Chapter Overview
Chapter 15 is one of the shortest yet most profound chapters of the Gita. It opens with the famous metaphor of the ashvattha tree (the sacred fig tree) whose roots are above and branches below - representing the inverted tree of material existence that must be cut down with the axe of detachment.
The chapter then describes Krishna's presence in all beings as the life force, the digestive fire, memory, knowledge, and forgetfulness. It concludes with the doctrine of the three purushas (beings): the perishable, the imperishable, and the Supreme Person (Purushottama) who transcends both.
Key Themes
- The Cosmic Tree: Material existence as an inverted tree to be cut down
- The Axe of Detachment: Non-attachment severs bondage to the material world
- God in All: Krishna as the sustaining principle in all beings
- Three Purushas: Perishable beings, the imperishable, and the Supreme
- Purushottama: The Supreme Person who transcends both material and liberated souls
The Ashvattha Tree (15.1-4)
The material world is compared to an inverted banyan tree:
- Roots above: Origin in Brahman (the transcendent)
- Branches below: Material creation extending downward
- Leaves are the Vedas: Rituals and regulations that maintain the tree
- Aerial roots: Karmic extensions binding souls to action
- Nourished by gunas: The three modes sustain its growth
- Must be cut: With the strong axe of detachment (asanga-shastra)
"After cutting this tree, seek that place from which, having gone, one never returns."
Key Verses to Study
urdhva-mulam adhah-shakham ashvattham prahur avyayam
"It is said that there is an imperishable banyan tree that has its roots upward and its branches down, and whose leaves are the Vedic hymns. One who knows this tree is the knower of the Vedas."
The famous metaphor: material existence is an inverted tree; understanding it is true knowledge.
mamaivamsho jiva-loke jiva-bhutah sanatanah
"The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind."
A crucial teaching: each soul is an eternal part of God, not created but eternally existing.
gam avishya cha bhutani dharayamy aham ojasa
"I enter into each planet, and by My energy they stay in orbit. I become the moon and thereby supply the juice of life to all vegetables. I am the fire of digestion in the bodies of all living entities, and I join with the air of life to digest the four kinds of foodstuff."
Krishna describes His intimate presence in all life - holding planets, growing plants, digesting food.
sarvasya chaham hridi sannivishto
"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."
Krishna in the heart gives memory, knowledge, and even forgetfulness - He is the goal of all Vedas.
dvav imau purushau loke ksharahs chakshara eva cha
"There are two classes of beings: the fallible and the infallible. In the material world every living entity is fallible, and in the spiritual world every entity is called infallible. Besides these two, there is the greatest living personality, the Supreme Soul, the imperishable Lord Himself, who has entered the three worlds and is maintaining them."
The doctrine of three purushas: perishable beings, liberated souls, and the Supreme Lord.
yasmat ksharam atito 'ham aksharad api chottamah
"Because I am transcendental, beyond both the fallible and the infallible, and because I am the greatest, I am celebrated both in the world and in the Vedas as the Supreme Person. Whoever knows Me thus as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, without doubting, is the knower of everything. He therefore engages himself in full devotional service, O son of Bharata."
The conclusion: knowing Krishna as Purushottama leads to complete knowledge and full devotion.
The Three Purushas (15.16-17)
Krishna presents a threefold classification of existence:
- Kshara Purusha (Perishable): All beings in the material world - their bodies are temporary and subject to change; the individual souls attached to matter
- Akshara Purusha (Imperishable): The liberated souls in the spiritual realm - beyond material change; also refers to the unmanifest prakriti
- Purushottama (Supreme Person): God Himself - transcending both categories, entering and sustaining the three worlds; the ultimate reality
This teaching is significant because it shows that even liberation (akshara) is not the ultimate goal - beyond the liberated state is the Supreme Person Himself, with whom relationship in devotion is possible.