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Bhagavad Gita · Chapter 15

The Supreme Person

Puruṣottama Yoga

An inverted tree, and what lies beyond the perishable.

Bhagavad Gītā, Chapter 15 (traditional text)

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The story for Chapter 15 — The Supreme Person hasn’t been filmed yet. Everything below — the text, the verses and the reflections — is ready to read.

Story

What happens

The famous image opens the chapter: a tree whose roots are above and branches below, to be cut with the axe of non-attachment. The teaching then names a supreme person beyond both change and changelessness.

Key ideas

What this chapter turns on

  • Detachment
  • The perishable
  • The supreme

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Verses from this chapter

Verses for this chapter haven’t been added to the library yet. Only sourced text is published here.

Understand

In plain language

Explanation — written by Frenly Divine, not scripture

Krishna uses the image of a tree with roots above to describe the world, and distinguishes the perishable, the imperishable and what surpasses both.

Reflect

Something to sit with

  • What are you rooted in that you did not choose?
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