhārata, O
ne will be a man possessed of understanding
And will have done his work.
This is the fifteenth chapter, entitled “The Yoga of the Highest Vision” (purusottama-yoga).
