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Welcome, everyone here in our beautiful Strylky Ashram, and to all those joining through the webcast. Today's topic is the Bhagavad Gītā, the 15th chapter, titled Puruṣottama. I have a special connection to this chapter and would like to share it. As many of you know, I lived for many years in India at our Jardin Ashram. Right at the beginning, in 1994, Swāmījī gave us the duty to learn this chapter by heart—the Sanskrit text. It consists of 20 ślokas, taking about ten minutes to recite. I was not used to that, but I must say I really loved it. For some time, we used it as an eating mantra, chanting it together before every meal. That was 16 years ago, and it is still deep in my heart. Swāmījī always placed special emphasis on two chapters in the Bhagavad Gītā: the 12th and the 15th. The 12th is about bhakti-yoga, and the 15th is about Puruṣottama, meaning the highest principle of God. We will not cover everything now. I will chant it and then try to give you an interpretation and translation. It starts with an introduction: OM ŚRĪ PARAMĀTMANE NAMAḤ. ATAḤ ŚRĪMAD BHAGAVAD GĪTĀ PAÑCADAŚO 'DHYĀYAḤ. This means, "My salutation to the Paramatmā," the highest Self. "Ataḥ śrīmad Bhagavad Gītā" means, "Now comes the Bhagavad Gītā." Bhagavān is God, here specifically God Kṛṣṇa. The Bhagavad Gītā is a dialogue between God and his disciple, or guru and disciple—Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna. Gītā means "song"; it is poetry, which is why it is so beautiful to chant. Even if you do not understand, just chanting it has an effect; it carries a deep meaning in itself. Pañcadaśa means the fifteenth, and adhyāya means the chapter or the study (as in svādhyāya, self-study or self-inquiry meditation). So, this is the 15th teaching or chapter. Before the chapter begins, it is clarified who is speaking: Śrī Bhagavān uvāca—the Lord, God Kṛṣṇa, spoke. The First Śloka This chapter is divided into four parts. The first six ślokas belong together. They give us an idea about the character of the world in which we are living, the character of the world for which we are striving, and the way we can reach there. To describe this world, a symbol is used: the symbol of a tree. Swāmījī refers to this quite often. It is an upside-down tree. Ūrdhvamūlam adhaḥśākham aśvatthaṃ prāhur avyayam. Chandāṃsi yasya parṇāni yas taṃ veda sa veda-vit. The central word here is aśvattha. This is a tree. There are discussions about which type of tree it is—some say a banyan tree, some say another. These discussions are pointless because it is not a physical tree. Sanskrit is very scientific; the word itself, aśvattha, indicates what tree it is. Aśva means "tomorrow," and stha means "remaining." The a- prefix means "not." So, it is that which does not remain the same even until the next day. In other words, that which is changing all the time. That is this tree, and that is this world. This is our life, the character of this creation, this saṃsāra. We are living in this world, or in this tree. This tree is described as avyayam, meaning eternal, indestructible. Though it is changing all the time, as a principle it remains. Why? Because the roots are above and the branches are down. "Above" and "down" we usually identify with the higher world and the lower world, the divine and the human world. This means the tree has a divine origin; the roots are above. It is created by God; it is God's creation. The branches are down in our range here, our world. Now it says the leaves on this tree are the chandāṃsi. Chandas means the Vedic hymns, the mantras, the divine vibration, the divine teaching. If this tree is eternal, then the divine teaching is also eternal. The Vedas do not mean a book; they mean the divine revelation, the divine knowledge. This tree, this world, is like our prison. But the Vedas, these divine guidances, are also eternal. As long as this tree—this creation—exists, that long the guidance on how to get out of it also exists. All the discussions about how old the Vedas are—4,000, 10,000, 100,000 years—are foolish. They are eternal. It ends: yas taṃ veda sa veda-vit. Whoever knows this, whoever understands the true nature of this tree, of this world, he is a veda-vit, a true knower of the divine knowledge. In the end, if we understand deeply the character of this world, we are enlightened. That understanding is already the way out of this world. The Second Śloka The second śloka continues describing this world, this tree, with a slight modification. It was said before that the roots are above and the branches are down. But the statement about the branches is now modified: adhaś cordhvaṃ prasṛtās tasya śākhāḥ. The branches are said to go upwards and downwards. So, we can say the branches are here down, but they go in different directions. Imagine you are living on the tree like an ant. An ant can climb along any branch or the trunk. If a branch goes upwards, the ant will go upwards. If a branch goes downward, you