🌳 Chapter 15 – The Supreme Person (Shlokas 1–10) | The Cosmic Tree & the Search for the Real

Shloka 1

Sanskrit:
ऊर्ध्वमूलमध:शाखमश्वत्थं प्राहुरव्ययम्।
छन्दांसि यस्य पर्णानि यस्तं वेद स वेदवित्॥

Hindi Translation:
कहा गया है कि यह संसाररूपी अश्वत्थ वृक्ष (पीपल का पेड़) जिसका मूल ऊपर (ईश्वर में) और शाखाएँ नीचे फैली हैं, अविनाशी है। इसके पत्ते वेद हैं। जो इस वृक्ष को जानता है, वह वेदों का ज्ञाता है।

English Translation:
It is said that there is an eternal Ashvattha tree (cosmic fig tree) with roots above and branches below. Its leaves are the Vedic hymns. One who knows this tree truly knows the Vedas.

🔍 Deep Reflection:
The Ashvattha tree symbolizes **samsara**—the world of change and illusion. Its roots are in the invisible, and its branches spread into the visible. This tree is the karmic cycle we’re all entangled in.
Notice: The roots are *up* — in the Divine. This world seems grounded in materiality, but its source is higher — **consciousness**.

🪔 Modern Insight:
Imagine life like a giant, upside-down tree — fed from the unseen, not the seen. Your real nourishment comes from spirit, not society.
Your social media feed, career path, or even relationships are just **branches**. If your roots aren't in truth, you’ll forever feel ungrounded.

Shloka 2

Sanskrit:
अधश्चोर्ध्वं प्रसृतास्तस्य शाखा
गुणप्रवृद्धा विषयप्रवालाः।
अधश्च मूलान्यनुसन्ततानि
कर्मानुबन्धीनि मनुष्यलोके॥

Hindi Translation:
इसकी शाखाएँ ऊपर और नीचे तक फैली हैं, जो त्रिगुणों से पुष्ट होकर विषयों के प्रति आकर्षण रूपी कोपलों से युक्त हैं। इसके मूल नीचे की ओर भी फैले हैं, जो मनुष्य लोक में कर्मों से बंधे हुए हैं।

English Translation:
Its branches spread upward and downward, nourished by the three gunas; the senses are its buds. The roots, which extend downward, are bound by action (karma) in the world of humans.

🔍 Deep Reflection:
The tree grows from gunas—Sattva, Rajas, Tamas. Its buds? Our **senses chasing pleasures**. And roots? Our karma—our unconscious choices buried in time.
This is why we keep repeating patterns, relationships, and desires: we’re entangled not by the tree, but by the **illusion that it’s real**.

🪔 Modern Insight:
The social loop of stress, desire, distraction, and regret? That’s samsara’s branches. We’re feeding the tree by chasing validation instead of looking up to the root: truth.
🌱 Break the loop. Reflect. Re-root.

Shloka 3

Sanskrit:
न रूपमस्येह तथोपलभ्यते
नान्तो न चादिर्न च संप्रतिष्ठा।
अश्वत्थमेनं सुविरूढमूलं
असङ्गशस्त्रेण दृढेन छित्त्वा॥

Hindi Translation:
इस संसार वृक्ष का स्वरूप न यहाँ समझा जा सकता है, न इसका आदि है, न अंत, न इसकी स्थिरता है। इस गहरे मूल वाले वृक्ष को दृढ़ वैराग्य रूपी तलवार से काट देना चाहिए।

English Translation:
Its form cannot be perceived here, nor its end, origin, or foundation. Cut down this deeply rooted Ashvattha tree with the strong axe of detachment (asanga shastra).

🔍 Deep Reflection:
You can’t analyze samsara into submission. There’s no logical end to desires. You can’t “fix” illusion — you have to wake up from it.
The only way out? **Dispassion (asanga)** — the sword that severs ties to what is not eternal.

🪔 Modern Insight:
You won’t heal your identity by improving it. You’ll free yourself by dis-identifying from it.
Don’t fight the world-tree branch by branch. Cut the root of attachment — to praise, productivity, and perfection.

