पुरुषोत्तमयोगो
Puruṣottama Yoga — The Yoga of Attaining the Supreme Spirit
Krishna opens with the striking image of an inverted cosmic ashvattha tree (roots above, branches below) as a figure for the world to be cut down with the axe of non-attachment, then explains the true Purusha behind the world: an eternal fragment of himself becomes the individual embodied soul, drawing in mind and senses the way wind carries scent, and it is Krishna's own light that lights the sun, moon, and fire. The chapter closes with its title-verse: beyond the perishable (all beings) and the imperishable (the changeless witness) stands a highest Purusha, Purushottama, who pervades and sustains both — and whoever knows this, undeluded, "hath finished his work" and knows all there is to know.
About this chapter
Chapter 15 is the shortest of the later chapters and the one Krishna calls guhyatama, “most secret” (BG 15.20). It has two halves: a startling image of the world as an upside-down tree, and the distinction that gives the chapter its name — the Puruṣottama, the Supreme Person.
The inverted tree
The world is an aśvattha — a sacred fig — with its “root above, branches below” (BG 15.1). Its root is in Brahman; it grows downward into embodied life, “nourished by the guṇas,” its fresh twigs the sense-objects, sending down secondary roots — the actions that bind, “in the world of men” (BG 15.2). The tree has no form you can see whole — “no end, no beginning, no foundation” — but it can be felled, with one tool: “the strong axe of non-attachment” (BG 15.3). Then “seek the place from which none return” (BG 15.4) — “which neither sun nor moon nor fire illumines” (BG 15.6). The figure below draws the tree.
The fragment, and the pervasion
Verses 7–15 describe the individual self as “a fragment of Me,” carrying the mind and senses from body to body “as the wind carries scents” (BG 15.7–BG 15.8) — invisible to the deluded, seen “by the eye of wisdom” (BG 15.10). Then a return to the vibhūti mode, reaching into the everyday: Krishna is the light in sun, moon, and fire; the sap in the moon that swells the crops; the digestive fire “in the body of every creature” (BG 15.12–BG 15.14); and, in the heart of all, the source of “memory, knowledge, and their loss” (BG 15.15).
The Supreme Person
The chapter’s claim is at BG 15.16–BG 15.18: there are two “persons” — the perishable (all beings) and the imperishable (the immutable witness) — and a third above both, the uttama puruṣa, who “enters the three worlds and sustains them.” Beyond the perishable, higher than the imperishable — therefore called Puruṣottama. Knowing Krishna as this makes one sarva-vit, “knower of all,” and its natural expression is worship with the whole being (BG 15.19); knowing it, “one has done all that is to be done” (BG 15.20).
How the chapter moves
- v1–6The world-tree, and the axe — The aśvattha with roots above, branches below — nourished by the guṇas, twigs the sense-objects, roots binding to action. No form to see whole, but felled by the axe of non-attachment. Then seek the place none return from.
- v7–11The self as a fragment; how it transmigrates — The individual soul is 'a fragment of Me,' carrying mind and senses from body to body as wind carries scent. At every stage — leaving, staying, enjoying — invisible to the deluded, seen by the eye of wisdom.
- v12–15The pervasion, everyday — Krishna is the light in sun, moon, fire; the vital force in the earth; the sap in the moon that feeds the crops; the digestive fire in every belly; and in the heart, the source of memory, knowledge, and their loss.
- v16–20The Supreme Person — Two persons: the perishable (all beings) and the imperishable (the immutable witness). A third above both — the uttama puruṣa, who enters and sustains the worlds. Beyond both, therefore Puruṣottama. Knowing this, one's work is done.
Down the trunk: The unmanifest — nourished by the guṇas (15.2)
Concept map for this chapter
With roots above, branches below, the Asvattha is said to be indestructible; the leaves of it are hymns; he who knoweth it is a Veda-knower.
Downwards and upwards spread the branches of it, nourished by the qualities; the objects of the senses its buds; and its roots grow downwards, the bonds of action in the world of men.
Nor here may be acquired knowledge of its form, nor its end, nor its origin, nor its rooting-place; this strongly rooted Asvattha having been cut down by the unswerving weapon of non-attachment,
That path beyond may be sought, treading which there is no return. I go indeed to that Primal Man, whence the ancient energy forth-streamed.
Without pride and delusion, victorious over the vice of attachment, dwelling constantly in the Self, desire pacified, liberated from the pairs of opposites known as pleasure and pain, they tread, undeluded, that indestructible path.
Nor doth the sun lighten there, nor moon, nor fire; having gone thither they return not; that is My supreme abode.
A portion of Mine own Self, transformed in the world of life into an immortal Spirit, draweth round itself the senses of which the mind is the sixth, veiled in matter.
When the Lord acquireth a body and when He abandoneth it, He seizeth these and goeth with them, as the wind takes fragrances from their retreats.
Enshrined in the ear, the eye, the touch, the taste and the smell, and in the mind also, He enjoyeth the objects of the senses.
The deluded do not perceive (Him) when He departeth or stayeth or enjoyeth, swayed by the qualities; the wisdom-eyed perceive.
Yogîs also, struggling, perceive Him, established in the Self; but though struggling, the unintelligent perceive Him not, their selves untrained.
That splendour issuing from the sun that enlighteneth the whole world, that which is in the moon and in fire, that splendour know as from Me.
Permeating the soil, I support beings by my vital energy, and having become the delicious Soma I nourish all plants.
I, having become the Fire of Life, take possession of the bodies of breathing things, and united with the life-breaths, I digest the four kinds of food.
And I am seated in the hearts of all, and from Me memory and wisdom and their absence. And that which is to be known in all the Vedas am I; and I indeed the Veda-knower and the author of the Vedanta.
There are two Energies in this world, the destructible and the indestructible; the destructible is all beings, the unchanging is called the indestructible.
The highest Energy is verily Another, declared as the Supreme Self, He who, pervading all, sustaineth the three worlds, the indestructible Lord.
Since I excel the destructible, and am more excellent also than the indestructible, in the world and in the Veda I am proclaimed the Supreme Spirit.
He who undeluded knoweth Me thus as the Supreme Spirit, he, all-knowing, worshippeth Me with his whole being, O Bhârata.
Thus by Me this most secret teaching hath been told O sinless one. This known, he hath become illuminated and hath finished his work, O Bhârata.