automatically follow that direction. I understand this as a symbolic saying: in this world, we can go in different directions. Remember Swāmījī's teaching? One path up, one path down—Uttāna and Patana. So, it is our choice how we move along, how we use this tree, how we live in this world. It is up to us whether we notice those leaves, those divine teachings, or we ignore them. Guṇapravṛddhā viṣayapravālāḥ. The central word is viṣaya. Viṣaya is that which we can perceive through our sense organs—the sense objects. They are described as the shoots, the small branches of this tree. As the tree develops, these shoots come forth—a step in the development of creation. From where do they come? Guṇapravṛddhāḥ. Guṇa, you already know: the three guṇas—tamas, rajas, sattva. Together they build Prakṛti or Māyā, nature. So, the guṇas bring forth these sense objects which can be perceived with one of our five senses. Prakṛti, in fact, creates objects which we can perceive with our five senses. Now comes a modification about the roots. Before, it was only said the roots are above, meaning the origin is divine. But now it says: adhaś ca mūlāny anusantatāni. There are also roots going down. Some plants really have this—air roots hanging down. When they touch the earth, they make a connection and give additional stability to the tree, connecting to the earth. Karmanibandhīni manuṣyaloke. Manuṣyaloke means the human world, our world. Karma, you also know what that means. So, these roots come into existence through our karmas, through our actions in the human world. The word anubandhanī: bandhan means to bind, to connect. It makes sense to translate it in two ways: these karmas are connected with the human world, and also these karmas are binding us to the human world. The root which goes down makes an additional connection to the world—to worldliness, practically for us. The Third Śloka Here we have the word rūpa, the form of this tree. Tasya rūpaṃ na tathā upalabhyate. As described, it cannot be perceived like that. We can perceive through the sense objects, but this is just the surface. The real character of this world, how these sense objects actually came into existence, we cannot perceive with our sense organs. This says very clearly: this tree is not a physical tree; it is something really special. Nāntaṃ na cādir na ca sampratiṣṭhā. Here we have anta, the end; ādi, the beginning, the origin; and sampratiṣṭhā, the base, the fundament. It says we cannot really perceive this world as such—not its beginning, nor its end, nor its base. How old is this world? When did it start? What is the beginning? Do we know? How long will it exist? Do we know? From where does it come? Do we know? This is a statement: it is divine; it is a mystery. Now comes again the word aśvattha. This tree, this world, which is permanently changing, which does not remain the same even until the next day. Aśvatthaṃ enaṃ suvīrudham. And this tree is firmly rooted. That means it is not so easy to cut down. We have the duty to cut this tree. Now it says: yes, however firmly it might be rooted, even with its double roots, it is possible to cut it. And now here is actually a counter-statement to what was said at the beginning—that the world is infinite, immortal. If we were to fell it, that would mean there would be an end. When it is eternal, there is no end. Ādi Śaṅkarācārya, in his Viveka Cūḍāmaṇi, very clearly explains this contradiction. He says this world is eternal and will always exist. But individually, for me as a practicing yogī, I can make an end to it. It will still continue to exist for others, but for me, it does not exist anymore. So, it is here about describing the path for liberation. That actually begins to describe the way of how to become free—how we, as practicing yogīs, can get free of this cage, this prison. Tataḥ padaṃ tat parimārgitavyaṃ yasmin gatā na nivartanti bhūyaḥ. It says: aśvattham enaṃ suvīrudham—however firmly rooted this tree might be. Through the strong axe, śastra—that is a weapon, an axe here (please do not confuse the word śastra [weapon] and śāstra [holy scriptures]; śāstras are also a weapon, but another one). So here we have the śastra, the weapon, the axe of asaṅga. We know the word saṅga from kusaṅga and satsaṅga. It means we come together, we attach to each other, we become a group—either as good company or bad company. But here the word is asaṅga: non-connection. This is not about our connection to people, but in the sense of attachment to something in this world. So, asaṅga here actually means the same as vairāgya—renunciation, non-attachment. That means if we are not attached to this world, then this world cannot harm us at all. It is our choice to get entangled in this world. It is our choice to desire something in this world and to end up in disappointment. So, it is not the mistake of the world that it exists; it is our mistake how we behave towards it. This was a very important statement: we can come out of this attachment to the world through