ऊर्ध्वमूलमधःशाखम् अश्वत्थं प्राहुरव्ययम् ।छन्दांसि यस्य पर्णानि यस्तं वेद स वेदविद् ॥
ūrdhvamūlamadhaḥśākham aśvatthaṁ prāhuravyayamchandāṁsi yasya parṇāni yastaṁ veda sa vedavid
The Blessed Lord said: With its original source above (in the Eternal), its branches stretching below, the Ashwattha is said to be eternal and imperishable; the leaves of it are the hymns of the Veda; he who knows it is the Veda-knower.
Compiled rendering · Anilbaran Roy
Essays on the Gita
First there comes a description of cosmic existence in the Vedantic image of the aswattha tree. This tree of cosmic existence has no beginning and no end, nānto na cādiḥ, in space or in time; for it is eternal and imperishable, avyaya. The real form of it cannot be perceived by us in this material world of man’s…Read the whole passage · 606 wordsClose the passage
First there comes a description of cosmic existence in the Vedantic image of the aswattha tree. This tree of cosmic existence has no beginning and no end, nānto na cādiḥ, in space or in15·1–3 time; for it is eternal and imperishable, avyaya. The real form of it cannot be perceived by us in this material world of man’s embodiment, nor has it any apparent lasting foundation here; it is an infinite movement and its foundation is above in the supreme of the Infinite. Its principle is the ancient sempiternal urge to action, pravṛtti, which for ever proceeds without beginning or end from the original Soul of all existence,15·4 ādyaṁ puruṣaṁ yataḥ pravṛttiḥ prasṛtā purāṇī. Therefore its original source is above, beyond Time in the Eternal, but its branches stretch down below and it extends and plunges its other roots, well-fixed and clinging roots of attachment and desire with their consequences of more and more desire and an endlessly developing action, plunges them downward here into the world of men. The hymns of the Veda are compared to its leaves and the man who knows this tree of the cosmos is the Veda-knower. And here we see the sense of that rather disparaging view of the Veda or at least of the Vedavada, which we had to notice at the beginning. For the knowledge the Veda gives us is a knowledge of the gods, of the principles and powers of the cosmos, and its fruits are the fruits of a sacrifice which is offered with desire, fruits of enjoyment and lordship in the nature of the three worlds, in earth and heaven and the world between earth and heaven. The branches of this cosmic tree extend both below and above, below in the material, above in the supraphysical planes; they grow by the gunas of Nature, for the triple guna is all the subject of the Vedas,2·45 traiguṇya-viṣayā vedāḥ. The Vedic rhythms, chandāṁsi, are the leaves and the sensible objects of desire supremely gained by a right doing of sacrifice are the constant budding of the foliage. Man, therefore, so long as he enjoys the play of the gunas and is attached to desire, is held in the coils of Pravritti, in the movement of birth and action, turns about constantly between the earth and the middle planes and the heavens and is unable to get back to his supreme spiritual infinitudes. This was perceived by the sages. To achieve liberation they followed the path of Nivritti or cessation from the original urge to action, and the consummation of this way is the cessation of birth itself and a transcendent status in the highest supracosmic reach of the Eternal. But for this purpose it is necessary to cut these long-fixed roots of desire by the strong sword of detachment and then to seek for that highest goal whence, once having reached it, there is no compulsion of return to mortal life. To be free from the bewilderment of this lower Maya, without egoism, the great fault of attachment conquered, all desires stilled, the duality of joy and grief cast away, always to be fixed in wide equality, always to be firm in a pure spiritual consciousness, these are the steps of the way to that supreme Infinite. There we find the timeless being which is not illumined by sun or moon or fire, but is itself the light of the presence of the eternal Purusha. I turn away, says the Vedantic verse, to seek that original Soul alone and to reach him in the great passage. That is the highest status of the Purushottama, his supracosmic existence.
The Life Divine
For, as a matter of fact, while the very keyword of the ideal creation is a plenary self-consciousness and self-possession in the infinite Soul and a perfect oneness, the keyword of the creation of which we have present experience is the very opposite; it is an original inconscience developing in life into a limited and divided self-consciousness, an original inert subjection to the drive of a blind self-existent Force developing in life into a struggle of the self-conscious being to possess himself and all things and to establish in the kingdom of this unseeing mechanic Force the reign of an enlightened Will and Knowledge. And because the blind mechanic Force—we know now really that it is no such thing—confronts us everywhere, initial, omnipresent, the fundamental law, the great total energy, and because the only enlightened will we know, our own, appears as a subsequent phenomenon, a result, a partial, subordinate, circumscribed, sporadic energy, the struggle seems to us at the best a very precarious and doubtful venture. The Inconscient to our perceptions is the beginning and the end; the self-conscious soul seems hardly more than a temporary accident, a fragile blossom upon this great, dark and monstrous Ashwattha-tree of the universe. Or if we suppose the soul to be eternal, it appears at least as a foreigner, an alien and not over well-treated guest in the reign of this vast Inconscience. If not an accident in the inconscient Darkness, it is perhaps a mistake, a stumble downwards of the superconscient Light.
Writings in Bengali
আমাদের ধর্ম্ম অতি বিশাল ও নানা শাখাপ্রশাখা শোভিত। তাহার মূল গভীরতম জ্ঞানে আরূঢ়, তাহার শাখাগুলি কর্ম্মের অতি দূর প্রান্ত পর্য্যন্ত বিস্তৃত। যেমন গীতার অশ্বত্থবৃক্ষ, ঊর্ধ্বমূল ও “অবাক্ শাখঃ”, তেমনই এই ধর্ম্ম জ্ঞান-প্রতিষ্ঠিত, কর্ম্মপ্রেরক। নিবৃত্তি তাহার ভিত্তি, প্রবৃত্তি তাহার গৃহ-ছাদ-দেওয়াল, মুক্তি তাহার চূড়া। মানবজাতির সমস্ত জীবন এই বিশাল হিন্দুধর্ম্ম-বৃক্ষের আশ্রিত।
