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Friday, October 28, 2022

Wisdom from the Bhagavad Gita 53


The Blessed Lord said: 

1. They speak of an eternal Ashvattha rooted above and branching below, whose leaves are the Vedas; he who knows it, is a Veda-knower. 

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

3-4. Its form is not here perceived as such, neither its end, nor its origin, nor its existence. Having cut asunder this firm-rooted Ashvattha with the strong axe of non-attachment—then that Goal is to be sought for, going whither they, the wise, do not return again. I seek refuge in that Primeval Purusha whence streamed forth the Eternal Activity. 

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

6. That the sun illumines not, nor the moon, nor fire; that is My Supreme Abode, going whither they return not. 

7. An eternal portion of Myself having become a living soul in the world of life, draws to itself the five senses with mind for the sixth, abiding in Prakriti. 

8. When the Lord obtains a body and when He leaves it, He takes these and goes, as the wind takes the scents from their seats, the flowers. 

9. Presiding over the ear, the eye, the touch, the taste and the smell, as also the mind, He experiences objects. 

10. Him while transmigrating from one body to another, or residing in the same or experiencing, or when united with the Gunas—the deluded do not see; but those who have the eye of wisdom behold Him. 

Bhagavad Gita, 15:1-10 



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