Verses 15.1–15.2🔗

Kṛṣṇa refers to the causal body as the banyan tree. This is a continuation of the previous chapter. Chapters 14 to 17 are connected discourses. In chapter 14, Guṇatraya Vibhāga Yogaḥ, yoga of the division of three guṇa (attributes), Kṛṣṇa speaks about the first four layers of our being. In this chapter, Puruṣottama Yogaḥ, yoga of the Supreme Being, He refers to the fifth layer. The totality of the seven layers is our body-mind-spirit system. The second layer is the prāṇic body, the body that controls air movements inside our physical body. In the previous chapter, Kṛṣṇa explains that this prāṇic layer is filled with desires. He further explains how we create conflicting desires and suffer with rajas (restlessness) and forced into tamas (inactivity or depression).

The fifth layer is the causal body. It is where all saṁskāras, our root patterns, are stored in seed form. Every night we enter the causal body in deep sleep. We take saṁskāras out from this layer and create the world. In this chapter, Kṛṣṇa reveals the secrets of this causal layer. In the Puruṣottama Yogaḥ No Questions, Only Doubts 1081 previous chapter, Kṛṣṇa explained how to use the power of desire energy with the power of thinking and words. Desire is an energy. That energy is abused by creating self-conflicting desires and self-doubting patterns, which put us into restlessness. If we don’t complete with our self-doubts (ātma sandeḥ), we fall into depression, into self-revenge (ātma droha).

He gave techniques to clear self-conflicting desires. The Seed of Patterns Our own desires, born out of our mūla vāsanās, the root patterns, carry their own energy for fulfillment, as they are the basic needs and purpose with which we were born. The Universe blesses us with the power to meet all our real needs. When we are born on this planet we are sent with all that we need. However, once here, we accumulate other desires. Because of our root patterns, these desires are the wants that we borrow from others by comparing, copying and envying others. Rāmaṇa Mahaṛṣi says, ‘This Universe can fulfill the needs of all its inhabitants; but it cannot fulfill the wants of even a single person.’

How true! When desires are borrowed, when they are based on coveting other people’s belongings, there will be a serious conflict between our wants and needs. Fulfillment of our needs gives happiness, true joy, and completion. That is why a poor man eats his simple meal of roti and dal (bread and curry) with such gusto. Desires are caused by saṁskāras, root thought patterns or bio-memories of experiences and sense perceptions. Saṁskāras are stored in our unconscious mind layer. Root thought patterns, saṁskāras, drive our actions. The Bṛhadaranyaka Upaniṣad says, ‘We are our desires. Desires shape our will. Our will shapes our actions. Actions make us what we are.’ Now, Kṛṣṇa moves on to the next layer, where saṁskāras are stored in the seed form.

Even if we move beyond the three layers of desire, restlessness and depression, these root patterns, saṁskāras in seed form, called bīja saṁskāra (bīja meaning seed), need to be cleared and completed. Kṛṣṇa speaks of techniques to destroy these bīja saṁskāras. These may not express themselves in us right now. Yet if they are allowed to be there in seed form, at one time or another, they will exploit us. In an office, some files are on the table, some are in the archives, while others are in the safety vault. The previous three layers are like the office table and archived material. This causal layer is the office safety vault.

The next two layers are the external vaults. In the previous chapter, Kṛṣṇa explains techniques to clear the table. Now He gives techniques to empty the office safety vault. Kṛṣṇa says, ‘The roots of the tree are on the outside; the branches are inside.’ From the causal body, if the roots are taken to be outside, it should be in the earlier three layers ending with the physical body. In a tree, the roots feed nutrients to the tree. The tree takes water and minerals through the roots. The roots decide the condition and growth of a tree. That is why Kṛṣṇa says the roots of the tree are in the physical body.

The tree of saṁskāra is watered by the five senses of the physical body and our actions. The saṁskāras in seed form in the causal body are formed and watered by the five senses of the physical body. Your Words are Vedic Hymns Kṛṣṇa further says that the leaves are the vedic hymns—chandāṁsi yasya parṇani and one who knows the tree is knower of the Vedas—yas taṁ veda sa veda-vit. He says saṁskāras are the vedic hymns, the mantras. Mantras are defined as manasasya sthiraha iti mantraḥ, whatever controls or stabilizes the mind, or manaḥ trāyate iti mantraḥ, that which reclaims and completes the life of man. śri bhagavān uvāca ūrdhva-mūlam adhaḥ -śākhaṁ aśvatthaṁ prāhur avyayam I chandāṁsi yasya parṇāni yas taṁ veda sa veda-vit II 15.1 Puruṣottama Yogaḥ No Questions, Only Doubts 1083 Words that are settled in our inner space form the bone structure of our life.