the strong weapon of asaṅga or vairāgya—inner freedom. This is the first step on the path to liberation: purifying our worldly attachments and desires. What is next? Tataḥ padaṃ tat parimārgitavyaṃ. Pari-mārgitavyaṃ means we should seek, we should search for that pada. Pada means something like a state, a state of consciousness. You could say that world, that divine world, is actually a certain state of consciousness. When in your mind are divine thoughts, you are in a divine world automatically. So, you should strive to attain that divine world. And if you reach that world, you will never return from it. That means if you once achieve that level of consciousness... How is our mind changing all the time? Even when you achieve samādhi and get a glimpse of the divine, after some time it is over. Only in the highest samādhi—nirvikalpa samādhi or nirvīta samādhi—is that the permanent state of divine consciousness. So first, cut your connection to this world, which is strong, with the axe of asaṅga, and then strive to achieve this higher state of consciousness. Tam eva cādyaṃ puruṣaṃ prapadye yataḥ pravṛttiḥ prasṛtā purāṇī. Here we have now for the first time the word puruṣa. That is our topic: Puruṣottama. Puruṣa comes from purī īśvara. Īśvara means the Lord. Purī is the place or the city, so the lord of the city, the master of the city. The city is our body, so we could say the soul, the ātmā, the lord. But here it is not just someone; it is the highest Puruṣa, Ādi Puruṣa, the first Puruṣa, the original Puruṣa, the original soul—God. So, we should search for this divine world and, prapadye, take refuge—surrender, meditate on this highest Puruṣa, on the Lord, on God. Then one should strive for that state from where there is no return and surrender to the divine Puruṣa. And it says he is the origin, since all development and evolution since eternal times. Remember, this aśvattha tree was characterized as changing all the time. So, all these changes are coming from the divine. The Fourth Śloka Now, the next śloka says: "Now, who is actually fit to attain this highest world?" What are the conditions on which we have to work? Now it becomes very practical. Now you will remember Swāmījī's words again. Nirmānamohā jitasaṅgadoṣāḥ. Nir means without. Māna means something like pride, connected with the word "man," the mind—our individuality, our individual view of things, our individual ego, individual desires. So, in the end, our individuality—that is how we separate ourselves from the divine. And nirmohāḥ: free from moha. Moha means confusion, delusion. Swāmījī often translates it as "attachment," but that comes next anyway. Jitasaṅgadoṣāḥ: remember we had the word asaṅga, and I said this is basically like vairāgya, non-attachment. This is now exactly repeated here: jitasaṅgadoṣāḥ—those who have overcome the evil or the problem of attachment. This is actually a repetition because it was already said. Now we are on the next step after we have already achieved this asaṅga. Adhyātmajñāna nityatvāḥ: adhyātma means the highest ātmā, the divine Ātmā, the divine Self, God. And nityatvāḥ means permanently—keeping your mind centered on the divine all the time, thinking on God, meditating on God, striving for this divine world. What we also call mumukṣutva, the desire for liberation. Vinivṛttakāmāḥ: kāma means desire. So, we should be free from desires. And when we are free from desires, we are much more neutrally experiencing different life situations—sukha and duḥkha, situations which create happiness in us and unhappiness, and we just take it. This is the duality of life. So, those who also overcome are free from the duality which is known as happiness and unhappiness. Just remember, last week we spoke about rāga and dveṣa. Rāga is the desire for that which gives us happiness. Dveṣa is the refusal of that which gives us pain. So, it is quite something. Only those who are free from pride and delusion, who have overcome the evil of attachment, who are always centered in the divine Self, and are free from desires, are beyond the duality of pleasure and pain. Only such undiluted seekers reach the eternal goal. That is quite practical—maybe a little bit too practical, something to work on. The Fifth Śloka Now, this world is a little bit described. Basically, this world is indescribable, but still, the saints always try to give us some ideas, some inspiration. Na tad bhāsayate sūryo na śaśāṅko na pāvakaḥ. Yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṃ mama. This world is enlightened, but not by the sun, nor the moon, nor fire. And here is repeated the statement from the beginning: if you once reach that world, you never have to go back. Tad dhāma—not the word dharma, but dhāma. Dhāma is a place, a holy place. Paramaṃ mama: this parama dhāma, the highest place, highest holy place, or highest divine world. Mama means "my." Who speaks? God speaks. Bhagavān uvāca. God Kṛṣṇa speaks. He says: "This highest world is my abode. I am living there." Once you reach this