Bhagavad Gītā – Chapter 15 Notes

 

This chapter begins with the metaphor of the sacred aśvattha tree (Indian fig), whose roots grow down from its branches and become new trunks.  This is like Spirit branching down into the material world and taking on bodily form.  We should cut the tree down with “the strong axe of non-attachment” and in this way end the cycle of rebirth.  (15.1-4).  The rest of the chapter shows that the jīva which becomes embodied is in fact a part of Brahman.  God is within all beings, and has given them memory, knowledge and reasoning.  God is that part of us which is imperishable and unchanging, the Supreme Self (15.7-19).

 

 

 

 

 

Notes from Radhakrishnan’s commentary on BG

 

17 The soul in the ever changing cosmos is kùara; akùara is the eternal spirit, unchanged and immobile, the immutable in the mutable.  When the soul turns to this immutable, the cosmic movement falls away from it and it reaches its unchanging eteral existence.  These two are not irreconcilable opposites, for Brahman is both one and many, the eternal unborn as also the cosmic streaming forth.

For the Gãtà, this moving world is a creation of the Lord.  The Divine accepts the world and acts in it….  From the cosmic end, the Supreme is ä÷vara, the Highest Person, Puruùottama, the Lord of the universe who dwells in the heart of every creature.

 

paramàtmà: the Supreme Self.  God in the soul.  Gãtà refers here, not to the unknown abyss of the Godhead, but to the Spirit, indwelling and moving creation.