Words expressed or coming out when we are alone, are the root patterns or saṁskāras printed in the causal body. Our lives revolve them. If we give conflicting, contradictory words, the bone structure of our life will be a circle put on a square and rectangle—all crooked perversions! So, if you start building your life on it, how will it be? Crooked, perverted, incomplete, and useless! If you give a word, be very clear that you have started building your life. You have to fulfill it. It is your life! Dropping the word and completing is like pulling down the structure and rebuilding it. How many times do you pull down the structure and rebuild?

Words are double-edged swords. When we lack integrity, whatever words we use to offend others settle in our inner self. They emerge whenever they find a chance to push out of our inner self. No man is intelligent enough to use harsh words on others and smooth words inside. It is an unconscious action. That is why, in ancient Indian society, the usage of harsh words was controlled by various customs. Our mind is constantly occupied in inner chatter. Eventually we express part of this chatter in words. Part of it we suppress for fear of societal repercussions. We do not express what we fear would hurt others or what might be unacceptable to others.

All these words settle deep inside our maṇipūraka cakra, the navel energy center, which is the seat of words. Words that are harsh, whether expressed externally or internally, settle down within us. What goes out also goes in. These settle within our navel energy center. Both expressed and unexpressed words build our bank of root thought patterns, saṁskāras. If you have given a word, it just has to be lived. Word is mantra! Brahma created the world out of the word. The integrity of Viṣṇu is the lotus from whose navel creation or Brahma happens; and the tongue of Brahma is the word ‘Veda’, out of which the world happens.

Understand, integrity should be the root foundation from which the lotus of the word blooms. Out of that word, Creation happens. Creation happens out of the word from integrity. When a person with integrity says, ‘Let there be a huge organization here,’ it happens just like that! Understand, when your words are rooted in integrity, the word is Brahma. If it is rooted in Viṣṇu or integrity, it just becomes reality. Integrity is capable of maintaining creation. Viṣṇu maintains creation. Creation is possible only when you are established in the state of integrity and utter your words. When you utter your words from the space of integrity, creation is possible, creation happens!

Life is built on commitments. If you do not have respect for your commitments, your commitments also will not have respect for you. Listen! If you are integrated to your commitment, your commitment can make it into reality. Even in your day-to-day life, if you are integrated to your integrity, your integrity will be integrated to you. One who understands this can influence other people through his thoughts and words, perhaps more effectively than through his actions. Even we do not know how our thoughts and words influence and affect other people; they may not be as focused and effective, but they will still affect others and us. For those in business and corporate life, communication is the key to success.

Communication is not about our facility with language. It is not about the accent we cultivate or how fluently we speak. Communication is expressing and living what we feel with integrity and authenticity. If our feelings and thoughts are negative, when we lack taking the responsibility to be integrated, however much we try to hide these, our words or body language reveal the inner inauthentic feelings and motives. However, if we constantly complete with the negative words that we use towards ourselves and others to express our feelings, we will get rooted in integrity—Viṣṇu, the space of positivity. From this positive space, we will express the power of words and Brahma, creation happens!

With completion the creation of space happens for whatever we want to make as reality. Puruṣottama Yogaḥ No Questions, Only Doubts1085 The Transient and The Permanent Kṛṣṇa further states, ‘One who knows this tree is the knower of the Vedas, yas taṁ veda sa veda-vit (15.1).’ He says one who has the knowledge that the root patterns or saṁskāras, which constitute the causal body, are the result of the five senses, knows the Vedas or has the knowledge of life’s guiding force. The water a tree receives through its roots mainly decides the condition of the tree. If good water and manure are available, the tree flourishes. The leaves will be green.

If poison is poured on it, the tree sheds its leaves and slowly dies. This tree of saṁskāras, which is in the causal body, lives mainly due to the five senses. Kṛṣṇa uses the word aśvattha which also means that which is transient, that which is not today as it was yesterday and which will not be tomorrow as it is today. It refers to material life where nothing is what it seems to be. Everything is temporary. Life, as people say, is not unreal. If it were truly unreal, we would not be able to experience it. The fact that we experience material life and seem to enjoy it, even if temporarily, means it is real.

It is unreal to the extent that whatever we experience is transient and impermanent. Unreal does not mean nonexistent. If something is nonexistent, we cannot perceive it or experience it, even temporarily. Even a dream is real. We say dreams are unreal, but we cannot deny that we experience dreams. However, it is a fact that we do not have self-awareness while dreaming. Once we become aware, we wake up from the dream. It has never happened that a lion or a murderer chasing a person has caught that person in a dream. As soon as we are threatened, as soon as we become aware of ourselves, we wake up and the dream ends.

Dreams are not unreal in the sense that they are nonexistent; they are unreal to the extent that we are unaware. In the same manner, sages tell us that we are unaware even when we are awake. ‘Jāgrat, jāgrat,’ they say, ‘wake up, wake up.’ They do not ask us to wake up from sleep. They ask us to wake up from our unaware wakefulness into an aware wakefulness. Aśvattha signifies this state of unawareness. To understand this unawareness produced by our senses and directed by our root patterns, saṁskāras, is to gain knowledge, the Vedas. Kṛṣṇa goes on to explain more about this state of unawareness. Kṛṣṇa says the roots go upwards as well as downwards.