world, you reach God. And if, once you enter this world, you have attained God. That is God-realization. That is our spiritual path in a nutshell. This is the first part, the first six ślokas of this chapter. The Second Part Now comes the second part, going a little into the question: how did we come into this world? I said before there is a tree and we are like an ant, but how did we become this ant? From where does this ant come? It is simply the question of the creation of the Jīvātmā. How often do we ask ourselves, "How did I come into this trouble here?" An eternal question, and here Kṛṣṇa tries to give us a glimpse of that. Mamaivāṃśo jīvaloke jīvabhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ. Manaḥ ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛtisthāni karṣati. Aṃśaḥ means something like a ray of light, a flash, or a spark from a fire. Mama eva means truly a part of myself—and God speaks. What is a part of God is definitely also divine. Sanātana means eternal here in this context. It is eternal because God is eternal, and it is a spark of the divine. Jīvabhūtaḥ becomes a jīva. Jīva means a living being, and we know it always: Swāmījī speaks about the Jīvātmā. That is exactly the meaning here: the individual existence, individual being, individual soul. But it is sanātana—eternal. And this becomes, this individual manifests jīvaloke—in the world of the jīvas. So, one can translate: a spark of myself becomes a jīva in the world of jīvas—becomes an embodied individual soul in the world of these embodied individual souls. That is the first step. Something somehow separates, like a spark jumps out from the fire. It is fire, but it is separate. But it does not remain as such. It is divine. It is like a magnet attracting now. Attracting what? What is there existing around? It attracts the ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi—the indriyas. Indriyas, you know: Swāmījī always speaks about the jñānendriyas (the sense organs) and the karmendriyas (the organs of action). Here, the jñānendriyas, the sense organs, are the main meaning. These are five: seeing, hearing, and so on. But Swāmījī sometimes also says the mind is included as a sixth one. The mind is actually necessary to deal with all this information from our eyes, ears, and so on. This is exactly how here Kṛṣṇa also sees it because ṣaṣṭhānī means six, not five. And he mentions the six ones. He says: "No, the sixth one is manaḥ, the mind." So now, this individual soul, which has just come into existence, like a magnet, attracts these six indriyas. And from where? There is only one origin: these are the three guṇas, Prakṛti, nature. Prakṛtisthāni: those which are existing in Prakṛti. Prakṛti is just another name for the three guṇas together—tamas, rajas, sattva. Whatever exists, exists through these three guṇas. So, we could call it nature. Now we are following the path of the beginning of our existence and how we get slowly entangled in this world. Here we have step one and two. Step one was the ray of the divine separates. That attracts these indriyas and the mind. The Sixth Śloka Now we continue. It is spoken now about the body. That was not yet there. It is like a coat. When it is cold, we take a coat and go out. When we come back, we put it off. And because we realize it is torn, we throw it away, and the next day we wear another coat. That is how the soul is doing with the bodies. So, in a nice way, it is spoken here about reincarnation. And it is very clear: the soul is not the body. Śarīraṃ yad avāpnoti yac cāpy utkrāmatīśvaraḥ. Gṛhītvaitāni saṃyāti vāyur gandhān ivāśayāt. It says: śarīram āvatnoti—when this soul, now this Jīvātmā, obtains a body, it gets it. And also when it utkrāmati—that means it leaves it behind, like going in and going out—then it takes along these six. Which six? The five sense organs and the mind as the sixth. We must be clear: he has not spoken about the physical nose and the physical eye when we speak about the sense organs. It is spoken about the principle of sight, the principle of hearing, touch, taste, smell. So, when the soul is now somehow going on its path, sometimes taking on a body like a coat, sometimes leaving it, sometimes accepting that body, sometimes letting it go. And what happens then with these six attachments, with these senses? It means it takes them along. Like the air which carries away the beautiful fragrance of a flower, it carries the fragrance with it. So, these fine bodies, you could call them, they go along with the soul. You have now actually three levels of existence. The core is this Jīvātmā, this divine spark, which is eternal. The second step was the fine body—the principle of these indriyas and the mind. You could say the subtle body. And now the third was the physical body, which the soul takes on and off and on and off. Reincarnation means that in the process of reincarnation, we change the physical body, but we take along some fine bodies. The Seventh Śloka Now the next śloka is a core one