THE STORY OF VISAKHA CHAPTER XV_SACRED WRITINGS

Directory:SACRED WRITINGS II

CHAPTER XV

KRISHNA:

MEN call the Aswattha,—the Banyan-tree,—

Which hath its boughs beneath, its roots on high,—

The ever-holy tree. Yea! for its leaves

Are green and waving hymns which whisper Truth!

Who knoweth well the Aswattha, knows all.

Its branches shoot to heaven and sink to earth,〖I do not consider these verses—which are somewhat freely rendered here—“an attack on the authority of the Vedas,” but a beautiful lyrical episode, a new “Parable of the fig-tree.”〗

Even as the deeds of men, which take their birth

From qualities: its silver sprays and blooms,

And all the eager verdure of its girth,

Leap to quick life at touch of sun and air,

As men's lives quicken to the temptings fair

Of wooing sense: its hanging rootlets seek

The soil beneath, helping to hold it there,

As actions wrought amid this world of men

Bind them by ever-tightening bonds again.

If ye knew well the teaching of the Tree,

What its shape saith; and whence it springs; and, then

How it must end, and all the ills of it,

The axe of sharp Detachment ye would whet,

And cleave the clinging snaky roots, and lay

This Aswattha of sense-like low,—to set

New growths upspringing to that happier sky,—

Which they who reach shall have no day to die,

Nor fade away, nor fall—to Him, I mean,

FATHER and FIRST, Who made the mystery

Of old Creation; for to Him come they

From passion and from dreams who break away;

Who part the bonds constraining them to flesh,

And,—Him, the Highest, worshipping alway—

No longer grow at mercy of what breeze

Of summer pleasure stirs the sleeping trees,

What blast of tempest tears them, bough and stem

To the eternal world pass such as these!

Another Sun gleams there! another Moon!

Another Light,—a Light which none shall lack

Whose eyes once see; for those return no more

They have attained My Uttermost Abode!

When, in this world of manifested life,

The undying Spirit, setting forth from Me,

Taketh on form, it draweth to itself

From Being's storehouse,—which containeth all,—

Senses and intellect. The Sovereign Soul

Thus entering the flesh, or quitting it,

Gathers these up, as the wind gathers scents,

Blowing above the flower-banks. Ear and Eye,

And Touch and Taste, and Smelling, these it takes,—

Yea, and a sentient mind;—linking itself

To sense-things so.

The unenlightened ones

Mark not that Spirit when he goes or comes,

Nor when he takes his pleasure in the form,

Conjoined with qualities; but those see plain

Who have the eyes to see. Holy souls see

Which strive thereto. Enlightened, they behold

That Spirit in themselves; but foolish ones,

Even though they strive, discern not, having hearts

Unkindled, ill-informed!

Know, too, from Me

Shineth the gathered glory of the sun

Which lightens all the world: from Me the moon

Draws silvery beams, and fire fierce loveliness.

I penetrate the clay, and lend all shapes

Their living force; I glide into the plant—

Its root, leaf, bloom—to make the woodland green

With springing sap. Becoming vital warmth,

I glow in glad, respiring frames, and pass

With outward and with inward breath to feed

The body with all meats.〖I omit a verse here, evidently interpolated.〗

For in this world

Being is twofold: the Divided, one;

The Undivided, one. All things that live

Are “the Divided.” That which sits apart,

“The Undivided.”

Higher still is ONE,

The Highest, holding all whose Name is LORD,

The Eternal, Sovereign, First! Who fills all worlds,

Sustaining them. And—dwelling thus beyond

Divided Life and Undivided—I

Am called of men and Vedas, God Supreme,

The PURUSHOTTAMA.

Who knows Me thus,

With mind unclouded, knoweth all, dear Prince!

And with his whole soul ever worshippeth Me.

Now is the sacred secret Mystery

Declared to thee! Who comprehendeth this

Hath wisdom! He is quit of works in bliss!

Here ends Chapter XV. of the Bhagavad-Gîtâ

entitled “Purushottamapraptiyôgô,”

or “The Book of Religion by

attaining the Supreme”

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