# 15/H.O.M.E

### <mark style="color:purple;">In the final chapters of the Bhagavad-Gita, one of Krishna’s prime objectives is to engender a sense of detachment within Arjuna and the reader. In Chapter Fifteen, He compares the material world to the reflection of a banyan tree in water. In Sanskrit, the banyan tree is known as asvattha which etymologically means “that which will not be here tomorrow.” Though discussing the temporality of the world and everything within it may sound depressing, it’s actually incredibly empowering. By awakening this sense of detachment we recalibrate our vision and begin to focus on the enduring spiritual reality. As spiritual beings we’re not residents of London, Lagos or Los Angeles, but rather residents of the spiritual world.</mark>

## <mark style="color:purple;">H</mark>

[**Home or Hotel? (1-5)**](#user-content-fn-1)[^1]

Just as a banyan tree has its reflection in the water, the spiritual world also has its reflection - the material world. While they may look similar from a distance, the spiritual world is where reality, substance and true satisfaction is found. The reflected tree of the material world, however, confuses and frustrates, appearing upside-down and the wrong-way-round in all respects, with nothing substantial to offer us. Bird-like living entities frantically search for juicy fruits on the reflected tree, but the substance which they yearn for remains ever elusive. Krishna urges the reader to cut down this illusory tree with the weapon of detachment and end the futile endeavours for permanent fulfilment in the temporary phantasmagoria.

## <mark style="color:purple;">O</mark>

[**On and On, Over and Over** ](#user-content-fn-2)[^2][**A**](#user-content-fn-3)[^3][**gain (6-11)**](#user-content-fn-2)[^2]

Krishna gives a glimpse of the spiritual world, showing how its nature is perfect, complete and fully satisfying to all. Once having re-entered it, one never returns to this world. Here in the material realm, an individual hops from tree to tree, acquiring various material bodies based on the worldly desires they cultivate throughout their life. At the time of death, through the subtle laws of reincarnation, one receives a body which is tailor-made to facilitate their deep-rooted desires. Man proposes, God disposes, and the embodied soul enters a new chapter of existence in the search for happiness.

## <mark style="color:purple;">M</mark>

[**Maintainer of Body, Mind, Soul (12-15)**](#user-content-fn-4)[^4]

One who is entangled within the reflected tree of material existence can develop his spiritual consciousness by appreciating Krishna as the maintainer on all levels. Krishna maintains our gross physical body by arranging fundamental necessities that provide the energy of life. He also maintains our subtle capacities by facilitating knowledge, remembrance and forgetfulness. Finally, and most importantly, Krishna maintains our spirituality by offering ways and means to achieve self-realisation and escape the dangerous cycle of repeated birth and death.

## <mark style="color:purple;">E</mark>

[**Essence in 3 Verses (16-18)**](#user-content-fn-5)[^5]

Previously Krishna summarised the Bhagavad-gita in four verses, and now He again summarises the teachings in three verses. Fallible living entities (*ksara*) have fallen into the tree of material existence due to an independent desire to enjoy. Distinguished from them are the infallible living entities (*aksara*) who never leave the spiritual realm due to their uncompromised desire to be with Krishna. Beyond both entities is the Supreme Lord. Thus, in yet another passage, Krishna reinforces that the living entity never becomes God, since even liberated souls have their separate identity in the spiritual world.

> ### *<mark style="color:purple;">“WE ARE ALL VISITORS TO THIS TIME, THIS PLACE. WE ARE JUST PASSING THROUGH. OUR PURPOSE HERE IS TO OBSERVE, TO LEARN, TO GROW, TO LOVE... AND THEN WE RETURN HOME.”</mark>* *<mark style="color:purple;">\~ ABORIGINAL PROVERB</mark>*

[^1]: **Bg. 15.1 - 15.5**

    **Source:** [**Vedabase**](https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/15/)

    [TEXT 1](https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/15/1/): The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: It is said that there is an imperishable banyan tree that has its roots upward and its branches down and whose leaves are the Vedic hymns. One who knows this tree is the knower of the Vedas.

    [TEXT 2](https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/15/2/): The branches of this tree extend downward and upward, nourished by the three modes of material nature. The twigs are the objects of the senses. This tree also has roots going down, and these are bound to the fruitive actions of human society.

    [TEXT 3-4](https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/15/3-4/): The real form of this tree cannot be perceived in this world. No one can understand where it ends, where it begins, or where its foundation is. But with determination one must cut down this strongly rooted tree with the weapon of detachment. Thereafter, one must seek that place from which, having gone, one never returns, and there surrender to that Supreme Personality of Godhead from whom everything began and from whom everything has extended since time immemorial.

    [TEXT 5](https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/15/5/): Those who are free from false prestige, illusion and false association, who understand the eternal, who are done with material lust, who are freed from the dualities of happiness and distress, and who, unbewildered, know how to surrender unto the Supreme Person attain to that eternal kingdom.

[^2]: **Bg. 15.6 - 15.11**

    **Source:** [**Vedabase**](https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/15/)

    [TEXT 6](https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/15/6/): That supreme abode of Mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by fire or electricity. Those who reach it never return to this material world.

    [TEXT 7](https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/15/7/): The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.

    [TEXT 8](https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/15/8/): The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another, as the air carries aromas. Thus he takes one kind of body and again quits it to take another.

    [TEXT 9](https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/15/9/): The living entity, thus taking another gross body, obtains a certain type of ear, eye, tongue, nose and sense of touch, which are grouped about the mind. He thus enjoys a particular set of sense objects.

    [TEXT 10](https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/15/10/): The foolish cannot understand how a living entity can quit his body, nor can they understand what sort of body he enjoys under the spell of the modes of nature. But one whose eyes are trained in knowledge can see all this.

    [TEXT 11](https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/15/11/): The endeavoring transcendentalists who are situated in self-realization can see all this clearly. But those whose minds are not developed and who are not situated in self-realization cannot see what is taking place, though they may try.

[^3]:

[^4]: **Bg. 15.12 - 15.15**

    **Source:** [**Vedabase**](https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/15/)

    [TEXT 12](https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/15/12/): The splendor of the sun, which dissipates the darkness of this whole world, comes from Me. And the splendor of the moon and the splendor of fire are also from Me.

    [TEXT 13](https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/15/13/): I enter into each planet, and by My energy they stay in orbit. I become the moon and thereby supply the juice of life to all vegetables.

    [TEXT 14](https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/15/14/): I am the fire of digestion in the bodies of all living entities, and I join with the air of life, outgoing and incoming, to digest the four kinds of foodstuff.

    [TEXT 15](https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/15/15/): I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas, I am to be known. Indeed, I am the compiler of Vedānta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.

[^5]: **Bg. 15.16 - 15.18**

    **Source:** [**Vedabase**](https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/15/)

    [TEXT 16](https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/15/16/): There are two classes of beings, the fallible and the infallible. In the material world every living entity is fallible, and in the spiritual world every living entity is called infallible.

    [TEXT 17](https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/15/17/): Besides these two, there is the greatest living personality, the Supreme Soul, the imperishable Lord Himself, who has entered the three worlds and is maintaining them.

    [TEXT 18](https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/15/18/): Because I am transcendental, beyond both the fallible and the infallible, and because I am the greatest, I am celebrated both in the world and in the Vedas as that Supreme Person.