The Bhagavad Gita · chapter 15 of 18 · 20 verses · हिंदी में पढ़ें
15. The Yoga of the Supreme Person
Puruṣottama Yoga (पुरुषोत्तमयोग)
roots-above
Summary
Krishna gives the famous image of the inverted aśvattha (peepal) tree — its roots above, its branches below, sustained by the gunas, with the Vedas as its leaves. The wise one cuts the tree of attachment with the axe of dispassion and finds the supreme person above. The chapter introduces the distinction between the perishable (kṣara), the imperishable (akṣara), and the supreme (puruṣottama) who transcends both.
Key teaching
The image is strange and powerful: the tree of worldly life has its real roots not in the earth but in the divine above. We are sustained from a source we forget to look at. Cutting the visible branches is not the work; remembering the upward roots is.
Modern application — what to do today because of this
When entangled in a problem, ask: what is the upstream source I am ignoring? What is the value or commitment from which this knot is hanging? Cutting the knot rarely works. Re-seeing the source usually does.
Famous verses from this chapter