Shloka 15.4

Sanskrit:
तत: पदं तत्परिमार्गितव्यं
यस्मिन्गता न निवर्तन्ति भूय:।
तमेव चाद्यं पुरुषं प्रपद्ये
यतः प्रवृत्तिः प्रसृता पुराणी॥

Hindi Translation:
उसके बाद उस परम पद की खोज करनी चाहिए, जहाँ जाने के बाद कोई वापस नहीं आता। उसी आदिपुरुष की मैं शरण लेता हूँ, जिससे यह सनातन प्रवृत्ति (सृष्टि) फैली है।

English Translation:
Thereafter, one should seek that supreme goal, having gone where none return. I take refuge in that Primal Being from whom creation flows eternally.

🔍 Deep Reflection:
Once you’ve cut illusion, you don’t fall into nihilism — you rise into purpose. That **Supreme State (tad padam)** isn’t an escape, it’s a return — to who you’ve always been.
Krishna points to the **Purusha** — the timeless consciousness beyond gunas and ego.

🪔 Modern Insight:
True spirituality is not about withdrawal from the world but arrival into truth. You’re not escaping life—you’re rediscovering **the source** you were disconnected from.

Shloka 15.5

Sanskrit:
निर्मानमोहा जितसङ्गदोषा
अध्यात्मनित्या विनिवृत्तकामा:।
द्वन्द्वैर्विमुक्ता: सुखदु:खसञ्ज्ञै
गच्छन्त्यमूढा: पदमव्ययं तत्॥

Hindi Translation:
जो अभिमान और मोह से रहित हैं, जिन्होंने संगदोष को जीत लिया है, जो आत्मज्ञान में स्थित हैं, कामनाओं से रहित हैं, और सुख-दुख के द्वंद्वों से मुक्त हैं—वे उस अविनाशी पद को प्राप्त करते हैं।

English Translation:
Those free from pride and delusion, who have conquered attachment, who dwell constantly in the Self, who are free from desires, and unaffected by dualities of pleasure and pain—reach the imperishable goal.

🔍 Deep Reflection:
The path to the Supreme is walked by those who are **rooted within**, untouched by praise or pain. They’re not numb—they’re clear. Their clarity is forged in the fire of inner work.

🪔 Modern Insight:
You don’t need to be perfect—you need to be **real**. Every time you drop a label, expectation, or need to control, you come closer to the changeless reality inside.

Shloka 15.6

Sanskrit:
न तद्भासयते सूर्यो न शशाङ्को न पावक:।
यद्गत्वा न निवर्तन्ते तद्धाम परमं मम॥

Hindi Translation:
वहाँ न सूर्य प्रकाशित करता है, न चंद्रमा और न अग्नि। वह मेरा परम धाम है, जहाँ जाकर कोई लौटकर नहीं आता।

English Translation:
Neither the sun, nor the moon, nor fire can illuminate that supreme abode of Mine. Having reached it, one never returns.

🔍 Deep Reflection:
The realm Krishna speaks of is not a location, but a **state of pure being** — beyond perception, thought, and time. It’s not lit by light — it *is* light.

🪔 Modern Insight:
This is the **home behind all homes**. Inner peace isn’t found in more stimulation—it’s accessed when the need to chase fades.
Your truest identity is *not a person*… it’s presence.

🌬️ Chapter 15 – The Supreme Person (Shlokas 7–10) | The Soul’s Descent, Desire & Daily Drama

Shloka 7

Sanskrit:
ममैवांशो जीवलोके जीवभूत: सनातन:।
मन:षष्ठानीन्द्रियाणि प्रकृतिस्थानि कर्षति॥

Hindi Translation:
इस जीव जगत में जीव मेरा ही सनातन अंश है। यह मन और छह इन्द्रियों सहित प्रकृति में स्थित होकर उसे (प्रकृति को) आकर्षित करता है।

English Translation:
The living being in this world is an eternal fragment of Myself. Bound by nature, it struggles with the six senses, including the mind.

🔍 Deep Reflection:
Krishna declares: **You are Me**—but in a limited form. The jiva is not just a spark of life; it is a **piece of the divine**, entangled in the drama of mind and senses.
And yet, this divinity struggles—not because it is weak, but because it has forgotten its source.

