Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

THE SUPREME BEING


Verse 15.01-06

Lord Krishna said:

Think of a Pepal Tree. It has its roots, branches, leaves and sprouts.
This universe is comparable to this tree. God is its roots. Bramha is its branches. Vedas are its leaves. The branches of this eternal tree are spread all over the cosmos. The beginning, the end, or the real form of this tree is not perceptible on the earth.
In the human world, the ego, sense pleasures and desires form its sprouts causing Karmic bondage.

One has to remove these desires through knowledge of the Supreme, detachment with all lust completely stilled and seek the Supreme abode by constantly dwelling in the Supreme Being. Once reached the Supreme abode, one does not come back to the mortal world again.

Verse 15.07-11

The living entity enjoys sense pleasures using six sensory faculties of hearing, touch, sight, taste, smell, and mind. But the individual soul, the jivatma in the body of living beings is the integral part of the universal Spirit.

But instead of associating themselves with the soul, the six sensory faculties including the mind associate themselves with the body. The ignorant cannot perceive this.

Just as the air takes aroma away from the flower; similarly, the individual soul, after the death of the individual, takes the six sensory faculties from the physical body to the new physical body it acquires in reincarnation. The living entity, thus taking another gross body, obtains a similar faculties as the past one. This too the ignorant do not perceive. But those who have the eye of Self-knowledge can see it.

The yogis, striving for perfection, behold the living entity abiding in their inner psyche as consciousness.

Verse 15.12-15

I am in every planet and the light energy that coming from the sun illumines the whole world; and that in the moon, and in the fire; know that light to be Mine. Entering the earth, I support all beings and all plants with My energy.

I am the Prana, the breath getting into and coming out of every being. The energy causing digestion in the living beings is also My energy. 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 Vedanta, and I am the knower of the Vedas

Verse 15.16-20

There are two entities in the cosmos: The Temporal, i.e. the changeable and the Eternal. The Supreme Being is beyond both the Changeable and the Eternal. He is also called the Absolute Reality that sustains both the Temporal and the Eternal by pervading everything.

Because the Supreme Being is beyond both Temporal and Eternal; therefore, He is known in this world and in the scriptures as the Supreme Being, Absolute Reality, Truth and Supersoul.

The wise one who truly understands the Supreme Being, knows everything and worships Him wholeheartedly. Having understood this, one becomes enlightened, and one's all duties are accomplished. 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 Arjuna.