• Krishna. Men call the Aswattha,- the Banyan-tree,-
• Which hath its boughs beneath, its roots above,-
• The ever-holy tree. Yea! for its leaves
• Are green and waving hymns which whisper Truth!
• Who knows the Aswattha, knows Veds, and all.
• Its branches shoot to heaven and sink to earth,
• 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 kiss 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-life 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,- not Dusk, nor Dawn, nor Noon-
• Which they who once behold return no more;
• They have attained My rest, life's Utmost boon!
• 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.-beds. 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 perceive
• 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 suns
• Which lighten all the world: from Me the moons
• Draw silvery beams, and fire fierce loveliness.
• I penetrate the clay, and lend all shapes
• Their living force; I glide into the plant-
• Root, leaf, and bloom- to make the woodlands 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 by all meats.
• 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 He,
• The Highest, holding all, whose Name is LORD,
• The Eternal, Sovereign, First! Who fills all worlds,
• Sustaining them. And- dwelling thus beyond
• Divided Being and Undivided- I
• Am called of men and Vedas, Life 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 ENDETH Chapter XV OF THE BHAGAVAD-GITA, Entitled "Purushottamapraptiyog," Or "The Book of Religion by Attaining the Supreme."