He says the leaves of the tree are decided by the tricks of the five senses and the resultant action of mankind. The roots are not only in the physical body, but also in the action. Kṛṣṇa says the tree is deeply rooted because the action of the entire mankind is always result-oriented. It is always guided by greed and fear. The aśvattha tree, the banyan tree, is like a human body. Its roots, like in a human being, are above, like our hair. The hair is said to be a channel to draw in cosmic energy. Our limbs, hands and legs are like branches of the banyan tree. The human system is truly upside down!

Kṛṣṇa gives a beautiful tip to be complete with the root patterns, saṁskāras. If we are not guided by greed and fear patterns, if our actions are not result-oriented, no root patterns will be created. If you enrich selflessly for at least half an hour a day, it will do you a lot of good. It will create the space of completion in you! While enriching others and yourself, don’t plan anything. Don’t even plan to have a group of volunteers do the enriching service. Just do any work that you can do. It may seem silly and a waste of time. But at a later date, this time alone will be felt as purposeful and complete.

If your enriching service is fueled by the patterns of greed or fear, you may end up in a mess and be a nuisance to others, too. You need to know, if you are enriching with a vested interest, you will give-up on people. Don’t have any vested interest. Enrich just for the sake of enriching. We have a very wrong idea, ‘First, let me experience; then I will enrich!’ It is like, ‘First let me get cured; then I will take medicine!’ Understand, enriching is the cure! Enriching is the experience! Enriching is tapas! It is enriching which unclutches you from your past Puruṣottama Yogaḥ No Questions, Only Doubts 1087 incompletions.

It is enriching which distances you from your past incompletions. It is enriching which makes you grow. If a child tries to unclutch from a toy car, he will be struggling. But if he just grows, the toy will automatically drop him! Enriching makes you just grow to the next level of you. Enrich and Be Free from Kārmic Cycle Listen Don’t plan anything. Just do enriching service anywhere. Then the enriching you do will infuse enormous power into your being. Enriching is the power of your being. Understand this truth: Whenever life energy expands in you, it happens only through enriching. Whenever you enrich, expansion in the life energy happens; not otherwise.

Listen, even your breathing can be enriching, but real enriching does not stop just by breathing. Real enriching means—you transmitting the highest possible consciousness to others. Listen, real enriching is helping everyone, making everyone live enlightenment. Without giving-up on people, day in and day out sit and continue to enrich people. If you have wealth, use the wealth to enrich everyone to live enlightenment. If you have intelligence, use intelligence to enrich everyone to live enlightened life. If you have orating capability, use your orating capability to enrich everyone to live enlightened life. Bhagavān says, ‘karmānubandhīni manuṣya loke.’ All our actions revolve around results. So, at least in enriching, don’t think of dollars or fame.

Don’t plan to impress. Don’t plan to make your presence felt. Do the work for its own sake. Many times you enrich others as a selfish motive. You think, ‘If I enrich, I may get this, this, this back.’ Listen. Do not enrich with the small purpose. Listen! Now I am giving the right and complete reason for enriching. Because everyone is part of you, enriching every being is nothing but enriching some part of you. Enrich others. Listen! Anything you see is extension of you. Anything or anybody you experience is extension of you. So, when you enrich them, parts of you are enriched. When they feel completion, part of you will become complete.

Mostly we do charitable work based on notions of earning brownie points that will do us good in our afterlife, whether we believe in rebirth or not. Or we would like to see ourselves in the media and feel good. It fulfills our need for attention either in this world or in another world after death. When you work, whether it is charitable as you and society define it, or commercial, as long you do it with no expectation of results, just enriching because others are your very own extension, your actions will be selfless. These actions are not motivated by fear and greed patterns. They will not result in the hangover of root patterns, saṁskāras.

When you enrich, you can define the process of your actions and not the results. When a defined process is followed, results naturally follow. If we follow the right path with the right reason, we reach the right destination. It takes courage of authenticity to create the space of possibility and implement this. It takes courage of your being to say that we will work only to enrich without expecting rewards. It takes a truly complete person to cognize the right reason for enriching; that what is important is ‘doing’ and not ‘doership’ and that status is not as important as the state of doing. If we are able to create this right space of enriching, we will find a true liberation within ourselves.

We will experience the power of living, constantly expanding! A load will be lifted from our shoulders. The anxiety of constantly looking over our shoulder to peep into the future will be gone. We look at past results to define what needs to be done for the future. All what needs to be done is being in the space of completion in the present, define an enriching path in everything we do and take responsibility that the ‘doing’ happens with integrity and authenticity. If this is done with awareness, results will follow. Real enriching is making people live enlightenment. Take up this as a life. You will see all kinds of miracles happening in your life. Cutting Down The Tree