🪔 Modern Insight:
You are not broken. You’re simply **misidentified**. You think you’re a body, a job title, a personality trait—when in truth, you are **a drop of the infinite** having a temporary ride through the senses.

Shloka 8

Sanskrit:
शरीरं यदवाप्नोति यच्चाप्युत्क्रामतीश्वर:।
गृहीत्वैतानि संयाति वायुर्गन्धानिवाशयात्॥

Hindi Translation:
जब परमात्मा शरीर प्राप्त करता है और जब वह उसे छोड़ता है, तब वह इन इन्द्रियों को अपने साथ लेकर जाता है, जैसे वायु सुगंधों को ले जाती है।

English Translation:
When the embodied soul obtains a body or leaves it, it carries the mind and senses with it, like the wind carrying scents from their source.

🔍 Deep Reflection:
Just as air carries fragrance invisibly, so too the soul **carries karmic impressions** from one life to the next.
Death is not an end—it’s a **transition**, where the soul walks into another room, bringing along its suitcase of unresolved desires and tendencies.

🪔 Modern Insight:
Your habits, instincts, and inclinations aren’t random—they’re **energetic residue** of lifetimes.
Healing isn’t about fixing one life—it’s about clearing what’s been carried across many. Meditation is not optional—it’s self-maintenance.

Shloka 9

Sanskrit:
श्रोत्रं चक्षु: स्पर्शनं च रसनं घ्राणमेव च।
अध्यिष्ठाय मनश्चायं विषयानुपसेवते॥

Hindi Translation:
यह जीव कान, आँख, त्वचा, जीभ और नाक तथा मन द्वारा विषयों का अनुभव करता है।

English Translation:
Presiding over the senses of hearing, sight, touch, taste, and smell, as well as the mind, the soul experiences the objects of the senses.

🔍 Deep Reflection:
The soul does not enjoy the world **directly**—it does so through the **instruments** of senses and mind. These tools become traps when we forget we are the one *using* them, not *being* them.

🪔 Modern Insight:
You don’t hear — your ears do. You don’t think — your mind does. You are the *one witnessing it all*.
This is a radical inner shift: from user to observer. This one realization is the **start of liberation**.

Shloka 10

Sanskrit:
उत्स्रजन्ग्राहीतं वाऽपि संसारन्गुणान्वितम्।
मूढा न जानन्ति चानुपश्यन्ति पण्डिता:॥

Hindi Translation:
जब आत्मा शरीर छोड़ता है या नया शरीर प्राप्त करता है, तब अज्ञानी उसे नहीं जानते; लेकिन ज्ञानी उसे स्पष्ट रूप से देख सकते हैं।

English Translation:
The ignorant cannot perceive the soul when it enters or departs the body, or while it dwells therein and enjoys sense-objects. But those with wisdom see clearly.

🔍 Deep Reflection:
Most people live in a fog — **unaware of the one who is living** inside. But the wise become aware of the subtle flow of consciousness, beyond bodily drama.

🪔 Modern Insight:
Want to know if you're awakening? You begin noticing the **space** behind your thoughts. You sense when your ego is reacting, but you no longer feed it.
That’s **clarity** — and it’s the difference between looping and evolving.

📜 Ancient Verse – Modern Wisdom

Shloka	Timeless Insight	Modern Relevance
15.7	The soul is a divine fragment	You are not your story—you’re the sacred spark behind it
15.8	The soul carries senses across births	Your patterns are ancestral, karmic, and energetic—know their roots
15.9	The soul perceives through instruments	Train your tools, but don’t mistake them for your true self
15.10	The ignorant don’t see the soul’s movement	Wisdom is seeing beyond the event to the essence

🧘 Message to Gen Z

• You’re not “becoming spiritual”—you’ve always been. You’re just remembering.
• If your mind feels chaotic, don’t judge. You’re the one *noticing* it—that’s awareness.
• Your nervous system needs rest, not just productivity. Meditation is soul-care.
• Start with 5 minutes of silence a day—feel the *witness* awaken.
• Detachment isn’t coldness—it’s clarity. Feel deeply, without losing yourself.