because it says how we get into the mess—how we get entangled in this world, how the jīva becomes entangled. Śrotraṃ cakṣuḥ sparśanaṃ ca rasanā ghrāṇam eva ca. Adhiṣṭhāya manaś cāyaṃ viṣayān upasevate. These sense organs are even more clearly described than before: śrotra, the sense of hearing; cakṣuḥ, the sense of sight; sparśanaṃ, the sense of touch; rasanā, the sense of taste; ghrāṇam, the sense of smell. I translate like this, very theoretically, because it is not the nose and the tongue like that—that is a physical thing. Manaś ca ayam: the mind is also mentioned, the sixth one. And now it comes. We say we had it before: as the small shoots on this aśvattha tree, the objects of the senses—that which we can see, touch, and so on. And that is a problem because now upasevate begins. Now this soul... This Jīvātmā tries to behave in a way that it should not. Upasevatī means it enjoys. To perceive is one thing—to perceive, to see, that is neutral. But if desire comes and then enjoyment comes, then you are entangled. Governing the senses of hearing, seeing, touch, and so on, as well as the mind, it enjoys the objects of the senses. The soul enjoys the objects of the senses. The objects of the senses are made from the three guṇas, Prakṛti. But here is exactly the point where Prakṛti turns into Māyā. It is no longer neutral that we know it, we observe it; but now we become entangled and want to enjoy. The Eighth Śloka Next: who can now see the soul and get liberation? We have here the word paśyanti, that means to see. This śloka speaks about who can see and who cannot see—who can see this soul, meaning realize this soul, realize the divine. Utkrāmantaṃ sthitaṃ vāpi bhuñjānaṃ vā guṇānvitam. Vimūḍhā nānupaśyanti paśyanti jñānacakṣuṣaḥ. The soul is described as utkrāmantam (going out) and sthitam (remaining inside)—in what? In the body. That means in the different phases, the soul just takes on the body, just puts off the body, but the soul is a soul and goes on. And that which we had in the last śloka here becomes even clearer with this enjoyment. It says guṇānvitam—that means being under the influence of the guṇas. You could also say controlled by the guṇas. We are speaking about the controller: the soul is supposed to be the controller of the senses. But now suddenly it turns around, and the guṇas, the sense objects, start to control the soul. And under the influence of the guṇas, now the soul starts to enjoy. So, those who have not worked on themselves cannot see the soul in these different phases. The word here is vimūḍhāḥ, which means something like deluded. So, those who are deluded cannot see the soul in these different stages. They see only the physical one—the body, born and dying—but they do not see what is underneath. But the word paśyanti is repeated: but others can see. Those who have jñānacakṣuṣaḥ. Jñāna, you know, is wisdom. And cakṣu means the eye—so the eye of wisdom. Yoga in daily life: the ājñā chakra, the third eye, the eye of wisdom. The deluded ones cannot see the soul as it departs from the body, or dwells in the body, or even enjoys under the influence of the guṇas. Only those can perceive it who possess the eye of wisdom. The Ninth Śloka Now the last śloka for today. It explains a little deeper what was just said in the last śloka: who can perceive the soul? It speaks now, here, clearly about yogīs. The whole Bhagavad Gītā is a yoga scripture. Each of those eighteen chapters has the title "Yoga," this and that. And here, this is a verse or chapter "Yoga Puruṣottamī." Yatanto yoginaś cainaṃ paśyanty ātmany avasthitam. Yatanto 'py akṛtātmāno nainaṃ paśyanty acetasaḥ. Yogīs who are striving, persevering—that means doing really serious, permanent effort on the yoga path—they can perceive this ātmā in themselves. God is inside; you could also say perceive God in their own heart. But others are described as akṛtātmānaḥ. Akṛta means "to do," so you could say undone, unpurified, selfish. Remember before it was said which are the qualities, the points on which we have to work when we want to come to this higher world. So, those who do not care and do not work on that, and now they try to see the ātmā—they cannot see, even if they try. Even if they are striving, the difference is the purification. And they are characterized as acetasaḥ, that means something like unrefined or insensitive. That means they try to meditate, but they cannot reach anywhere. The mind is not controlled; the mind is not purified. I think we are very close to Swāmījī's teaching—how often he repeats that we have to work on ourselves and purify, purify, purify. So, it says we have first to work on our attachment; this is a strong weapon of Asaṅga, of Vairāgya. Then we have to work on our purification, and then do serious sādhanā, and then we can reach the aim. So much for today. This is the first half of this chapter. Tomorrow I would like to continue because the main topic of the chapter, the Puruṣottama, actually did not yet come. That comes tomorrow. Okay, Hari Om.